With little confidence of seeing much, I set a couple of actinic traps up this evening on the side of the wood sheltered from the NE breeze. The air was calm here and the digital thermometer showed just 5.5 deg. But immediately I switched the lamps on, there was a steady flow of moths with several Engrailed the first to arrive. In 2 hours, 7 pm to 9 pm, about 70 moths of 12 species were recorded including my first Red Chestnuts of the year. Clouded Drab seems to be at its peak at the moment with 25 counted.
So even a chilly evening can sometimes produce results.
Brian
Good catch Brian. Interested to see your high Clouded Drab count as I have found them more abundant in colder and actinic compared to other Orthosias. They seem to fly more readily in a breeze too.
Yes I was quite pleased with the results from the new actinic I made up Raymond. This comprises of 3x 16w compact actinic bulbs with an ES screw (48w total, no control box needed), set in a row on top of a Skinner trap. This produced almost as many moths as the 40w actinic tube Skinner which I sat by, – so this one had the added benefit of me potting any that did not go in the trap.