A Great Find in Deepest Ashby Warren

Brian and I visited the site on Sunday 22nd. Going much further into the site than ever before apart from our day time breeding bird surveys. I have been cautious about going too far in before as it is so easy to get lost there, too easy to stray from the main ride and be lost until day light at least. As it happens day time wasn’t too far off when we left at around 02.45. A 4X4 job to get to the targeted area. Brian transferred his gear to the truck and we set off. As a precaution, I tied white bags here and there at any point for possible errors on the bleary eyed return journey.

Last years main event at Ashby Warren was finding Red-necked Footman but a bigger find lay in wait this June. 9 traps put out with 4 on the main ride and others branched off produced 140 species. At the first busy trap, on the one trap round, Brian spotted a Four-spotted Footman as we were moving off. Subsequently 5 more were found in four well spaced traps. This must be from local breeding in our view, especially as migrant activity is low at the moment and few have turned up nationally. The big question is, is this a result of last Autumn’s influx or have they been here for years. A return is planned to coincide with National moth night which this year is woodland species based and spans 3-5 July so we will pick the best of these 3 nights to hopefully find the species again.

Other good species were encountered too! Red-necked Footman 15, still pointing to this site being the stronghold as we get the highest numbers at Ashby Warren. Juniper Pug, new for us both in good number, Beautiful Hook-tip in high numbers here, Green silver-lines plentiful, Large Emerald, Pine Hawk-moth in low singles with single Elephant and Poplar were the Hawk-moths. The only wainscot a single Southern. First Large Emeralds of the season too.

Micros were the secondary highlight with P. aeriferanus, S. bifasciana, E. grotiana, S.weirana and S. nitidana among them.

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