On the 18th at Herringfleet Hills with Brian and 9 traps. The storms were not due to effect us up in this corner and we escaped with a little light rain and distant rumbles long after we had left the site at 3.45am. Looking for a ‘mega’ catch this night the first trap that I began to set out had to be temporarily abandoned as I placed the sheet over several ant holes at a fantastic point above a steep drop. I was attacked by a swarm of flying ants which forced me to run off, even then some followed me a considerable distance, biting, but fairly harmless as in no swelling etc. There were around ten Brown hawkers hunting the airborne ants when I returned to retrieve and re-position the trap.
Everything else went smoothly and we tallied 229 species. N. fimbriata dominated the traps out in the open on the high ground, they were in the hundreds. A zelleri the best micro with two taken. 5 P. alpinella also recorded and a single Woodsage Plume. O nubilalis seen at this site in number every summer 3+ this night. Y rorrella 2. Acleris holmiana was new to us both with 2. Macros of interest; Triple-spotted Clay 10+, White-line Dart well over 20. The only migrant of interest, a Vestal, graced one of Brian’s traps which was great as he had never caught one before. We were both pleased to see a new macro for us in Barred Hook-tip with 2. We have yet to find it in the Beech woods and it was odd to get it here as there is no Beech at all. Technically the best was White-mantled Wainscot with one high up on the light grassland, well over a mile from the nearest known site in Somerleyton A nice black streaked Silky Wainscot also seen along with Single Red-necked Footman and Scarce Silver-lines. The first Canary shouldered Thorns of the season too!
On the 20th my mission was to find White-mantled Wainscot by the sewage works at Herringfleet marshes, an ideal spot with dry growing reed but it didn’t show and it was a disappointing night. Despite the surprise of finding one at the hills 1/3 of a mile away two nights previous it may be just a little too early for all except a few very early ones. Will revisit for them in 3 weeks. Saturday nights heavy storm with 3 hours of rain may well have affected numbers of moths in the open in particular for Sunday nights experience of just over 100 species, which included a single Gothic and lots, as last visit, of S. gigantella.
Yes, the 18th was a night when there were just too many moths! On final inspection, the egg trays were two or three deep with N. fimbriata, pronuba and Dark Arches. As a consequence several interesting looking micros were bombed out of existence before they could be potted, never to be seen again.