Night feasts for mothivores

Good numbers of nice moths over the past week, though still nothing mega. What has impressed me has been the variety of predators gathering at night around my garden MV. Two species of bats are regular (pipistrelle and a gang of whiskered, I think). A little owl has appeared a couple of times, sitting a few feet away and grabbing privet hawks or other big moths as they arrived. And last night at 11.00 a barn owl was circling a few metres up, either hunting for moths or using the light to look for voles. And I dread to think how many moths that have sat around in the grass get hoovered up the next day by blackbirds and robins. My worst avian culprit this summer has been a wren, which is feeding a big brood and has become a bit precocious. Yesterday evening I also recorded hedgehog, common shrew and pygmy shrew in the garden, all looking well-fed and determined. I think I will have to give the trap a rest – it’s making moth-hunting too easy.

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3 Responses to Night feasts for mothivores

  1. paulb says:

    And there’s me getting frustrated with just the one persistant male Blackbird!

  2. Raymond Watson says:

    I have a predator problem too. I have a Brown Long Eared bat that roosts in my garage and was responsible for my thinking that the trap at the front didn’t catch larger moths. That was only when the catch was low in the spring. Also have Common Pipistrelles that come around and yes lots of the smaller birds in the morning so I try to get up before sunrise and secure the trap and clear around it. Don’t know about larger birds, don’t see any in daylight but Tawny owl is common here.

  3. Neil says:

    My main problem this year has been a family of Magpies that nested in the large Pines at the back of the house. All through the late spring and summer they have been at the trap, even before it is fully daylight, clearing off the moths from the outside. Highest number I saw was 6 one morning!
    I remember when I was staying in France at Robin Howard’s place a few years ago he had regular problems with bats actually going inside the trap and just walking around eating the insects, he had to put wire mesh around the holes in his Robinson traps to try and stop this!

    Neil

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