Arrived home yesterday from France, where I did some MV trapping. I’ve not tried before at this time of year, so didn’t know what to expect. The couple of sites I worked on the north coast, in Picardy and Normandy, produced very little I wouldn’t have caught in my own garden. No migrants at all. Central France (The Brenne, south of the Loire) produced some nice things, including several convolvulus hawks and a delicate, but no other migrants. Finally, in the big Rambuille oakwoods near Paris, there was surprisingly little. Again, a few common species in low numbers (large wainscot, pine carpet, sallow, brindled green, merveille du jour, square-spot rustic etc). No migrants again. The only species to reach double figures (with about 50 a night, no matter how cool the evenings) was oak lutestring. The compensation for five nights of trapping was four very beautiful clifden nonpareils (which are not migratory in this part of their range).
The complete absence of migrants in the four sites I sampled in northern France was a surprise. Over the three weeks I was there I only saw two clouded yellows (and they were south of the Loire). So do migrant moths overfly the rest of Europe on their way to Bawdsey, or was it a bad September everywhere (except Bawdsey)?
Tony H.
It has not been a good year for migrants. We had that interesting spell in summer when species from more northern climes visited us but really it has only recently picked up a bit. Of course the coast is the first stop for them before dispersing further inland so we usually have the higher numbers. We had one day when a few came in with a line of thunderstorms from France so for those in particular they did not overfly.
An interesting post Tony. Your lack of migrants over there does tie in with what seems to be going on this year in the UK. The common immigrants like Silver Y have been very scarce, certainly with me anyway. I wonder if it is something to do with the summer on the continent. I was in Bulgaria in July on a Butterfly/moth holiday and the locals were saying numbers were well down on normal levels (they still appeared good to me coming from a deprived Britain!). The moth trap run on that trip was a little disappointing in numbers considering in July it should have been full. Was warm and often cloudy overnight. There had been a terrific amount of rain earlier on in the summer there, you may recall it did make the national news with flooding in some of the other eastern European countries. Perhaps France suffered the same. We all know how lots of rain can affect moth numbers, just remember the summer of 2012!
I was also trapping in Hamstreet woods, Kent a few weeks back and found that very little was coming in to the traps apart from Oak lutestring, just like what you reported in France.
So, not a good year for migrants in most of Europe, perhaps because of adverse weather conditions early in the summer? I was away in May to mid- June, so I missed the best of the summer moths here. When I trapped in my garden in July/Aug I was alarmed at the low numbers of most species. But despite this there have been some unusual second generations. Last night (in a desperate attempt to record a few things before the cold weather arrives) I caught a swallowtail and a beautiful hook-tip, as well as a couple of firsts for the year – large ranunculus and dusky lemon sallow. So, an unusual and contradictory season, at least in my bit of north Suffolk.
Tony H.