After getting soaked loading the car with moth gear in Ipswich with thunder rumbling overhead, I did get the thought that it wasn’t worth heading out. But, having heard nothing from the west Suffolk contingent of the group, I guessed the weather was OK that side of the county so headed out into the deluge. The rain then got much worse over the Orwell bridge with a huge puddle at the far end, totally swamping the car with water! Thought it was going to stall the car but somehow it got through! Temperature had dropped at this point from a humid 22 degrees down to 15. However, once out beyond Stowmarket it was bone dry and the temperature shot back up to 21!
Arriving at the site with the other moth guys from the west, I related what had happened on the way and there was a risk the rain was coming. Sure enough, thunder could be heard shortly afterwards, then followed by some light rain. We decided to huddle under an Oak tree and wait for a while to see if the rain would pass by but alas, it did not, just got worse so we had to call it a night with no moth trapping undertaken at all.
This year is turning out to be a disaster with good nights rarer than Hen’s teeth and even when conditions look promising we then get rain! I did run 2 traps at home overnight that evening and also the night before and recorded around 55sp both times with nothing really of note recorded and only a handful of new species for the year seen. Even common species of moths generally seen in low numbers as seems to be the norm this year.
That’s it for recording in Suffolk until later in the month for me now, jetting off to (hopefully) sunny Bulgaria for 11 days of moth and butterfly recording. I hope when I get back things will have improved!
Neil
SMG meetings appear dead to me the link crashes.
Raymond, the link to events on the right doesn’t work. Click on Suffolk moths in the right hand column. On that page click on events. This will lead you to the field meetings.
Thank you Keith!