To fly or not to fly

As did Paul, I ran a couple of traps last night (17th) in the nearby woods and recorded around 80 moths of 4 species most of them were of course Winter Moth. Interesting thing was that although it was a very mild night (12 deg.) and I counted at least 70 Winter Moth, virtually none were on the wing. They were just sitting on nearby tree trunks and not coming to the lights even though they were just a few feet away. I wonder if it was because we have had a succession of mild nights and they no longer felt the need to fly about.   When I ran 2 traps in the same area on 1st December, the traps and sheets were covered with Winter Moth and I could see by just shining the torch around, that there were hundreds of them on the wing that night. It was a very mild night that followed several cold and windy nights, so maybe this was their first opportunity to take to the wing and move around the wood. On that evening from dusk till about 6 pm, I counted 120 just in the traps and on the sheets.                                                                                                         The other 3 species last night were Chestnut, Mottled Umber and a single Pale Brindled Beauty, my earliest winter record for this species. First time I’ve recorded one in December.

Looks like more mild nights to come. What chance of winter migrants on these warm southerlies?

Brian

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One Response to To fly or not to fly

  1. Raymond Watson says:

    Yes Brian it is worth trying though the winds are on the increase. there are some spectacular migrant catches at present from north Africa being caught on and near the south coast and last night I got a Syncopacma polychromella. There are a lot coming into the country.

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