Brian and I went out to Monk’s Hole/Scale Marsh last night. My first use of a moth trap since 3rd October! It had been looking likely to be a good night for the time of year a few days earlier when arranged and this proved, tentatively, to be the case with the site chosen for the particular conditions forecast.
Brian was aiming for 20 species and I 25. Very slow to start it didn’t look good and after the first trap round inspecting the 9 traps we had just 10 species. The second and final trap round was nearly over with one trap to go at 20sp. Then it was up to 26 and by the time we were packed up the total had risen to an excellent 34 species. The best performing traps were the sheet trap and one out on the marsh by sallow blossom. One of mine in the woods took just 2 moths!
Brian recorded 180 individuals, around a quarter being D. subpurpurella. I was lucky enough to see all the common Orthosias with some of the Common Quaker in excellent condition. Other moths included Purple Thorn, Powdered Quaker, Oak-tree Pug, Water Carpet, Chocolate-tip, Brown Silver-lines, Yellow-barred Brindle, Engrailed, Scalloped and Pebble Hook-tip, S. steinkellneriana, Pammene argyrana.
That concludes my gloat for today. Surprising that others have not done so well, but I’m sure by the weekend there will be plenty on the wing everywhere!
And among that large number of gold coloured D. subpurpurella there was just a single purple one with a silver tornal spot, Eriocrania unimaculella. On this one session I added 18 new species to my 2016 list and at last it was good to see several species of micro on the wing. A rewarding evening after so many frustrating ones during April.
Brian
Excellent. Well done. My Orthosias look half dead at the moment. I’m still looking for Pammene argyrana too.
Well done there. You must have had good conditions locally. I think the cool breeze didn’t help much where I am being on sandy heathland soil. Looking forward to things finally getting going, it is after all May now!