Light orange underwing hard work at Wolves wood.

As it was a nice warm day thought I’d go over to Wolves wood, Hadleigh, to see if there were any Light orange underwing moths about as it has been a few years since I’ve been over to look.
Plenty of butterflies around in the wood including my first Orange tips for the year a good sign. However, extensive searching of all the usual spots where I’ve seen moths flying over the Aspen without too much trouble in previous visits failed to produce any. I had given up and was walking the last section of track back towards the car park on the eastern side of the wood when I finally got lucky. One flew up off the track in front of me and gently flew into the wood and down onto an almost dried-up pond. I relocated it taking in moisture on some soft mud. With the dry conditions at the moment it was no surprise to see this behaviour – I have seen this before at this site. Bit too shady for decent photos unfortunately.
I am wondering whether I was a bit late in the season, as I only saw the one. Had they all emerged early in the warm conditions? Another possibility could be the colony is at a low ebb at present after most of the eastern end of the wood has been coppiced recently. Only time will tell, probably be next year now before a check can be made.

Neil

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