Goods results after a change of venue.

Last night was the first opportunity this year to join Keith to trap on one of his Suffolk sites. The plan was to record on the edge of Herringfleet Marshes and our target moth was to be Obscure Wainscot, last recorded in the area in 1988. When we arrived on site the strong breeze was still blowing from the south so we decided to move on to a sheltered site about 2 miles away.
This proved to be an inspired choice as it turned out to be the best May evening we could recall for sheer numbers of moths and total of species. More like what you would expect on a good evening in mid-July.
The area we recorded is fairly open mixed woodland with an abundance of Birch, Oak and Pine but also adjacent wet fen area with its usual vegetation. We record the site regularly at least once a year so we knew what was most likely to turn up in the traps. Even so, about 15 new species were added to the site list and 4 of these were new species for me.
Perhaps the best moth of the night was a tiny tortrix, Cydia cosmophorana in pristine condition. But another new to both of us was Adoxophyes orana also very fresh. Two others neither of us have recorded before were Cedestis subfasciella and Phyllonorycter stettinensis. So it was a very good evening for micros with some of the more notable ones such as Nascia cilialis, Stophedera nitidana, Ancylis upupana, Epinotia demarniana, Epinotia rubiginosana, Lobesia reliquana and Spatalistis bifasciana among the 50 or so identified.
Macros were also in abundance and we were impressed with the very high numbers compared to last year of some species such as Light Emerald, Common Lutestring, May Highflyer, Birch Mocha, Peacock Moth, Ochreous Pug (15) and one in particular which is so rare across most of Suffolk, Alder Kitten. We recorded 14 of this species, 11 of which were in one trap, the 3 bulb Wemlight. The Wemlight was teeming with moths as were most of the other 8 traps. Coronet, which now seems to be turning up regularly in this area, was another addition to the site list. So with around 85 macro species the nights total was over 130. The total count of moths in the traps was between 450 to 500 and in the end we just switched the lights off to allow them to disperse before packing up.
We finally packed up just as dawn was breaking and to the sound of a Bittern booming in the distance.

Brian

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2 Responses to Goods results after a change of venue.

  1. Neil says:

    You had an excellent night there Brian! It’s been good in the South of the county too but I’m too busy enjoying the moths to write reports on the blog at the moment!

  2. Brian says:

    Yes it was Neil, and I’m really enjoying my restored eyesight. I can actually see the micros once again!

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