A return visit to Hen reedbeds was planned for some time but it wasn’t until towards the end of the month that the weather became suitable! The aim was to see if any more Clifden Nonpareil could be found at the site.
We set up a few traps, painted sugar on trees and posts plus hung up a good number of wine ropes around the car park area where there was a stand of Poplars and Aspens.
A few moths were seen around the lights, along with a bit of moth interest in the baits, but, sadly no Clifdens appeared.
In this good moth year there were still some things of note recorded however.
Moth wise, this included: Deep-brown dart (one on sugar, a new moth for Brian and a scarce sighting for others), Acleris emargana (on wine rope), Large wainscot (4, first for year for all of us), Brown-spot pinion (2 at light), Pink-barred sallow (at light), L-Album wainscot (2 at light, quite northerly county records), Monopis monachella (2 at light), Southern wainscot (at light, second brood one, first time we had all ever seen it at this time of year), Lunar yellow underwing and Bulrush wainscot. Best 2 moths were Epinotia sordidana (a new moth for some of us including myself) and a late record of Crombrugghia distans.
A few larvae were found as well, the best of these being a Reed dagger seen crawling across Brian’s sheet trap and a few Yarrow pug larvae on Yarrow seedheads.
Although we saw no Clifdens on the night we did hear from a local moth-er that another had been seen in the area so it is still very possible it is established as a breeding species locally in Suffolk. Going on the numbers seen this year around the south of the UK this appears to be a moth ‘on the move’ with a growing resident population probably bolstered by immigration. Hopefully it will appear in all our traps soon!
Neil