Good to see some posts appearing on this blog. Would be great to see more, I know there are a lot of social media forums these days but not everyone is a ‘follower’ of them all and also some people don’t have smart phones so this blog is still a way to get information out to fellow moth-ers. Doesn’t have to be a really in-depth post and still worth listing stuff on here even if you feel you haven’t caught anything exciting. News about other things such as upcoming meetings will also appear here (as well as the other forums) if I hear anything is going on.
Onto moth news from my patch. There have been some pretty good spells of mild weather meaning that the traps have been on quite a few times. Moth numbers have been very good, in fact I would say it has been one of the best springs for recording for many years at this site. Being able to run lights on many occasions has meant I have been able to try all manner of light types. All did well. The 7w LED continued to bring in good numbers although more recently the catches dropped off as the Geometer species declined and the Noctuids increased, seems to work better for the weaker flyers. As examples of the high counts recorded, I had 100+ March moth on 12th Feb, 64 Small brindled beauty on 28th Feb, 300+ Small Quaker plus 250+ Common quaker on 27th March (all these to several traps running various bulb types). Small and Common quaker numbers were in fact averaging over 100 of both species on many nights in March. Nothing too oustanding of note seen, although Dotted chestnut has done well with a maximum of 3 on the 26th March, Water carpet (2) and Lead-coloured drab (2) also around. Had an early Least black arches on 27th March. Micros have included Agonopterix scopariella, umbellana and ocellana. All the purple Eriocranias seen so far have been sangii, seems the commonest with me. At the months end both Frosted green and Lunar marbled brown showed up, right on cue.
Neil