Suffolk Moths Blog » Field work

SUFFOLK MOTH GROUP MEETINGS PROGRAMME 2020.

Neil — Sat, 14 Mar 2020 15:43:15 +0000

See below the list of events for the Suffolk Moth Group for 2020. Note that there are still 2 meetings awaiting confirmation. Once this has been obtained then the details will be added to the programme.

SUFFOLK MOTH GROUP MEETINGS PROGRAMME 2020.

Friday 22nd May – Ramsey Wood RSPB reserve (looking for the Mocha and general recording)
Meet beside entrance to wood just off the road at TM062438 at 8.30pm.

Saturday 30th May – Raydon Wood (looking for Mocha and for general recording) Meet in the Car park for the Hadleigh Railway walk at TM060404 at 8.30pm.
We will head off from this car park after a short wait to the wood entrance further down the road.

Friday 19th June - Cavenham heath, Breckland - for Breckland moths.
Meet in reserve car park at TL744721 at 9pm.
We will move off down the main track for recording after a short wait.

Friday 10th July – Captain’s wood Suffolk Wildlife Trust reserve (for general recording. Olive crescent was recorded from this wood in 2017, so this meeting is arranged to see if any more turn up)
Meet in the reserve car park on right side of School Road at TM420531 at 9pm. We will move off into the wood after a short wait.

Saturday 1st August – Moth morning at Ipswich Golf Course, Purdis Heath (heathland, grassland and wetland species possible). Joint meeting with the Suffolk Branch of Butterfly Conservation.
Meet by the large Ipswich Golf Club sign on the green along Bucklesham Road at TM204425 at 9.30am. We will then walk up the lane to view traps run overnight by Neil Sherman, County moth recorder. Note there is no parking at Ipswich Golf Club, cars to be parked along Bucklesham Road only please.

Friday 14th August – Darsham Marshes Suffolk Wildlife Trust reserve (for wetland species)
Meet in the reserve car park at TM420692 at 8pm.

Friday 28th August – ‘Moth Night’ event at Bawdsey Hall – theme underwing moths. More details to follow later in the year.

Friday 4th September – Wolves Wood RSPB reserve (for possible Clifden Nonpareil and general recording. This wood has a large amount of Aspen so the aim of the meeting is to see if Clifden Nonpareil has colonized the wood, so sugar and wine ropes will be used as well as light traps)
Meet in the reserve car park at TM053436 at 7pm.

Friday 12th September – Bradfield Woods Suffolk Wildlife Trust reserve (for possible Pale eggar, maybe Clifden Nonpareil and general recording)
Meet in the reserve car park at 7pm. We will move off into the wood after a short wait.

Saturday 10th October – Daytime leaf miner recording day – to be confirmed. Once details are finalized this programme will be updated.

Moth trapping evenings are nice social events and are a really good way to learn more about moths and moth trapping, as well as improving our knowledge of the county’s moths. However, events take place outside in the dark and can run for a few hours until quite late at night (sometimes all night if conditions are really good!) so there are a few things that you will need to bring along so that you have a safe and comfortable evening.

• a torch is essential (don’t forget to check the batteries are not running low)

• warm clothing (even if it is a hot day, it can get chilly after dark)

• suitable footwear (stout walking boots advisable for most meetings, wellies for wet sites)

• something to drink and a snack to eat

• something to sit on as we normally run a sheet light as a base and spend a lot of time close to this

• insect repellent

• eye protection against UV light as the bulbs we use emit a lot of it

• mobile phone (most people have one now anyway!)

Please try to arrive at the advertised time, take care of your own personal safety and listen to the short introductory briefing by myself or another experienced recorder who is running the event about any hazards in the area such as electric cables, slippery paths etc. Children must be accompanied by a parent or guardian if under 16. If you have any queries before the event please contact myself.

Neil Sherman (moth@sns.org.uk)

Suffolk Moth Group leaf miner recording day – Sunday 13th October 2019.

Neil — Sat, 07 Sep 2019 18:52:30 +0000

The annual end of season leaf miner recording day for the group has now been arranged. It will be on Sunday 13th October, meeting at Rampart’s Field picnic site car park (TL788715) at 10.30am. We will then move off in convoy the short distance to a small parking area just off the A1101 to do our recording on West stow country park. This is a spot we haven’t tried before. After either a pub lunch (if there is interest, could be tricky to get in a pub for food on a Sunday lunchtime) or your own picnic lunch, we will then move on to a second site for more recording in the afternoon. This is likely to be Mildenhall woods, another site that hasn’t had much survey work done before.
All are welcome. It’s a good chance to learn about this interesting form of moth recording from some of us that have been doing it for a number of years. At least 50-60 species are likely to be seen, depending on the variety of trees.

Neil

Grey carpet moth survey 31st May 2019, Elveden.

Neil — Thu, 09 May 2019 15:16:42 +0000

Sharon Hearle from BC is planning a Grey Carpet survey day in Suffolk on Friday 31st May 10.30am – 2pm. She has got a list of sites on the Elvden Estate with Flixweed and where can be visited.
Meet on West Road in Icklingham – grid ref TL768732 Postcode IP28 6PU.
She says ‘It would be great to see some Suffolk moth recorders ( I will probably run a load of traps the night before as well). I appreciate Friday is not great for you and others that are working. It is helpful if people email to let me know they are coming along’.

She also says there are problems with the FC over cars accessing the forest – they are having a clampdown and also insist on business insurance.
Possible funding: www.suffolkbis.org.uk/news/funding?page=1

7w UV LED bulbs.

Neil — Fri, 15 Feb 2019 15:32:56 +0000

I’ve had a lot of interest from fellow moth-ers about the 7w LED bulb I have been trialing, so many that I’ve decided to put the link up on the blog here to Paul Batty’s web site where you can … Continue reading →

Suffolk Moth Group leaf miner meeting 7th October 2018.

Neil — Mon, 15 Oct 2018 19:08:54 +0000

5 people met up at Hemley church for this meeting on a gloriously sunny autumn day. The aim was to head down to the extensive saltmarsh habitat beside the river Deben to see what moth species associated with that habitat we could find as something a bit different from the normal leaf miner hunt. On the way down, we noted a number of mines of Cosmopterix zieglerella on the hedgerow Hops as well as lots of Ivy bees (Colletes hederae) on the flowering Ivy.

Searching the saltmarsh

Once down onto the saltmarsh we started searching the various plants mainly for Coleophora cases.

Coleophora aestuariella case on Annual Sea blite

Almost immediately I located a case on Annual sea blite (Suaeda maritima) that was quite pinkish in colour. This was the case of Coleophora aestuariella, a rare species with hardly any Suffolk records, a great start!

Coleophora deviella case

We also located some other larger cases on the same plant, these being Coleophora deviella.

Coleophora salicornae case on Glasswort

We then moved to a patch of Glasswort (Salicornia). Tony mentioned about the cases of Coleophora salicornae, saying that he had searched many times for it on this particular patch without success. Here it is, I said after a quick look at the first stems – a case of being in the right place at the right time, as this species is only in a case for a matter of days! In fact we found quite a number once we got our eyes in. Other species of interest found included Agdistis bennetii (a small larva), Scrobipalpa nitentella (early feeding signs on Sea purslane), Coleophora limoniella (case on Sea lavender), Coleophora albicans (cases on Sea wormwood), Coleophora atriplicis (cases on Sea purslane), Chinese character (larva on Blackthorn on edge of marsh), Calybites phasianipennella (mines and leaf rolls on Dock), Ectoedemia intimella (mine on Grey willow), Epermenia chaerophyllella (larval workings on Hogweed) and Scrobipalpa acuminatella (larval mine on Thistle). 47sp recorded so good for the restricted habitat with a lot of interesting species.

Coleophora atriplicis case on Sea purslane

After lunch, we moved on to the nearby Newbourne Springs SWT reserve for a bit of more traditional leaf mining. Species of note amongst the 48 seen included: Caloptilia semifascia (leaf rolls on Field maple), Stigmella aceris (another site for this increasing species), Nephopterix angustella (spun up berries on Spindle), Coleophora albitarsella (case on Ground Ivy), Phyllonorycter lantanella (mines on Wayfaring tree), Ectoedemia hannoverella (mines on Black poplar hybrid).

Overall a very successful day enjoyed by all.

Neil.

May moths 2018, Hollesley.

Raymond Watson — Thu, 07 Jun 2018 21:23:38 +0000

Not a lot to shout about. Abysmal weather environmentally for much of the first 5 months of this year which along with the now predominantly north east winds has not induced the moths to fly, makes coastal areas cooler and brings in sea fog. However towards the end of May a few warmer days seemed to concertina the seasonal succession of appearance into a few days. Additionally I have had an unexpected illness that reduced my versatility to trapping off site. That problem appears to have receded.

I took the opportunity to trap at The Patch on 31st June which was one of the better mothing nights. I picked up a Nascia cilialis there which was a first for me, though one then turned up the following day at Snape. Also in the catch was a pristine Clouded Drab which took me very much by surprise, having watch the seasonal demise of the Orthosias at home and only seeing worn gothicas for some time.

Hawk Moths have been doing well with me as too has the Cream-spot Tiger Moth and Tortrix viridana. Pseudococcyx turionella was new for my home site on 23rd.

I have captured moths at an additional site for me during the day. I have become a PoMS volunteer. PoMS is the Pollinator Monitoring Scheme run by CEH and partnered by Butterfly Conservation, www.ceh.ac.uk/pollinator-monitoring. There is a currently vacant 1 km location in south Norfolk’s Reedham Marshes TG4403. If anyone knows of a naturalist living in that area who may be interested in the project please draw their attention to the link. My 1 km square which I share with a naturalist living in Boyton is alongside the Butley Estuary and enables me to net moths etc during the visits that are 4 times a year. During May I picked up 12 species of moth. These were mostly common species and included the day flying Mother Shipton. Also of interest were a number of Cydia nigricana, presumed to be feeding on the vetch seeds as larvae and a first for me of the attractive day flying Grapholita compositella.

Help Needed – Lunar Yellow Underwing Caterpillar Surveys – King’s Forest Suffolk

Tony Prichard — Thu, 01 Feb 2018 21:09:10 +0000

I’ve received a request for help from Sharon Hearle – details below. Tony

Organised at fairly short notice in Feb/March – mild evenings above 3 degrees (hopefully even milder) between 6pm -8pm approx.

I am looking for a few volunteers to help with some survey visits to Kings Forest looking at rotovated plots on forest rides and clearings to see whether lunar yellow underwing is present. This will help to inform Forestry Commission management work and the Shifting Sands Heritage Lottery Project.

Please contact Sharon Hearle on shearle@butterfly-conservation.org Tel 07920131526 if you might be able to help

Banana moth challenge!

Neil — Sun, 23 Jul 2017 14:01:35 +0000

Recently on the internet there has been discussion on using bananas to attract moths to feed. The method involves simply cutting sections of skin off the banana and hanging it up in a tree (see photo). There have been reports of Old lady, Red underwing and Copper underwings drawn in to the fruit, so I thought I’d give it a go. I’m also putting the challenge out there to other moth recorders to give it a go, let’s see what we can find!
News on my success/failure will be reported in the near future.
Good luck if you try!

Neil

The banana!

Chalk Lane wander 1st July 2017.

Neil — Mon, 03 Jul 2017 19:37:30 +0000

A few of us went for a bit of daytime surveying along the Chalk Lane in the King’s forest on Saturday late morning/early pm. No real targets, we were happy just to find anything!
Was warm and sunny if a little cloudy at times. Butterflies abundant on the numerous wildflowers and of course we found some moths. Some of interest too, especially the micros.
Best macro was a slightly worn Tawny wave. We also had Fox moth (larva), Hummingbird hawk (2 feeding at Viper’s bugloss) and a Blackneck. Micros included Marasmarcha lunaedactyla, Delplanqueia dilutella (or inscriptella), Gillmeria pallidactyla (Yarrow plume) and Syncopacma taeniolella.
A quick visit to Barton Mills afterwards didn’t produce the hoped for Orange-tailed clearwing sadly. Would have been a good finish to the day.

Neil

SMG meeting Mayday farm this week.

Neil — Thu, 08 Jun 2017 10:40:42 +0000

Looking at the weather forecast for the weekend Friday night is looking the better of the two nights for fieldwork, with cloudy skies and light winds. Saturday is partially cloudy but windier with heavier rain during the day. So see … Continue reading →