Suffolk Moths Blog » National Moth Night

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)

Moth Night 2019

Matthew Deans — Tue, 17 Sep 2019 09:54:48 +0000

As the East Anglian regional representative for Moth Night 2019, I am pleased to invite fellow moth enthusiasts to Bawdsey Hall, on the night of Saturday 28th September. It is the twentieth anniversary of Moth Night (formerly National Moth Night).

Bawdsey Hall is hosting an event and all interested recorders are invited. I would appreciate as much support as possible, especially as Bawdsey Hall and I personally have put a lot of effort into this night and recording throughout the year.

This year the theme is Clifden Nonpareil and migrant moths. A Clifden Nonpareil was taken at light here last night (16 September) but I can’t promise any on the night! However, Bawdsey is a good site for migrants and hopefully a good selection will be trapped.

The evening will start at 7pm with a tour of the grounds followed by deployment of moth traps. Please let me know how many traps you will be bringing?

If people let me know in advance then we can better plan for refreshments. In previous years last minute arrangements have meant this has been tricky to organise.

Only supporters of the event will be entitled to view future rare moths trapped at the Hall.

Many thanks.

Matthew – matthewjdeans@yahoo.co.uk Telephone 07912 859747

The ‘Unrivalled’ …

paulb — Sat, 31 Aug 2019 15:26:18 +0000

This year see’s the 20th anniversary of National Moth Night, a celebration of all the things we love and enjoy about this hobby of ours. One of the themes is Clifden Nonpareil (Catocola fraxini) - aka the ‘Blue Underwing’. Despite a much welcome resurgence of this species across the southern counties of the UK it is a species I have only been lucky enough to see on four previous occasions. My first two were courtesy of a moth twitch Matthew and I made to Stiffkey, Norfolk in Sept’ 2001. I then had to wait almost twelve years to the day before seeing one in Kent. My last was back in August 2017, from Hen Reed-beds. The thought of actual catching my own, and in the garden, seemed more fiction than fact but this morning was one of those rare moments when the moth gods finally decided to smile on my trap once again. As I type this post I’m not ashamed to admit that l’m still buzzing from the excitement of turning over the egg tray and seeing this large pale grey/brown moth sat there, and then the panic that sets in when you think don’t fly before I can pot you up. It’s also interesting to note that the nearest poplar plantation I can think of is approx. 4km due south of me (near Rattlesden) !!

And don’t forget to check out: http://www.mothnight.info/home

C.fraxini (Woolpit) 30 Aug 2019

Clifden Nonpareil records needed.

Neil — Mon, 10 Jun 2019 16:27:15 +0000

Please see the message below. If any of you have been lucky enough to record any Clifdens in the last 2 years (and I know some of you have) it would be great if you could send me the details so I could add them to the ones I already know about. These ones are the record from the Suffolk moth group event at Hen reedbeds in 2017 and my own capture of one last year. I don’t yet have access to the database records from the last 2 years so if you have sent them in to Tony already I haven’t seen them yet.

Many thanks

Neil

Many apologies for the generic email, but I have sent this out to all county recorders. In September of this year we have the 20th anniversary of Moth Night http://www.mothnight.info, with the theme species being the Clifden Nonpareil C. fraxini. We are researching the current distribution of this species in the UK and have been supplied by the NMRS with all the records/data up to the end of 2016. The reason for my email is that I am hoping you can supply me with the additional data I need for 2017 and 2018 only (ideally in Excel spreadsheet format) to enable us to get a true idea of the species distribution. I appreciate some of you will have more records than others and some of you will possibly have none at all , but we would very much appreciate a reply either way – hopefully this request should not take up too much of your time. Thank you very much in advance for taking the time to look into this me. I very much look forward to receiving your replies. Best wishes Scott Barron Atropos

National Moth Night Data

Raymond Watson — Mon, 19 Nov 2018 15:32:25 +0000

National Moth Night Data must be recorded before 2nd December.

I have just uploaded one set of data on the Moth Night recording data sheets. In doing so I realised that there were two different recording sheets for moths. The other being found through Butterfly conservation web site. Having uploaded to the Moth Nights web site and then being shown a map of all sites uploaded so far, my other data set was not on it. There were also very few other sites in Suffolk. I have emailed the moth night info to ask if I have to re-load the first data set to their recording sheet.

I have now received a reply to the email.

If you record it on the general data recording sheet in Butterfly Conservation it does not get transfered as a record set for the National Moth Night.

I therefore have to re-enter that data onto the National Moth Nights recording data sheet.

As Neil points out there is very little data there at the moment for Suffolk.

Local trips away from Hollesley June 2018

Raymond Watson — Tue, 10 Jul 2018 10:40:07 +0000

Hello again. I have not been particularly active in mothing outside of my village during the month. Partly owing to poor weather and also a slow recovery of fitness following illness earlier in the year I placed three traps on one of the National Moth Nights on a friend’s land at Clopton. He had bought a field adjacent to the property some years ago and planted areas with trees, British and non-British species as well as fruit trees and grape vines. There is also a large are of unimproved dry grassland and hedgerows. It was a good night for moths on 15th. The 149 species in total did not show a woodland selection of moths as a whole. The trap placed inside the wooded area was the poorest served. The Large Nutmeg was common but species were mostly those of open country, hedge-row and garden. A rampant growth of the common Bird’s Foot Trefoil in the orchard area produced a Syncopacma larseniella that seemed to trigger a spate of them which I also caught at Abbey Farm, Snape and at home. A good record for home where I introduced the trefoil a couple of years ago. The Clopton site produced two moths that were new to me; a Pretty Chalk Carpet and Triaxomera parasitella. Cochylis molliculana was also quite abundant.

My escapades to Abbey Farm, Snape this June have been aimed at the hope of proving the identity of a Monochroa species. I managed to disprove my belief that they were M. arundinetella, but were M. suffusella. This was achieved by the dissection of a captured female. It is not known what the species feeds on as larvae in southern and eastern Britain. On my two visits in June I placed 4 traps in differing habitats. I expected high numbers , but typical of the month, they were not as good as they might have been, 176 on 1st June and 188 on 19th. The reed-bed trap on 1st June was inundated by midges and Coleophora caespititiella, there were also a lot of Brachmia inornatella. Bactra species were common, mainly B. lancealana but also furfurana and lacteana. There was a Glyphipterix thrasonella and a single Nascia cilialis on 1st but several N. cilialis on the 19th when I also found Sitochoa verticalis and as a first for me, two Blacknecks and an Archips crataegana. Also common on 19th were Dotted Fan-foot. The Lackey was captured again. I have yet to see that at home where I get the Ground Lackey. Also a couple of Nematopogon metaxella. I have this occassionally at home where I usually catch N. schwarziellus. I have yet to find N. swammerdamella in Suffolk.

Suffolk Moth Group field meetings programme for 2018.

Neil — Wed, 02 May 2018 14:58:19 +0000

Here is the moth group’s meeting programme as it stands at the moment. More events may be added at a later date, details of which will be put up on this blog.

SUFFOLK MOTH GROUP MEETINGS PROGRAMME 2018

Note that there are 2 dates for most meetings, this is so the best night weather-wise can be chosen near the date of the event. News on which day the event is taking place will be posted on the Suffolk Moth blog at least 1 day before the meeting.

18th/19th May. Bradfield woods SWT reserve (for general recording especially micros)
Meet in car park at TL935580 at 9pm.

25th/26th May. Groton wood SWT reserve (for possible Pauper pug and Mocha)
Meet in car park along road at TL976428 at 9pm.

8th June. Gunton meadows SWT reserve (for general recording – new site)
Meet along road by reserve at TM538960 at 9pm.

15th/16th June. MOTH NIGHT 2018 – Bawdsey Hall. See Matthew’s moth blog post for more details.

22nd/23rd June. Knettishall heath SWT reserve (for breckland species and Alder kitten)
Meet in car park at TL951806 at 9pm.

29th/30th June. Redgrave fen SWT reserve (for wetland species possibly including Fen square-spot and Lempke’s gold spot)
Meet in main reserve car park at TM052802 at 9pm. We will then drive in convoy to Redgrave fen.

13th/14th July. North cove SWT reserve (for wetland species possibly including White-mantled wainscot)
Meet in the car park at TM471905 at 9pm.

21st July. Groton wood SWT reserve (daytime for leaf mines and larvae followed by night trapping)
Meet in car park along road at TL976428 at 2pm for daytime recording followed by 9pm for trapping.

27th/28th July. Carlton marshes SWT reserve (for wetland species possibly including White-mantled wainscot)
Meet in car park at TM508920 at 9pm.

10th Aug. Orfordness NT reserve (for saltmarsh and coastal species including Ground lackey and Sandhill rustic)
Meet at Orford Quay TM425495 at 7pm. Ferry will meet us and take us to the reserve. Overnight stay on the site so bring breakfast and a sleeping bag etc. Traps will be put out and checked in the morning. Moth morning event on 11th which members can help at. Will need a note of numbers for this meeting so let me know if you are coming.

14th/15th Sept. Hen reedbeds SWT reserve (for reedbed species)
Meet in car park TM471771 at 6.45pm

There will also be a leaf miner recording day in October, details will be posted at a later date for this event.

Neil Sherman (neilshermanmothman@hotmail.com)

National moth night part 2 at IGC.

Neil — Sun, 19 Jun 2016 19:52:48 +0000

A late posting on this night as I’ve been away in Ireland for a week. Bit better than the first night with more moths noted – 48sp. 2 hawk moths – a Pine and an Eyed (my first for the year). Best moth for this site a Small clouded brindle, scarce here. Nothing else really of note.
No third night of trapping for me as I was on the ferry en route to Ireland and trying to catch up on sleep after a long journey to Wales!

Neil

Hawk-moth Catches

Raymond Watson — Mon, 13 Jun 2016 06:09:55 +0000

Could have been better catches for the Moth Nights feature. Two traps for each site/date. How have others done? At home at Hollesley:- 9th 1 Elephant, 6 Poplar; 10th 1 Elephant, 1 Poplar, 1 Privet, 1 Pine; 11th 6 Elephant, … Continue reading →

Moth night part 1 9th June – Big disappointment.

Neil — Fri, 10 Jun 2016 17:41:36 +0000

A poor first Moth night here at IGC. 2 traps run up in the woods only 36sp, only thing of minor note was the first record of Brindled white spot for the year. Not even many xylostella, only 3! No … Continue reading →