Suffolk Moths Blog

Keith Trapped this site last month and he invited me to join him last night. It’s an excellent site predominated by mature birch, but containing a wide variety of deciduous and conifer woodland bordered by marshland, – my first visit to this area of woodland and very impressive. This variation was reflected in our results for the night that totalled 39 species (only 4 of which were micros) and around 120 moths, running traps for 3 hours.
Highlights were Reed Dagger, Birch Mocha, Dwarf Pug, Peacock Moth, Acleris logiana with some nice fresh firsts for the year of Shears, Pale & Lesser Swallow Prominent, Oak-tree Pug, Small Phoenix, Least Black Arches (10), Lunar Marbled Brown, Yellow-barred Brindle, Maidens Blush, S. pyrella & C. proximella. Scalloped Hook-tip was most abundant moth (12).
It was good to find another local area where Birch Mocha is present. This makes 3 sites in the Fritton, St. Olaves, Herringfleet woodlands where we now know this very local moth survives although one of these sites has been under threat from possible gravel excavations. The other 2 sites are very safe.
Our MV’s & our new 60w actinic traps performed well and I was happy to log 15 firsts-for-the-year and Keith had about the same. The bittern was booming down on the nearby reedbeds.
Looking forward to going there again.

Brian

Firsts for year in the garden trap last night included Maiden’s blush, Great prominent, Pebble hook tip and Elachista canapennella. 12sp in all, with Orthosias really on the way out now with very few seen, even before they have really got started this year!
Also saw my first Adela reaumurella for the year today.

Neil

Not high numbers but a good diversity and some pleasing catches. Highest species count was last night at 21 and with 16 on 4th and 5th. Of the routine species (for my location) since my last post have been Frosted Green, Brimstone, Red Twin-spot Carpet, Brindled Beauty, Yellow-barred Brindle, Chocolate-tip, Lunar Marbled Brown, Swallow Prominent, Pebble Prominent, Great Prominent, Flame Shoulder, Shuttle-shaped Dart, Oak Nycteoline, Ocnerostoma friesei, Cochylis atricapitana and Evergestis forficalis. Less common species were Pale Pinion and Herald. Also whilst stating at the Bawdsey Northern Drab hunt that whilst I had seen the larvae I had yet to see the adult Mullein Moth one was making its way to my 125w MV Robinson. A satisfying catch as too was an even greater surprise of a Northern Drab in the same trap last night (7th May). Not the most clearly marked specimen but unmistakeable. Gets a bit windy for a while now so next trapping might have to wait until next week.

Bit better numbers in the IGC traps last night, probably because I was running lights up in the woods. Still not great however, but nice to get some firsts for the year – Nut-tree tussock, Knot grass, Shuttle-shaped dart and Early thorn. Other bits and bobs amongst the 13sp included Lunar marbled brown (4), Frosted green (6), Brindled beauty, Red chestnut with the only micro being Eriocrania subpurpurella (7 noted, down from the high of 365 seen on the 24th April).

Neil

The 125w MV run in the garden last night was found to be pretty empty this morning, despite it feeling fairly warm. Was no cloud cover however. 6sp, 12 moths in all and nothing exciting to report really! Hope things improve soon.

Neil

Out on the Estate at Somerleyton last night I set up on the track by Wicker Well, a small shallow broad. There was a curious bird call beginning at dusk and going on until 11pm coming from the thick cover that almost completely surrounds the shallow water. Also heard from over a mile away upstream, a booming Bittern which is across the Waveney from arrival until around 10pm. These distractions made good a pretty slow moth night. The expected cloud cover never came so was cooler than I was expecting. 19 species totalled with 12 Frosted Green making that the second most common species by only a small margin to Common Quaker on the night. Orthosias were still in good number for the year with many in fresh condition. S. steinkellerniana showed again for the third successive estate moth night. Two new species for the year Grey shoulder-knot and Chocolate-tip, which was in the actinic with the only Twin-spotted Quaker, Powdered Quaker and 5 of the Frosted Green . As for the mysterious bird…. comments to birders were taking me down the crake route. The call for  spotted crake was similar but that species call was too slow compared to the WickerWell bird, which I discovered on only one website which listed 5 distinct call types for…. Water Rail. What I heard was the males nocturnal breeding call. Brian and I had heard this May last year at the bottom of Herringfleet Hills and wondered what it was. If interested check out the call at; www.wildsong.co.uk/rails.html. Other more familiar night callers were Tawny Owls, Fox and Muntjac. A Silver Water Beetle arrived at the trap I was based near, the second this season already, as saw one with Brian at Aldeby.

A search round the top part of Alton water today around the flowering sallows produced no sightings of Adela cuprella. Did see 2 Green-veined whites though, my first for the year.

Neil

Have had a reasonable few nights of trapping at the golf course this week, alternating between running lights at work and out in the garden. Have used the twin 30w Robinson a bit too. Micros have definitely been more interesting than the macros. Like others have been seeing good numbers of both Brindled pug (30 one night the maximum) and Double striped pug (11 seen one night). Orthosias in very low numbers, not had nowhere near the numbers I would expect to see at this site and they appear to be going over! Interesting to see that others are noting this as well, maybe all down to the poor spring/summer we had last year when these moths would have been feeding up as larvae. Other macro sightings have included: Frosted green, Early tooth-striped, Brindled beauty, Lunar marbled brown, Lesser swallow prominent, Herald, Water carpet (4 on 24th was a good count here, with 3 in the actinic), Red-green carpet and a Tawny barred angle.
Micros: Epermenia chaerophyllella (found flying at dusk in my greenhouse, only my third record), Pammene giganteana (2 on 24th, not a common moth here or anywhere!), Agonopterix scopariella, Acrolepiopsis assectella, Plutella xylostella, Caloptilia betulicola and Eriocrania subpurpurella (outside of actinic trap covered in them on 24th, at least 200 there with an additional 165 in the 125w MV on the same night).

Neil