I’ve put the field meetings programme up on the web site. There’s a few meetings still to be confirmed but it’s not long till the programme starts so I thought I’d better put something up. There’s a link in the menu at the side of the page.
Tony
My first night out alone, armed with four traps I went to a sheltered location on the edge of Scale Marsh at St. Olaves. Access in the past has been an issue but is now very good. With two lights set out in mature oak woodland one out on the marsh and one on the border. 21 species in total were taken, if counting the purple mottled Eriocraniidae sp. Infact did well with micros with 10 species including Acleris hastiana , A. ferrugana/notana, Caloptilia betulicola, Ypsolpha ustella, Agonpterix heracliana, A. alstromeriana, E. immundana a handful of T. alternella. Diurnea fagella, in many forms, came second in number to Common Quaker with other macros being Yellow Horned, Small Quaker,Hebrew Character,Clouded Drab, Chestnut,Satellite, Oak and Pine Beauty,10 Brindled Pug, Engrailed.
With the temperature still around 15 degrees at dusk last night, I was confident the 2 traps I put out last night would finally produce a good catch of moths, and was happy to be proven right!
23sp seen here, with numbers of the commoner Orthosias building up with Small quaker the most abundant (82 seen). More interesting species seen included: Oak beauty (12), Yellow horned (9), Agonopterix umbellana, Caloptilia elongella, Herald, Ypsolopha ustella (3), Early grey, Diurnea fagella (7), Engrailed (2), Water carpet and Calybites phasianipennella (2). Nice to see traps full of moths and also to see some micros.
Hopefully with more warm nights this week other species may be seen.
Neil
Superb warm sunny day today, so we were out in the garden enjoying the weather around lunchtime when an Orange underwing moth flew low through the garden. First time I’ve seen one at home on the edge of the golf course, normally see them around the areas of Birch on the site. This was my first sighting of the year too. This prompted us to pop over to Wolves wood to try and see if Light orange underwing was out. First obstacle was that the wood was VERY wet, and, with only walking boots on not wellies we didn’t go all the way around the site. Made it to the best ride for the species and waited around for about 45 minutes scanning the tree-tops in the warm sunshine but no luck. Perhaps they haven’t emerged yet. So a word of warning if tempted to go and have a look for the moth at Wolves wood make sure you have your wellies if not you won’t get far as a lot of the tracks are underwater!
Neil
After the dismal start to the year the slightly milder weather has seen a slow build up of typical spring species. I have been trapping on 7th, 8th, 10th, 11th and 12th with each night better than the last. Tonight looks wet and windy and will be missed and I am then away next week so I wish you all good mothing in the coming milder week. The last few days have seen Hebrew Character, Common Quaker and Agonopterix alstromeriana as the commonest moths. Others are Shoulder Stripe, March, Oak Beauty, Twin-spotted Quaker, Small Quaker, Clouded Drab, Pine Beauty, Grey Shoulder-Knot, Chestnut, Endrosis sarcitrella and an Acleris hastiana which is down for checking as it is small and very schalleriana-like.
Felt like the first decent night to try trapping for a long while last night, with cloud cover and around 7 degrees at dusk. First time I’ve trapped since the 6th March. Put out 2 125w MV lights out in the woods around the sheds on the golf course and thought I’d see quite a few moths.
In the morning, found the traps to be emptier than I was expecting, with 10sp seen, total of 39 moths caught. Most moths apart from the Chestnut (14), Satellite (1) and A. heracliana (1) were very fresh, so they must have just emerged. These included: Oak beauty (6), Brindled pug (3), Yellow horned (1), Clouded drab (1), Small quaker (6), Common quaker (2) and Hebrew character (4).
Hopefully with some more warmer nights coming along shortly numbers will build up to more expected levels at this site.
Neil
With the incessant NE wind having died down a bit this evening I decided to get out a couple of traps and try the sheltered side of the woodland nearby. There was a bit of cloud cover but the temp was only about 5 deg. when I switched on at 8.15, not with any great expectation as the air felt very chilly. Even if a couple of moths had turned up I would have been happy, but they soon started to come in a steady stream especially in the first half hour. As the temp dropped away to 3 deg. by 9.45 I started to pack up, even then there was still the odd one or two coming in. The bonus was that everything was bone dry, so I came home with dry equipment.
Final count was 22 moths of 11 species in the one and a half hours, far more than I expected. Yellow Horned was the most abundant (5). A couple of Chestnut with singles of Satellite and Dotted Border, remnants from the late winter species. A male Oak Beauty, 3 x Grey Shoulder Knot (NFY) and at last a few Orthosias, Small Quaker (2), and three firsts for the year – Common Quaker (3), with one each of Clouded Drab and Twin-spotted Quaker. The only micro was A. heracliana.
Nothing very exciting about that lot, but it was just great to get out and find some moths!
May even be some more to come over the weekend.
Brian
So, March 2013 has come to an end with no more trapping undertaken at all. Species count for the site ended at 12, the worst March since the mid 1990′s, when I had 12sp in 1995, 6sp in 1996 and 9sp in 1997. Felt lucky getting in just that one decent night on the 6th considering how bad the rest of the month has been.
Only sighting I’ve had of a moth since was on the 31st, when I found a Common quaker in the middle of a path on Purdis heath. Picked it up to move it to a place where it wouldn’t get squashed and found it was already dead, probably due to the cold as it was intact.
Unless the jet stream sorts itself out I can’t see Spring arriving anytime soon!
Neil
My worse start ever with the garden moth-trap. Not many nights with a temperature of more than one or two degrees. Only catch over the last fortnight was on 18th, with chestnut, T alternella and Early moth. I don’t see Early moth very often. This year I’ve only recorded two – on 4th Jan and now 18th March. Which constitutes my earliest and latest ever Early moths. But why none in between? Anyone else noticed early/late Early moths?
With the temperature up around the 7 deg. mark today, less wind and plenty of cloud it looked as if it might be worth running a trap. I had one set up and running just after dark with even a couple of moths immediately showing up, but within 10 minutes steady rain had set in and with the equipment getting very wet, that was the end of it. Just 3 moths, one each of Dotted Border, March Moth and Satellite.
It seems that the present pattern of weather is either too cold when it is dry, but as soon as the temperature lifts a little it’s either too windy or too wet! Will this spring ever come?
Brian
