A Happy New Year to all and let’s hope 2013 is a much better season than the last!
I trapped at Bawdsey Hall last night (3rd) for the first time this year as the temperature was exceptionally mild for the time of year at around eight degrees.
Managed to catch six species: Agonopterix arenella, Pale Brindled Beauty, Spring Usher, Mottled Umber, Winter Moth and Chestnut.
…wasn’t a Winter Moth but a Pale Brindled Beauty. I set the trap this evening for 3 hours hoping for a moth or two in the mild conditions so was pleased with this first of the year. Nothing else in the trap though.
Mark
My moth list for 2013 started today, and didn’t begin with the usual Winter moth! Found both Emmelia monodactyla and Agonopterix umbellana whilst coppicing some Gorse today at work. Forecast to be mild (and dry!) tomorrow night so I’m hoping to get some traps out in the woods to see if anything is about.
Neil
It being the first day of the year I wondered if anything might come to the trap so I put out the 40w actinic this evening just before dusk without much confidence as the thermometer was already showing 4deg. and under a clear sky. Meanwhile I walked down to the nearby copse with the torch to see if anything was on the tree trunks. Searching for 20 mins. all I found was about 10 male Winter Moth and the trap had still produced nothing by 7pm so I put it away.
So a quiet start to the new year which hopefully will give us some better weather for mothing than 2012. Wishing you all the best for the 2013 season.
Brian
Found 10 Mottled umber round the security lights at work this morning, so there seems to have been a bit of moth activity in the mild conditions despite all the rain!
Neil
I was out for a walk at Melton this morning and noticed that the oak trees there were covered in large numbers of Ectoedemia subbimaculella mines. Earlier on in the leaf-miner season they appeared to be largely absent so it would seem that they were merely a bit late getting going. I’ve heard similar comments from other leaf-miner recorders.
I’ve now recorded Scarce umber at the golf course, with 2 seen today by the security lights at the club-house along with 3 Mottled umber and a November moth agg. So that is probably going to be it for species for me for this year. Bring on next year, can’t come on soon enough for me after the pretty awful year for moths this year.
Neil
Only five moths of five species caught in the garden trap last night (felt mild at dusk hence why I tried trapping). Well, in fact only 3 were in the trap, the 2 others were on the vegetation around the light. Species noted: December moth, Mottled umber, Black rustic, Red-green carpet and a Northern winter. Probably only Scarce umber left to record for me now for this year then it will all be over, unless something rarer turns up, we can all hope!
Neil
Amazingly another Goat moth larva was found today on the golf course, by a couple of guys repairing some steps, not too far from a row of large old Oak pollards. It had spun up a cocoon in the rotten wood under one of the steps, so they placed the rotten step in the undergrowth close by for me to go and see later in the afternoon, but, by the time I got there the larva had moved on unfortunately. This is another spot on the site where I have trapped the moth in the past so again there must be a colony of them close by, probably in one of the Oaks but there doesn’t appear to be any external evidence of that as I have looked before.
On top of that, one of the other staff called me over to a large Pine tree this afternoon, saying that there was a big green caterpillar wandering around underneath it. Turned out to be a Pine hawk larva – the ground-staff here are getting good at finding interesting caterpillars!
Neil
Ran the twin actinic and a Robinson mv trap out in a different wooded area out on the golf course last night for around 3 hours as it was warm and thought it would be worth the extra effort. Results not great for the conditions, 9sp and 25 moths. Species: November moth agg, Common marbled carpet, Red green carpet, Streak, Chestnut, December moth, Feathered thorn, Barred sallow and Acleris emargana. Where were all the Mottled and Scarce umbers that I would have expected at this time of year?
A more interesting sighting for me yesterday was the Copper underwing I saw at rest on an Oak tree, this is easily my latest ever record, in fact by nearly a month!
Neil
