Last night was the moth group’s visit to Orfordness, always a bit of an adventure. 3 members of the group met at Orford quay to take the ferry across the river along with all the traps etc. The main target for the night was to trap one of the reedbed areas to try and record White-mantled wainscot, and 3 of the traps were deployed there. Another trap was placed out on an area of saltmarsh to hopefully record the nice species that can be found in that habitat. The final trap was placed in the shelter of the Information centre, as there was a bit of a breeze blowing across the site, those who know the reserve know that this is pretty normal! The static reserve trap was also running as well, close to the main buildings complex. A chat with the guys who regularly check the reserve trap didn’t build our hopes up too high for the night as they reported the usual nice species found on the reserve had been in very low numbers this year so far, maybe due to the poor summer weather. A quick check round some of the traps before crashing out for the night revealed that moths were flying, with some traps starting to fill up with a few things. There was some initial excitement at one of the reedbed lights when an interesting wainscot was seen and potted up, only to turn into a Brown-veined wainscot once viewed in good light. With a bright moon and the breeze still blowing things didn’t seem too hopeful once we retired for the rest of the night.
We were woken first thing by heavy rain pattering on the windows as a heavy shower moved through, and this continued whilst we sorted the traps, so we all got a bit wet. It was nice to find that there were more moths than expected in the traps, but nowhere near the kind of numbers that we saw on our last visit 2 years ago. The total number of species seen from all the traps was around 103, with the odd micro still to sort over the winter. No White-mantled wainscot were noted, although again there was some temporary excitement when a worn wainscot was found by one of the reedbed lights but on close examination again it turned out to be Brown-veined. Good to see large numbers of Garden tiger with over 50 noted. Other moths of note included, first from the reedbeds: Small scallop, Eucosma campoliliana, Crescent, Celypha roseaceana, Ground lackey (2 female), Crescent striped (1), Saltern ear (1), Pempelia genistella (1) and a well-marked Scoparia subfusca. From the saltmarsh: Ground lackey (2 Male), Pima boisduvaliella (2), Agdistis bennetii (2), Crescent striped (1), Dogs tooth (a few) and Eucosma tripoliana.
From around the buildings: Marbled green (3), Rosy minor (a few), Star-wort (1), Matthew’s wainscot (1), Sandhill rustic (1, the first site record for the year).
So I guess there will be a return visit next year to try another area of reedbed to try and locate the moth on the site.
Neil
