Nothing so special as Raymond’s Striped Hawk here, a Silver Y the only migrant, others mentionable being Dark Spectacle, Dark Brocade and the first Dark Arches of the Summer. A species count in the mid thirties with very few micros.
Keith
Seem to do very well for Hawk moths here. One Striped Hawk along with two Poplar and a Privet. Yet to have our resident Lime or Small Elephant though. 52 species on a night with intermittent light rain. Others site list additions were Green Pug, Light Arches, Double Square Spot and Lunar Yellow Underwing. Low on micros. Plus a correction: yesterdays Lesser Treble-bar was a Treble-bar, thank you Tony for the query.
Considering it was clear and cooled down I thought my count was good. 59 species with my first Pine Hawk along with 2 Elephant and 5 Poplars. Also added Common Marbled Carpet, Marbled Minor, Iron Prominent, Common Footman, Lesser Treble Bar and what I have yet to confirm, a Lesser Cream Wave to my site list. 8 new micros all to identify ranging from a nepticulid to pyralid with one I described as beautifully ornate and patterned. Picked up my first Large and Lesser Yellow Underwings of the season too.
I’ve just had confirmation that we can go ahead with the moth night at North Warren tomorrow. Same meeting arrangements as the events list but one day later. As the weather is a bit unpredictable it would be worth confirming that the event is going ahead by ringing up beforehand if you are thinking of turning up out of the blue.
Tony
Six of the group turned up for the meeting despite the afternoon’s showers damping things down a bit. We were trying a new part of the forest on this night, along the Icknield Way further north than we have tried in the past. Four MV and 2 actinic lights were put out on the forest tracks and along the Icknield Way track itself – the more open areas were avoided due to a rather cool breeze.
Green Carpets were the most common moth flying as dusk fell and throughout the night. The moth species count slowly built up with Apomyelois bistriatella, Treble Bar, Clay Triple-lines. A trap round added quite a few more to the list including Pale-shouldered Brocade, Epinotia rubiginosana, Narrow-winged Pug, Cream-spot Tiger, Eulia ministrana and Sharp-angled Carpet.
New moths continued to trickle in for a while before we called it a day – White Colon, Barred Hook-tip, Pale Oak Beauty, Brown Rustic, Eyed Hawk-moth, Birch Mocha and Great Prominent - with over sixty species recorded by the end of the night. None of the usual Breck ‘specials’ appeared and with the slow season it may have been too early for them. We return to the Brecks in two weeks so they may appear then.
Tony
It looks like we might have a chance of better weather tomorrow so we’ll probably go ahead with the clearwing meeting postponed from last week.
Instead of Carlton Marshes we’ll start off at North Cove and then move on to Carlton Marshes and other sites as time and conditions allow.
Meet in the North Cove reserve car park at 11.00am. Grid reference – TM470903.
Tony
The meeting tonight is cancelled due to the forecasted bad weather. I’m in the process of trying to move the meeting to Saturday night, which seems a bit better weather-wise. If you’re interested in turning up for this then it would be best to get in touch to see what plans are made, we may end up at a different site.
Tony
At last an evening that looked promising enough to put the traps out. Just 34 species and about 100 moths was the result with 4 new for the year, Brown Rustic, Small Clouded Brindle, Small Square-spot and Anthophila fabricana – nothing to get very excited about but at least better than an empty trap!
Looks like more blank nights coming up if the forecast is anything to go by.
Brian
Like Paul I went out for a bit of daytime searching, but found it quite hard going not finding that much. Went to Barnhamcross common which is normally a good site for looking for daytime moths. Did find Brown scallop (larva on Buckthorn), Lobesia reliquana, Glyphipterix fuscoviridella and O. distans. Very few butterflies seen either, just singles of Small heath, Green hairstreak and Brown argus. Did find an Incurvaria oehlmanniella in the greenhouse at home (first for year) and an Adela rufimitrella at rest on a Mullein in the garden.
Things should be better than this in June surely?
Neil
I decided to have a quick look at Ixworth Roadside Nature Reserve today. Turned out to be a wise move as the very first moth I saw was a female Adela croesella feeding atop an Oxeye Daisy. It’s only the third time I’ve encountered this species and it makes for a very nice addition to my ‘longhorn year list’. Otherwise it was pretty quiet – just a single Yellow Shell disturbed from some longer grass and a well grown Brown-tail moth caterpillar found munching away on a sweet chestnut leaf.
