Numbers of moths in the traps have not been particularly high this week, but I seem to be catching a lot of species not usually encountered at Bawdsey Hall. Following the Green Arches earlier in the week two further new macros have appeared. On the night of 17 June a Reddish Light Arches and a Purple Clay graced the traps. To catch two new macro additions in one night is extraordinary!
This morning a Common Lutestring was a good record – a rarely seen moth in these parts.
Brian and I trapped at this site for the first time near the western end of Fritton Lake. Not the best of nights with a couple of the traps doing particularly well with some others pretty quiet. Overall this could prove to be the 2nd best site to Herringfleet Hills, on the Somerleyton Estate. Close proximity to good, very wet, Carr at the overflow end of the lake. Other habitats include wet flower meadow damp and hillside woodland of a very good mix of broad leaved natives. 128 species on the night.
Top moth was Epermenia falciformis with four taken at one trap only. There is a record from the lake in 1935. others of interest included, Dotted Fan-foot, Gothic, Broken-barred Carpet. The tiny Epinotia nanana C.B.G pea. Lekking Ghost moths on the meadow, Alder Kitten, Scallop Shell, demarniana turned up again as it has everywhere else up here on the Estate this year.
I caught this at Iken Cliff on 3 June, at a site with plenty of Scots Pine. These Cydia species are certainly not a strong point of mine as I catch very few. FW length of 6mm.
Anyone care to have a guess and put a name to it? Thanks for looking, Paul
I was delighted to catch a very fine specimen of Green Arches at Bawdsey Hall on the night of 15 June. This is the 469th species of macro I have recorded at Bawdsey, since 2002. I often find that when catching this moth elsewhere that they vary greatly in brightness and wear.
Last night (16th) I caught a Beautiful Golden Y – only the second Bawdsey record of a species that I find commonly at some of my other survey sites. This moth is rarer at Bawdsey than the Dewick’s Plusia or Golden Twin-spot!
A few more summer species have appeared in recent nights – Swallow-tailed Moth, Clay and Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing to name a few as well as increasing numbers of Dark and Light Arches, Large Yellow Underwing and Uncertain.
Forecast conditions for this night were quite promising, with some cloud cover and warmth. After a bit of a bumpy ride through the forest we arrived at the large ride being managed for Dingy skippers and since our last visit the habitat looked much better with a large area of herb rich grassland to trap around. 8 traps were deployed, 7 mvs plus a twin 30w actinic. Moths were soon coming in, keeping us very busy. Checking the traps later on found them buzzing too, took us quite a while to go round them. The bright moon did come out from behind the clouds on a few occasions but it did not seem to affect the moths too much. No coat required all night as the temperature stayed up too. My list in my notebook at the end of the night had just over 200sp written down in it, but I know I missed some of the species at one trap I was checking (others were noting the moths down here) and with quite a few determinations to do this total is going to increase. Certainly the best and most interesting moth night since last summer. Quite a few high summer moth trapped much earlier in the year than expected, seemingly showing the season is quite advanced.
Was getting light by the time I got home, one of those occasions where you have to dodge the milkmen doing their deliveries!
Highlights, of which there were many, included the following, starting with the macros.
Red-necked footman (at least 40 seen, at every trap so must be breeding in the area), Fern (quite a few, not a moth that I see very often), Festoon, Cream-spot tiger, Toadflax pug, Satin wave, Pretty chalk carpet, Beautiful golden Y, Purple clay, Shaded pug, Haworth’s pug, Beautiful hook-tip (quite a few), Clay triple lines, Satyr pug, Broom-tip (at least 8 seen), Brown scallop, Dotted fan-foot, Clouded buff, Coronet, Bordered sallow, 4 dotted footman, Royal mantle (at least 2), Tawny wave, Clouded magpie (a few), Mere wainscot, Wood carpet, Clay (first for year), Broom, White colon (2), Alder, Grey arches, Green arches, Grass emerald.
Micros of note, some of which are very good county records:
Pempelia dilutella (quite good numbers), Ethmia dodecea (common), Sitochroa verticalis, Cydia fagiglanda, Assara terrebella (a few), Metzneria metzneriella, Hedya ochroleucana, Archips oporana (at least 2), Thisanotia chrysonuchella, Acompsia cinerella, Eulamprotes wilkella (a few), Lobesia littoralis, Eucosma metzneriana (very few records of this for Suffolk, probably new to all of us present and my moth of the night). Tony was the lucky man on the night, with his trap catching most of the better moths, so well done to him for putting his trap in the best spot!
Can this good weather continue?
Neil
Fern
Archips oporana
Royal mantle
Pempelia dilutella
Eucosma metzneriana
Back at Marsh Lane Herringfleet on the 13th trying for Obscure Wainscot, which was not found on this occasion. As is sometimes the case though, I set a target of what I thought would be a reasonable species count at 100 and reached 107. Had the cloud cover come along as expected it would have been warmer, no mosquito repellent was required. Luckily the cloud did come along after temperatures had dropped off and the moon had shone for a while. The moths came in as soon as the traps were switched on so no waiting!
Best moth for me was Four-dotted Footman as I don’t see it as much as other species of interest which included; Schoenobius gigantella around 10, Water Ermine 2, Cream-bordered Green pea, Flame Wainscot, Striped and Southern Wainscots, 6 or so Round-winged muslin, Nascia cilialis, Grey Arches, Birds Wing. green Silver-lines and Beautiful Hook-tip too! Second best were probably the male and female Puss moth lured by the actinic skinner with the male actually inside the trap. Also 6 Elephant Hawk-moth in the actinic. Small Elephant also seen again, now seen everywhere in singles. 3 Eyed, 2 Lime and a Poplar + uncounted Elephant hawks in the other traps. Single Drinker as per the visit on 19th May, seen no where else by me this year as yet.
It was only recently on 29th May that I did a larval search for V-moth among the red currants on the site I monitor alongside the river Waveney. The ones I found were about half way through the larval stage, so just 2 weeks later on Thursday evening (12th) I was quite surprised to find 3 adults in one of the traps. This is easily the earliest date I have recorded the adult. Hopefully this bodes well for another good season at the site for this nationally decreasing species.
A big bright full moon was not helpful, but others of note among the catch of 82 species were Four-dotted Footman, Spinach (8), Double Dart (12), Small Elephant Hawk-moth (which seems to be on the increase in this area as it has turned up at several of our sites this year), Beautiful Hook-tip (a common moth on this site with over 30 counted) and a couple of micros new for the site, Pammene regiana & Ptycholoma lecheana.
Clouded Border was by far the most abundant moth of the evening with over 100 counted.
Similar to what others have reported, very few Hawk-moths at the moment. I usually have good numbers of all the common ones at this site in mid-June, but just 3 Poplar, 2 Elephant and the Small Elephant in the traps on Thursday.
Brian
Not had much chance to run my lights recently but I did manage to put the light out last night. A few more hawks than last time – 4 x Elephant, 1 x Eyed and 1 x Privet. Several L-album Wainscot. Singleton Pyralis farinalis and Lilac Beauty. The latter being a new species for the garden if my memory serves.
Tony
We’re off to the King’s Forest area this evening to run some lights in Breck habitat. Get in touch if you’re interested in coming along.
Tony
Nearly didn’t trap on the night of the 9th, with the forecast for heavy rain. But, a check of the sky at dusk showed it was cloudy but didn’t really look like rain cloud so out the traps went, up in the woods round the sheds in case the rain did arrive.
As suspected, it was dry in the morning and once I arrived to check the traps found them covered in moths and full inside too. Still collating results now 2 days later but currently list stands at 140 species. Large numbers (hundreds) of the canopy feeding tortrix caught: Tortrix viridana (easily over 500), Archips podana, Archips xylosteana, Pandemis cerasana and Alemmia loeflingiana. Highlights seen included: Red-necked footman (I think this is now resident in the area), Rosy marbled, Festoon (4), Blotched emerald (13), Bactra robustana, Argyresthia glaucinella, Gypsonoma oppressana and Eucosma campoliliana. Like Matthew, I too caught a Dun-bar, this must be at least a month early! Heart and club and Uncertain coming onto the wing here too. Hawkmoths still really noticeable by their absence, especially Pine which is normally my commonest species – I’ve had one so far. Did get a Privet hawk and 3 Small elephant, the latter being the only species that has been around in numbers here.
2 nice beetles in the trap as well – a male Stag beetle and the scarce dung beetle Odonteus armiger, a small beetle that has a mobile horn in the centre of its head, one I’ve caught in traps here in previous years and there are very few county records for it.
Didn’t trap last night as I was too overwhelmed with the catch from the 9th and needed a night off!
Hopefully the good conditions will continue for a little while longer
Neil
