Last night was too good an evening to miss – no wind and relatively mild, though drizzly. Not that there was very much about (4 species), but it was still interesting: 4 sprawler, 2 rusty-dot pearl, 4 December moth, an angle shades and a feathered thorn.
No winter moth yet (has anyone seen any?). Also, I’ve caught two female December moths – I usually only get males.
With all the recent poor weather I’ve not bothered to run a moth trap at all so far in November but gave it a go last night in the garden as it was cloudy and slightly milder. A check after the trap had been running for 3 hours revealed a single November moth, so I packed it away!
May try again tonight in a more wooded area on the site, may be the last chance for a while with arctic conditions forecast for next week.
Neil
Here’s an odd one and suggestions or positive id please. My taxidermist friend John Burton had a phone call regarding a Goldfinch which unfortunately died colliding with a window. The bird put to one side was collected two or three hours later, there were feathers coming off the dead bird revealing underneath two ‘caterpillars’ burrowing into the flesh. A day or two later someone brought in for John a Tawny Owl casualty which had been preserved in the freezer, examining the bird another ‘caterpillar’ same as on the Goldfinch fell out dead. The larvae are around an inch long, very dark brown and smooth skinned. I haven’t seen them but he has kept the dead Goldfinch in an aerated container with the larvae and is watching what happens! He has never ever seen these larvae before during many years of his craft.
Not trapped here yet in November, my last trap session was on the 31st October when I had 16sp with pretty much the expected species like Streak, Feathered thorn, Red-green carpet, Barred sallow appearing. Chestnut numbers have dropped with only 1 seen, probably as they have gone into hibernation now. No migrants for me.
Did see a Diurnea lipsiella in flight today, so it hasn’t been a blank month! I’ll wait for a warmer less windy night here before trying a trap again.
Neil
I have only run the lights for the past two nights (3rd and 4th) as I’ve been away on a trip to Scotland.
Quite a reasonable selection of moths are still flying at Bawdsey including Epiphyas postvittana, Acleris sparsana, Emmelina monodactyla and Crocidosema plebejana – some of the latter may well be immigrants.
Macros have included Red-green Carpet, November Moth, Large Yellow Underwing, Black Rustic, Setaceous Hebrew Character, Grey Shoulder-knot, Green-brindled Crescent, Merveille du Jour, Satellite, Chestnut, Dark Chestnut, Brick, Red-line Quaker, Yellow-line Quaker, Beaded Chestnut, Angle Shades and Large Wainscot.
A few migrants have arrived with the 3rd being a particularly good night; despite all the rain. Diamond-back Moth, Rusty-dot Pearl, Rush Veneer and Silver Y have arrived in small numbers. A high count of fifteen Dark Sword-grass on 3rd was notable this late in the season as was a single Palpita vitrealis light-trapped the same night.
I’ve had no further December Moths – since the early one I caught on 21st October. I have yet to see Feathered Thorn this month but did catch them right at the end of October and suspect they are still around. Hoping the next few weeks will bring Mottled Umber, Scarce Umber, Winter Moth or Sprawler here and always the chance of Dotted Chestnut, Red-headed Chestnut or Red Sword-grass – all of which have appeared at Bawdsey in Novembers gone by.
Readers may also be interested to know that all the Dewick’s Plusia larvae have now pupated. The gravid female was trapped here on 4th October.
Kicked up another rusty-dot pearl from the lawn today. If it weren’t for the wind, rain and cold it might be worth putting out a moth trap again.
After the windy/cool week, and with more of the same forecast, I put an MV on last night to see what was about. Turned out to be a mild night with only a slight breeze. 15 moth species, including Large wainscot, red-green carpet, several feathered thorns and November moths and a worn setaceous hebrew character. Main interest was the first rusty-dot pearl of the year, a dark sword-grass and a silver y. So there are a few migrants out there. I hope the power is back on at Bawdsey!
After reading about Neil’s difficulties with the data entry I felt rather guilty at asking Matthew to enter my data for me so thought I ought to try it myself. I did not have the problems experienced by Neil. However I would add a few comments and advice.
I have a relatively fast broadband connection. My browser is Firefox.
Submit the basic information prior to any species records to ensure that is acceptable.
I entered my data in batches, marked up on an excel sheet in a window on my desktop visible along with the web site entry form. This meant I knew exactly which species I had added since once 123 species had been added the web site no longer displayed further entries through my browser, though they had been accepted. Provided you fill in all the blocks for the first species in a batch the data is copied for the next species. If you don’t it is very tedious filling in every box separately. I ran down my species names in a batch and then ran down the numbers found. If you decide to do it all in one batch it might still be wise to start with one small batch to check all is OK. Hope it goes well.
OK so I have to edit my comments. Yes there was a problem. No records accepted above 123! Am now submitting a second page for the same date for the remaining species. Could be a browser issue? Don’t know but they couldn’t find any of my records above the 123 count.
St. Jude’s storm has wiped out the power to the whole of the Bawdsey Peninsula so there were no lights on last night (28th) 
I didn’t run the previous night (27th) due to the strong winds but did record on the 26th October – noting a Juniper Carpet - an unexpected addition to the Hall list.
I’m told it could take three days to restore power! For those of you lucky enough to have power (50,000 homes still don’t across large swathes of Suffolk) then think of all those migrants you can catch with far fewer competing lights!
Turns out the superb recording I’ve had this year on my Ivy patch in the garden has turned out to be its swansong. The gale-force winds wiped it out this morning, with the Birch tree that supported it toppling over:(
Amazing the devastation 45 minutes of strong wind this morning has caused around the golf course. Quite a few trees have been blown over or badly damaged, no species have been spared with Oaks, Birch, Poplars, Pines and Sycamores all flattened. Be interesting to see if this affects moth populations next year.
Neil
