Well I can’t compete with the moth numbers nor species that some of you guys get, but in my second summer in East End, I have been pleased to add some very pretty moths to my garden list – various sallows, black rustics, lots beaded chestnuts, green-brindled crescents, brown-spot pinion, brindled green, large & feathered ranunculus. Responding to Neil’s question, I have trapped two large wainscots this week, another new moth to me.
Liz 08/10/13
Ran some traps last night after being put off from trapping here on Sunday night as the temperature really plummeted at dusk under the clear skies on the 6th. Still a nice selection of autumnal species around with the addition of a tiny sprinkling of migrants – 1 Male Vestal and 3 Nomophila noctuella. Seems to be a lot of Merveille du jour here this year with 4 caught, plus another seen on Ivy last night as well. Undoubted highlight though was my second ever Dotted chestnut after my first the other night on Ivy, this one was in my garden trap. Maybe it is colonizing. Hope it hasn’t tried to breed in some of the gardens surrounding my house as the trees in them are currently being felled to make way for a new housing development. I do have Apple trees in my garden so maybe they are using those. One to watch out for by the look of it at other sites.
I too saw Streak for the first time last night, also Diurnea lipsiella. Apart from those it was the usual nice selection of sallows, Red-green carpets and autumnal quakers. First Satellite on the Ivy last night too.
Has anyone been seeing Large wainscot? I’ve had none here at all so far this year, normally a regular moth.
Looks like tonight is the last warm night for a while so I’ll be making the most of it, not looking forward to the colder weather predicted for a few days after that, will it kill off the migration like I suspect it may?
Neil
Migrants still flooding in to the Bawdsey Hall Coastal Station; though I suspect they will slow with the onset of cooler nights later this week.
It has been more of the same the last few nights with Vestal, Pearly Underwing, Dark Sword-grass, Delicate and Scarce Bordered Straw all regular. The quadra influx seems to have stalled here.
The highlight last night (7th) was a Clancy’s Rustic – a species that was probably resident 6 – 7 years ago but has now reverted to being a rare migrant in Suffolk.
Interesting resident species have included Streak on 7th October. I have also seen the first Green-brindled Crescent, Flounced Chestnut and Dark Chestnut of the autumn in recent nights. Several Pale Pinion have been trapped but still no Tawny here this year.
Merveille du Jour along with Barred Sallow, Sallow and Pink-barred Sallow still adding colour to the catches. A Red Underwing was caught on an external wall of the Hall on 7th.
It seems that tonight is going to be the last of the ‘mild’ nights. Didn’t feel very mild here over last couple of nights, but the moths have been coming to light (though not always actually into the moth trap). Vestal numbers over the last five nights: 25 (ie 3:8:4:8:2). Only one of these was of the pink-striped form, and only two of them were actually in the trap.
Last night’s star turn was a very pretty Palpita vitrealis. Two rush veneers and a pale mottled willow were the only other passport-holders. Otherwise, resident autumn species, including scarce things (for me) like flounced chestnut and feathered ranunculus, and the first November moth.
Seventeen species tonight, a few short of our best, but a couple of belters. Tony had taken a Tawny Pinion off the patch in his lane, but this was well and truly trumped by the three Vestals we had in Lower Street later on. Eleven Dark Sword-grass added to the migrant flavour.
I’ve been checking the Ivy patch at home regularly since it came into flower and up until the night of the 4th it has been fairly quiet. Even the warm stormy night of the 3rd only brought in 11 moths of 6 species. Went out to check at around 8.30p.m. on the 4th and the first moth spotted on the blooms was a Dotted chestnut, a new moth for the site as well as the first one I’ve actually recorded myself anywhere! What a surprise, I couldn’t believe my eyes! A quick check of other flowers revealed the patch was absolutely covered in moths, so a quick dash back inside the house to collect more pots and my notebook then I was back out counting what was there. Thought it might be of interest to produce the full list below.
Dotted chestnut – 1
Chestnut – 55
Yellow-line quaker – 12
Barred sallow – 7
Pink-barred sallow – 7
Angle shades – 7
Square-spot rustic – 2
Lesser yellow underwing – 4
Large yellow underwing – 4
L-Album wainscot – 6
Large ranunculus – 1
Autumnal rustic – 1
Pine carpet – 2
E. monodactyla – 1
Red-green carpet – 3
Feathered ranunculus – 1
Lunar underwing – 1
Dark chestnut – 1
Grey shoulder knot – 1
Green brindled crescent – 1
Dusky-lemon sallow – 1 (first site record of one on Ivy here, a quite yellow example that had me scratching my head for a short while)
21 species recorded, think that’s my highest species count in one night on the Ivy here with some real quality species. As I said in my previous blog, I wonder whether the rain has brought the moths out?
Now going out to check the patch again to see if I can add to the Ivy species total here, maybe with a Crimson speckled?
Neil
After worrying about a general lack of moths in both my traps and on my Ivy patch at IGC at the end of September, the beginning of October has brought in a welcome change with good numbers of moths seen. Yes, there have been warm conditions with southerly winds that have resulted in some migrants appearing, but I wonder whether with the resident species the spell of rain we had caused them to emerge. Before it came I wasn’t really seeing too many sallow moths, but now there are plenty!
I’ll report on the migrant moths first that have turned up here in the last few days. The first hint that things were getting going for me was turning over a egg carton on the 2nd at the work-shed MV trap and finding a Convolvulus hawk sitting there, making the Large yellow underwing next to it look tiny! Only my second site record (first in that other great migration year 2006). On the stormy night of the 3rd, I caught 2 male Four-spotted footman in the work-shed trap, the first record for the site. Pleased to get this species as I missed out on the invasion in 2006 as I was on holiday in Hungary at that time. I caught another male on the 4th in my garden MV trap. Also on the 4th, in the work-shed trap I caught 4 Vestal. Searched carefully around the trap that morning but didn’t find any at rest in surrounding vegetation, they were all on or in the trap. Also had the odd scatter of the common migrants like Silver Y, Rush veneer, Plutella xylostella. Seeing how many migrants have been turning up around the country in recent days, does make you wonder how many millions of them have actually come over if the small sample of our moth traps are picking up good numbers?
Resident species appearing have included: Deep-brown dart (2 on 2nd only ones so far), Flounced chestnut (2 so far), Merveille du jour (now regular), L-Album wainscot (again regular now), Beaded chestnut (first for year, a dark one 3rd), Red-line quaker (now regular), Agonopterix umbellana (3rd), Lunar underwing (numbers have increased on these warm nights), Mallow, Green-brindled crescent, Red-green carpet (high count of 20 in garden trap on 4th), Barred sallow (high count of 12 on 4th in garden trap), Large ranunculus and Orange sallow (1 on 4th).
I’ll report on the Ivy searching results in my next blog post.
Should be a few more nights of decent weather before things change midweek with north winds and a significant drop in temperature forecast.
Neil
For those interested in migrants, the totals at Bawdsey Hall last night were: 5 Diamond-back Moth, 1 Rusty-dot Pearl, 27 Rush Veneer, 1 Palpita vitrealis, 14 Vestal, 2 male Gem, 1 male Convolvulus Hawk-moth, 4 Four-spotted Footman (1 female), 24 Dark Sword-grass, 2 Dusky-lemon Sallow, 1 Small Mottled Willow, 17 Scarce Bordered Straw, 37 Silver Y and 1 Dewick’s Plusia!
John & Jenny came across from Royston last minute and brought additional traps. It was an interesting distribution of migrants across the traps, with some having multiple Vestals and Armigera and other traps devoid of migrants.
The Vestal total is by far a record single night count for here (never had more than two in a night before and only had 7 in the last ten years at Bawdsey!).
Scarce Bordered Straw was almost a record (my highest is 18 on 17th October 2006).
Very exciting times indeed for the migrant hunter and the weather looks good for the next ten days 
An interesting night last night. Cooler evening, clear at first, but cloudy and milder late on. Wind SW, not as strong as last night. Result: another 8 vestals. Making 11 over the two nights. Has anyone else recorded so many in one night? I tend to agree with Matthew that the vestal may be a high flier, missing many coastal sites and MV traps, but descending after a few miles. Another interesting thing about my gang of vestals was that only two were actually in the trap – the rest were on grass stems etc, up to 10m away (downwind). I think that they arrived late in the night, but the wind was a brisk SW (so where were they from? I don’t think they’d been sitting around since last night). All of them were brown striped or with a very slight pink tinge.
The only other migrant was a single rush veneer. Not many other goodies either except a couple of merveille du jour.
On the 2nd a male and female Gem were a nice catch, but outshone I feel, by a specimen of Epinotia maculana which seems to be scarcely recorded in Suffolk, with an odd one in the west and the rest in the south, from a trap that produced only a handful of moths on the night. The most abundant moth was Blair’s Shoulder-knot with 31. I also had 2 Feathered Ranunculus, which are quite unusual up here. 42 species total.
Last night held great promise but I hurried away three largely empty traps as the thunder and rain came after midnight leaving one out under the large umbrella of a topped conifer. What a warm night! The single trap was alive with insects and among the Crane-fly orgy and nearly 100 Lace-wings were several moths in 32 species with only a Vestal to speak of. Rather disappointing in light of the huge onslaught of migrants being caught at this time, but still appreciated.
Planning a trapping and Ivy search night at Flixton on the Somerleyton Estate Sunday. Meanwhile, no doubt will carry on trapping at home ’til then.
