Cnwc porch light

17 species appeared at the Cnwc porch light on the night of 23/3, including a Yellow Horned. It's encouraging to see good numbers of Early Grey, Hebrew Character, Shoulder-stripe, Twin-spot Quaker etc. after all the early emergences of February.

21/3 - foggy Bancyffordd

I was pleased to find more moths in the trap than I did on Tuesday despite thick fog. More than 50 individuals with my first Oak Beauties of the year. I failed to get the Brindled Beauty that Chris trapped but had a single Pale Brindled Beauty instead having already had this species back in the Feb. heat wave. A single Red Sword-grass was a new species for me.

Recent Activity at Maenol

Traps were set on Tuesday night and last night, both rather damp affairs, the returns were modest and only 13 species were recorded over the two nights.  Apart from the Quaker clan, they were March Moth, Dotted Border, Oak and Brindled Beauties, Red Chestnut, Early Grey, Grey Shoulder-knot, and one micro, Agonopterix heracliana. A solitary Brindled Beauty this morning was the only one I've seen this year.  Oak Beauties have been more abundant.

This Morning's Beauties 

Bancyffordd 19/3 - murky night

Got back from the pub, where I participated in a quiz team that struggled to finish in last place (no questions on moths to fox everyone), and emptied the MV trap. Usual suspects for this time of the year. This morning I emptied the trap again. 13 Hebrew character is nothing special, however none was in the trap at 2300hrs. 8 species in total  with a single Pale Pinion being the most notable species, record shot below.

Search facility

Hi all
we have now added a search facility to the blogsite. If you want to search how many posts for a certain moth (e.g.) just add it to the panel above.  Give it a try!

Back trapping...

After quite a long spell of non-trapping due to bad weather and other factors, out went one garden actinic last night (18/3). Only nine species of the usual mid-late March moth assemblage were present, but a second grey shoulder-knot of the year was nice compensation.

                                              Above: grey shoulder-knot, Stradey, Llanelli.

Just testing...

The first operational use of the `Morgan Mk 1` moth shelter was undertaken last night (1st March) and it certainly performed satisfactorily, keeping both the trap and the moths dry in the breezy drizzle. The slope of the cover is orientated to face the wind/rain. Only nine resident species were caught however, though with oak beauties in increasing numbers.
In the field (or even the garden), four bamboo sticks, a clear plastic sheet and some string should do the same job of providing shelter from the rain.