Spring at last (at least for a day!) on Ffos Las

Saturday 21st April was a beautiful day and I was at last able to walk the full Ffos Las circuit of footpaths albeit minus the dog who is now too creaky in her front legs to manage the distance. The skylarks were singing and the butterflies were on the wing for the first time apart from a couple of small tortoiseshells and peacock seen on odd occasions over the past 2-3 weeks. My tally for the afternoon was: 13 male orange tips, 2 male brimstones, 2 small tortoiseshells, a speckled wood and this pair of green-veined whites.

Last year Ian asked me to keep an eye out for Adela cuprella on the Ffos Las willows, but despite my best efforts, I haven't seen this elusive moth yet but I shall keep looking all the time the pussy willows are in flower.

It appears that spring is now over and we are back to winter again but here's hoping for more bright days soon and balmy nights for all you moth trappers.

Busy Night at Maenol

Plenty of moths around last night in fairly ideal conditions - overcast, mild, and little wind.  Amongst a multitude of the usual suspects: Brindled Beauties, Early Thorns and, of course, Orthosia spp., were the following of particular interest:

Pine Beauty, a first for me;
Great Prominent;
Mottled Grey;
Pebble Hook-tip, a very dark example;
Semioscopis steinkellneriana, the only micro.

             Great Prominent                                     Pine Beauty

            S. Steinkellneriana                                 Mottled Grey

               Pebble Hook-tip

It looks as though the next few nights might provide similarly good opportunities for trapping, but sadly not for me - visitors to entertain.  Good luck everyone!

Cwmllwyd 19 April 2018

Similar to last Saturday - 144 moths of 19 species, with FFYs including Water Carpet, Streamer, Brindled and Double-striped Pugs and a single Red Sword-grass. There were 54 Brindled Beauty(s) this time.

Spring 2018 Newsletter

Check out the Spring 2018 newsletter from Ian in our newsletter section.

A Drab Night

Last night was my first opportunity of the year to light up the MV trap in the alder grove at Cwmllwyd. 155 moths of 20 species were found this morning. More than a quarter of them  (41) were Brindled Beauty(s). 3 Oak Beauty(s) were also found.

I may have added another new site for White-marked to Sam's list:

White Marked

Among the 11 Clouded Drabs counted was this rather spectacularly marked specimen: nothing drab about this one:

Even more exciting (if I've got this right) was a Northern Drab - please correct me if I'm wrong - could be a worthwhile record for the County if it's O.K.:

Thank goodness that Chris had already identified Diurnea fagella in his post; I had two last night but couldn't ID them from the field guides!

Orange underwings

Yesterday morning (Sat 14/4) I had luck in finding orange underwings at a known site near Llanelli. I`d tried two days previously, but as I was driving to the site it clouded over and, although it was still warm (eg buzzards were soaring in the presumed thermals) there was no movement in the birch tops at the rank rhos pasture near Cencoed-uchaf. However, yesterday, two individuals were seen and it seems that the flight season may be later this year due to the delayed spring; it may be worth checking later this coming week when warm and sunny conditions are predicted to prevail.

White-marked at Cnwc

This gorgeously dark White-marked was one of two that appeared at the Cnwc porch light on Thursday night.  It was a good warm night, and the White-markeds were among 17 spp.  There are records of this scarce moth from 14 Carmarthenshire sites, mostly in the north and centre of the county, and it is notably absent from the south-east (sorry Ian).  Carmarthenshire mothing newbie Laura Moss emailed me recently with a photo of a White-marked she caught in her home trap near Llandovery, which is a very welcome new site for the species.  I hope she will be joining us on the Blog soon.