MOTHING FRENZY

The moths at Cudmore Grove Country Park must've felt very confused on the night of Tuesday 22nd. Eighteen members of the Essex Moth Group descended on the park and like the moths that night, they had a choice of eight moth lamps in a variety of different spots to flutter round.

The weather conditions were perfect for insects to take to the air, as there was no wind, there was also good cloud cover and it was very warm and muggy. It was just as well that some of the very knowledgeable veteran Essex moth enthusiasts such as Don Down, Joe Firmin and Ian Rose were on the scene, as there were many micro-moths that needed identifying.

The visiting moth enthusiasts enjoyed a very rewarding evening, admiring a bumper variety of insects. This has been in stark contrast to a generally disappointing season in the county for moth-trapping, mainly due to the poor weather. Following the departure of everyone at midnight, I kept my two lamps going until dawn at 4.30am, when both traps were inspected and emptied.

This stunning creature was resting inside one of the traps at dawn, the garden tiger moth. At rest this large moth shows only the bold black-brown markings on its forewings but when it's disturbed, it flashes the bright orange hind-wings, marked with blackish-blue spots and tiger stripes. A once common moth throughout the county, numbers have dropped sharply in recent years. This individual is the first record for the park.

One of the largest moths seen was the oak eggar, this female was one of two noted. Other big moths included 2 pine hawkmoths in the first part of the night, while by dawn an elephant hawkmoth and 6 poplar hawks were found in one of the traps.

Also discovered at dawn was this herald moth, pictured above, a widespread moth in the county, although the only previous sighting at the park was one found resting one day inside the park's toilet building a few years ago. This individual wanted to hold its wings at a different angle to most other moths when at rest. On a flat surface it tilted its wings at an angle, whilst in the picture above, it turned to face downwards but holding its wings away from the tree, presumably to appear like some loose bark.

This iron prominent pictured above, is another widespread moth. Close-up it has some wonderful iron-red markings on its wings and also a small tuft along its back, giving the moth its name.

Between the eight traps, around 90 species of the larger macro-moths were identified with a possible 20 species of the micro-moths seen too. One of the more unusual moths seen was the archers dart, a coastal moth which has been found on the park before, but was the first time some of the members had seen one.

Amongst the other moths found were, leopard, reed dagger, pug-V, buff arches, ruby tiger, peppered, oak hook-tip, mouse, bird's wing, pale prominent, pebble prominent, copper underwing, lackey, least carpet, small blood-vein, fen wainscot, lunar-spotted pinion, small scallop and lots of dark arches and dusky sallows.

Amongst the other insects noted were two of the very big and scarce silver diving beetles. Also the bulky dor beetle was found inside one trap, while several summer chafers were attracted in by the lights.

It has been quiet on the bird front recently although a barn owl was seen flying over the East Mersea Road near the pub at dusk on Wednesday. At Maydays Farm on Wednesday Martin Cock saw 3 young marsh harriers flying around over Reeveshall, also greenshank, whimbrel and 10 yellow wagtails. The following day he saw 5 green sandpipers on the Reeveshall pool.