MOTHING MADNESS

A warm night on Monday 14th provided ideal conditions for moth activity so two traps were put out at the country park. It wasn't just the variety of moths that was interesting but the sheer number of other insects also on the wing.

The main attractions were the hawkmoths and especially the first pine hawkmoths of the year. Three were found in the trap in the morning and this is one of them pictured above, resting on a signboard-post in the car park. This large hawkmoth was discovered late in the afternoon and had presumably spent the day resting on the post, hoping no predator would spot it until night-fall.

The other hawkmoths caught were 6 elephant hawks, 3 poplar hawks and one privet hawk. Other eye-catching moths included a couple of leopards, 3 drinkers, 2 common lackeys, 10 buff arches, early thorn, pebble prominent, maple prominent, brown-tail, yellow-tail, common emerald, lunar-spotted pinion, poplar grey, dun-bar and latticed heath. Around 65 species of macro moths were identified - worth missing out on a good night's sleep for!

Realising the conditions were ideal for moth trapping, the Skinner trap pictured above was set up in a corner of the park and powered by a small generator. Switched on at 10pm it was checked at various times until 1am when I retired to bed. However the alarm was set for 4am just before dawn, to inspect the trap before the moths dispersed in the daylight and also to get there before the blackbirds, crows, jays and robins find the traps. The resident rabbits were very confused by the bright lights shining over their feeding grounds during the night.

One of the less common moths at the park here is this white-satin moth, with its satin-like appearance to the wings and its black and white striped legs.

The Gardiner trap with its see-through perspex sides, allows you to see the moths inside the trap. It is very effective at luring the moths across the ground and there are plenty of moths who decide not to go into the trap and drop onto the grass 5 - 10 metres short. Across both traps the commonest moth was the dark arches with about 200 seen, also lots of large yellow underwings, lesser yellow underwings and the light arches too.

It may've taken only half an hour to set both traps up but checking them in the morning, brushing the insects off them and then dismantling them, took well over 2 hours! Masses of small grass moths were everywhere, the first big night this summer.

It was fascinating to see the huge numbers of other insects drawn into the trap with hundreds of tiny water beetles like whirligigs, also masses of small water boatmen, ground beetles, scavenger beetles, wood lice, summer chafers, green shield bug, harlequin ladybird, caddisfly, lacewings etc.

The local pipistrelle bats were having a feast of the insects as at least four were regularly swooping low over the traps for their evening snacks.

Birds of interest noted during Tuesday were 25 black-tailed godwits roosting on the saltmarsh pools near the Point. Martin Cock saw 2 well marked ruff on the Reeveshall pool in the afternoon, with a green sandpiper the only other bird of note there.