This moth, however, turned up on my porch light, which is unusual in itself. Not all that unusual for most of you, I imagine, but, in around a decade of trapping, it's the first time I have ever seen this species.
Talking to Richard Ellis, who also lives in Chorleywood, VC 24, I was told he reckons to catch one in around every three years. My impression is that some contributors on here see it more often, or am I wrong about that?
Here in North Oxfordshire I seem to get 1 or 2 each year.
ReplyDelete2016 2 in October, 2017 1 in January, 2018 2 in November, 2019 1 in February (so far?).
Far from common and there are several mature oaks a few hundred yards from where I run the trap.
Hi both, there's a shortage of oaks in my immediate vicinity here in Westcott (just the one juvenile tree a couple of gardens away and one or two more mature examples in field hedgerows elsewhere in the village, otherwise the nearest oak woodland is about a mile away). That doesn't seem to stop me getting many of the oak-feeding species, though. Grey Shoulder-knot is a regular here both before and after hibernation and this spring it seems to be doing particularly well because I've had eight of them so far, including three together a couple of nights ago (the most I've ever had to light at any one time). For what it is worth, here are some figures for the garden for this decade:
ReplyDelete2010 spring 3, autumn 3
2011 spring 1, autumn 2
2012 spring 1, autumn 3
2013 spring 1, autumn 6
2014 spring 0, autumn 2
2015 spring 3, autumn 7
2016 spring 1, autumn 1
2017 spring 3, autumn 3
2018 spring 0, autumn 5
Thanks for your replies, chaps. Interesting results from you. There's a fair bit of oak around in Chorleywood, including some mature specimens near me, although only one small tree and several saplings in my back garden. Of course, I don't trap in my back garden regularly any more, but I do run lights elsewhere, including oak woodlands. So, perhaps a patchy distribution, and not all that common, but a bit difficult to draw any strong conclusions.
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