Thursday 3 September 2020

Blue Wednesday

With a much warmer night finally forecast I trapped at Bagley Wood (VC22) with Martin Harvey last night as well as leaving a couple of traps out as I normally do when surveying there. My first trap positioning resulted in over a hundred hornets in the first hour, so that had to be shut down and moved. Before that though we did have a Clifden Nonpareil which made up for what was an otherwise fairly disappointing night for moths with very little activity despite the warm, cloudy conditions. Oak Lutestring was one of the main targets and put in an appearance with 5 individuals, making it the most abundant moth in the trap! Overnight traps checked this morning were considerably better, but still not fantastic, with Oak Lutestring in double figures, but perhaps more amazingly 5 Clifden Nonpareils (4 in one trap, one in the other which was also had a much darker ground colour than the others). The garden trap continues to be uninspiring while I read with green eyes glowing of some of the recent catches down in the south-west.

Marc Botham, Didcot 


Clifden Nonpareils, Bagley Wood, 02/09/20

Oak Lutestring, Bagley Wood, 02/09/20


2 comments:

  1. Totally agree with your last sentence! Still, if one Oleander can make it into a Cornish trap I'm sure there must be others which managed to cross the Channel with it...

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  2. Stranger things have happened - Silver-striped Hawkmoth, Cosmopolitan ;). But yes, Oleander, 2 Convolvulus and 2 Scar bank Gems all at once is insane! I've not had a good year for migrants in garden this year, but there is still plenty of time

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