A great night at last

Last night I trapped at Hitchcopse Pit as part of a survey to collect moths for BBOWT's festival of nature wild fair on saturday. I was joined by Martin Harvey and Ian Smith. Originally planned for this evening the weather forecast put me off so I brought it forward to last night. Although it didn't get that cloudy it stayed warm and the list currently stands at an amazing 138 species with a few in pots yet to be identified. There was nothing especially unusual and most species were single individuals with numbers still pretty low and only Heart and Dart, Shoulder-striped Wainscot, Treble Lines and a to be identified gelechid massing any decent number (though still comparatively low in the low-end double figures). We caught all but one of the common resident nocturnal hawkmoths, somehow missing out on a Striped Hawkmoth despite billions been caught elsewhere. Privet Hawkmoth also avoided us but Lime, Poplar, Eyed, Pine, Elephant and Small Elephant all made their presence known. Most interesting was a good crop of migrants including Bordered Straw, Small Mottled Willow, Dark Sword-grass, Rush Veneer, Diamond-back Moth and Silver Y. Was just really good to finally see some moths. The garden trap was marginally better than it has been but still very poor with nothing worth mentioning and numbers still exceptionally low. Marc Botham, Didcot