Wednesday, 24 June 2015

Clear success

After seeing the Clearwing posts I decided to take the day off work and get my lures out and went to Howe Park Wood. I sat in the meadow by a small clump of bird's-foot Trefoil and waited and waited.......for no longer than 20seconds before 2 Six-belted Clearwings were flying around the lure.
Six-belted Clearwing, Howe Park Wood
Loads of Burnet Companions, Yellowshell, Silver Y,  Nettle-tap and Nemophora degeerella were also seen. Black Hairstreak though, wasn't!

Darren Seaman, Milton Keynes.

2 comments:

  1. I still have this Clearwing if you want it Peter Hall?

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  2. Excellent, Darren - Six-belted is one of the best lures to get started with because the moth does indeed turn up in seconds if it is around and it gives you confidence that they do indeed work. I'm sure there will be other parks around MK where there's plenty of bird's-foot trefoil (a place that might be worth looking at is Waterhall Park, Water Eaton where there's also a Chimney Sweeper colony).

    The other species can take a bit more time and effort so a good place to start is your own garden. On a sunny day when it is not too breezy and you've got an hour to spare, hang up a couple of the lures and sit back with a beer to watch what happens - probably nothing, but you never know! Of the rarer species, the only Bucks record for Sallow Clearwing (supposedly only flies in even years) is from Willen Lake while the only Bucks records for Red-tipped Clearwing are from Emberton Country Park.

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