Grangelands July 24th

The weather forecast was good, mild with little or no wind and dry and it is now the time when the re-discovered plume Oxyptilus pilosellae is out and about, so I contacted the National Plume expert Colin Hart and together with Martin Albertini, we decided to give it a go on Sunday. We arrived to strong gusty winds and drizzle, which persisted for much of the 3 hour session leaving us rather wet by the end. With a bit of searching we managed to find some shelter, although each trap was still subject to gusts of wind and the almost relentless light drizzle. As such it was rather quiet for the time of year. We ran 8 traps in total. I'm still waiting for Colin's list, but at the moment we have a list of 131 species split between 91 macros and 40 micros. Most frequent was Small Fan-footed Wave, followed by the Coronet and close behind Eudonia lacustrata. Specialists were Juniper Pug and a single Chalk Carpet. Nice to see were: Scarlet Tiger, Square-spotted Clay, Privet Hawk, Oncocera semirubella and Sycamore. Peter Hall & Martin Albertini

Grangelands: Chalk Carpet