Friday 23 March 2018

Quaker-fest!

I trapped in Bernwood Forest for the usual three hours last night to check on how the Orthosias had coped with the recent dire weather.  Not too badly, it would seem!  Amongst more than 1,800 moths which came to the two MV lights were Small Quaker (1,048 - of which 894 were in one trap), Lead-coloured Drab (1), Common Quaker (376), Clouded Drab (75), Twin-spotted Quaker (35) & Hebrew Character (6). 


Quaker-fest at Bernwood, 22nd March

Other species caught were Tortricodes alternella (63), Yellow Horned (79), March Moth (32), Shoulder Stripe (1), Early Tooth-striped (3), Small Brindled Beauty (62), Pale Brindled Beauty (1), Oak Beauty (38), Dotted Border (16), Engrailed (1), Red Chestnut (8), Grey Shoulder-knot (1), Early Grey (1), Satellite (20) & Chestnut (22).


Early Tooth-striped, Bernwood 22nd March

Early Grey, Bernwood 22nd March

Dave Wilton
Westcott, Bucks   
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3 comments:

  1. Steve Trigg23 March 2018 at 16:15

    Blimey Dave, that is a hell of a lot of moths to count! Are you doing it in situ by torchlight, or are you bringing the traps home and counting them up the next morning? I find just coping with a couple of hundred moths pretty hard work.

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    1. Dave Wilton23 March 2018 at 21:26

      Agreed, it can take a lot of time, as some of my compatriots who prefer not to count but just take the easy way out and say "present" will tell you - I'm quite often the last to leave a site! I have been known to take a trap home and do the count at my leisure the following day but that's if I've got the time and inclination to take the moths back afterwards to where they were caught. Doing it in situ by torchlight you just have to accept that any large counts for particular species will be a minimum rather than exact, but I feel that's more informative than just saying "present". Generally speaking, on a given night it is only maybe two or three species which will produce these big numbers so I scan the egg-boxes for everything else first. It is all part of the fun!!

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  2. Lorna23 March 2018 at 16:26

    Wow what an amazing amount of moths!! Wonderful to see.

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