Finemere Wood, Bucks

Last night it seemed like another good opportunity to try for Clifden Nonpareil at Finemere but unfortunately, once again, there was no sign of the moth.  Two MV lights were run from dusk until just after midnight (longer than the usual three hours) and they caught 120 moths between them - and only the one Hornet!  There were 30 different moth species altogether which seemed to be quite a decent haul for the time of year.  Amongst them were Figure of Eight (4) and Merveille du Jour (3) which I thought were rather early but a check of my own records showed that I've had earlier examples of both species, 14th September (in 2006) for Figure of Eight but only a day earlier for Merveille du Jour (in 2013).  The others comprised Carcina quercana, Blastobasis adustella, Acleris rhombana, Acleris emargana, Celypha lacunana, Epinotia nisella, Epinotia tenerana, Eudonia pallida, Common Marbled Carpet, Red-green Carpet, Light Emerald, Large Yellow Underwing, Lesser Yellow Underwing, Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing, Setaceous Hebrew Character, Green-brindled Crescent, Brindled Green, Deep-brown Dart, Red-line Quaker, Brick, Beaded Chestnut, Lunar Underwing, Barred Sallow, Pink-barred Sallow, Sallow, Chestnut, Straw Dot & Snout.

Figure of Eight, Finemere Wood 26th September

Merveille du Jour, Finemere Wood 26th September

Back home at Westcott the actinic trap in the garden brought in 23 species and they also included a Merveille du Jour so that's one more ticked off the list.  Lunar Underwing (73), Beaded Chestnut (20) and an unexpected burst of activity from Large Yellow Underwing (18) provided the highest counts.  It was nice to see singletons of Bordered Beauty and Small Wainscot amongst the remainder although both looked rather tired.  I haven't seen Small Wainscot here since three appeared in the garden trap back on 9th July.

Small Wainscot, Westcott 26th September

Dave Wilton
Westcott, Bucks