A Forester Feast

It was dull and a bit drizzly at lunchtime today so I took the opportunity to go out looking for Foresters.  I find that these green moths aren't very easy to see when they're flying about, as they do in sunshine, but when it is overcast they tend to sit around doing nothing on pink or purple flowers where, once you've got your eye in, they can be very obvious indeed.  Favourite plants today were tufted vetch, red clover, ragged robin and the few knapweed flowers that were already out.

I went first to some private ridge-and-furrow wildflower meadows at Shipton Lee, Bucks alongside the railway line which currently serves the Calvert landfill site.  Not only will this line eventually be refurbished to form a link to the proposed Oxford to Cambridge line that is East-West Rail, but at this point it will also run parallel to HS2.  There has already been a land-grab of part of these lovely meadows by HS2, including what I'd previously considered as the best area for the moth.  However, as I found no less than 40 Foresters today in other areas which can still be checked, there would seem to be nothing to worry about.  That is more individuals just on a single site in one day than I've ever recorded previously in an entire season!  I discovered this particular colony in 2007 and the highest annual count there prior to today was just 15 moths.  Checking each red clover flower head, of which there were thousands, was impossible so there will have been many more Foresters that remained uncounted.

Forester, Shipton Lee 15th June

The second site to be visited was west of Lawn Farm in Charndon, Bucks.  This colony on an even larger complex of private ridge-and-furrow wildflower meadows was a more recent discovery (in 2016, when seven Foresters were seen) and today's visit confirmed that it covers a far wider area than we previously thought.  16 were seen in the field where the colony was originally discovered, but another 19 were found elsewhere, extending the colony into a second kilometre square. 

75 Foresters recorded from just two local sites is unprecedented.  Up until now our local colonies on the clay, of which there are several stretching west into Oxfordshire and mostly along the catchment of the River Ray, have always been considered to be small with sometimes only a single individual recorded in a year.  It might be a bit premature yet to say that the moth is having an excellent season, but if that is the case then hopefully we'll get records from many more sites.  If you see Forester (or its rarer relative Cistus Forester which can be found on chalk downland) then please be sure to pass on the records either to me or to the appropriate CMR as this is a species of particular conservation concern.

Other moth species seen while at these two sites this afternoon included Eucosma cana, Chrysoteuchia culmella, Crambus perlella, Six-spot Burnet, Yellow Shell, Burnet Companion & Silver Y.

Six-spot Burnet, Shipton Lee 15th June

Dave Wilton
Westcott, Bucks