Marc Botham, Didcot
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| Blackneck - Harcourt Arboretum 4/10/19 |
A Blog for moth recorders in Bucks, Berks and Oxon
Sunday, 6 October 2019
Nice selection in Nuneham Courtenay despite a cool night
Trapped at Harcourt Arboretum (VC23) on Friday evening (4th October) in a third and final attempt of the year to secure a record of Clifden Nonpareil for the site, having found it in all the other woodlands I regular trap locally but not here yet: although there is no Aspen there are a few Poplars dotted about. Despite it clearing up and temperatures dropping quite quickly resulting in relatively low numbers of moths, it was a fairly decent night species-wise with several Merveille du Jour and two Clifden Nonpareil among a catch of 34 species. Deep-brown Dart does well at this site and despite low catches of most species they were still in double figures - only Large Yellow Underwing and Lunar Underwing also managed this. Had an example of a second generation Roeslerstammia erxlebella as well as a very unexpected Blackneck. Otherwise everything else was expected.
Marc Botham, Didcot
Marc Botham, Didcot
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I have a vague recollection of trapping at Otmoor with David Redhead and Mike Wilkins late September one year, around about 2006/2007, and second-brood Blackneck was apparently the target after David thought he'd seen one (can't now remember where or when!). So it may not be unprecedented, but we certainly didn't catch one in the traps that night.
ReplyDeleteThanks Dave, that's interesting to know. Potential second broods in September are mentioned in W+T 3rd ed and it is known to be double brooded on continent but never myself seen one this late and certainly wasn't expecting it on what turned out to be a cooler than forecast night with fairly low moth numbers. When the skies cleared up while setting up and the temperature dropped very quickly I thought it was going to be a complete waste of time especially after sitting with the traps for an hour produced less than 10 moths. Perhaps it clouded over for a bit at some point and things picked up. Certainly glad I left the traps out as was contemplating packing them up and having a lie-in instead ;)
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