Last Saturday (13th) I went to BBOWT's Grangelands nature reserve near Cadsden, Bucks but had to sit there in the car until just after 10pm waiting for a thunderstorm to move on. The rain had also brought the temperature down lower than forecast so there was a reduced showing of micros, but I still managed to get more than 100 species between two MV traps. Small Elephant Hawk-moth, Heart & Dart, Shears & Reddish Light Arches were around in some numbers, as you'd expect on chalk grassland, while it was good to see species such as Elachista biatomella, Hypochalcia ahenella, Pretty Chalk Carpet, Shaded Pug, Haworth's Pug, Shark & Marbled Coronet which are also typical of that habitat. It was also nice to get Little Emerald, while a Lappet appeared at one of the traps (the second year running I've had one at the site), but otherwise it was just a long list of the usual suspects.
On Tuesday night (16th) I ran two lights in Bernwood Forest (FC), having aborted a visit there the previous evening due to thunderstorms. Thankfully it stayed dry even though there were more storms about that night too. Once again, two MV lights were run. I didn't see Common Fan-foot (possibly too late for it in this very early year, but I wasn't in the best area to find it anyway) although I did get Small Black Arches which is another of Bernwood's specialities. There was plenty of colour amongst the remainder, particularly from Orange Moth, Rosy Footman and Scarlet Tiger. Micros were way out in front when it came to numbers, with Tortrix viridana (150+), Archips xylosteana (130+) & Archips crataegana (20+) providing the largest numbers. Unexpectedly, the highest total provided by a macro species was Lackey (91 between the two lights), with Small Dotted Buff (24) the runner-up.
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| Orange Moth, Bernwood 16th June |
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| Rosy Footman, Bernwood 16th June |
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| Small Black Arches, Bernwood 16th June |
Westcott, Bucks
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