Away trapping

On Monday night I took two MV traps to Oakley Wood in Bernwood Forest, Bucks for three hours from dusk, primarily to get a 2020 record of Clifden Nonpareil at the site.  The moth duly turned up (one to each trap) but there was little else of interest amongst the 35 species caught apart from my first two examples for this year of Figure of Eight.

Figure of Eight, Bernwood 14th September

On Tuesday night I ventured to Stoke Common in the south of the county and was joined there by Martin Albertini and Robin Knill-Jones.  We ran six lights, primarily to check on the populations of Neglected Rustic and Heath Rustic which in VC24 are more or less restricted to this large heathland site, but also to see if another Clifden Nonpareil might turn up after Martin and I had one to light there three years ago.  We struck lucky for all three species.  Neglected Rustic, evenly split between both of its colour forms, was the second most numerous species at the traps after Square-spot Rustic and I had 41 of them to my lights alone.  We got half a dozen Heath Rustics, most of them quite worn although the one illustrated was still fairly well marked.  Finally, as I was packing up one of my lights a Clifden Nonpareil kindly turned up too, so mission accomplished!

Neglected Rustics, Stoke Common 15th September

Heath Rustic, Stoke Common 15th September

Dave Wilton, Westcott Bucks