Down on the Farm

On Wednesday evening I took the opportunity of having another trapping session at a site near Tingewick in northwest Bucks where I've been invited back to repeat a regular survey conducted ten years ago.  This is on a working farm bordered by the River Ouse with some very nice flood-plain meadows, hedgerows and field margins but not really the kind of place one would associate with lots of moths so for the total that night, from three MV lights, to reach 193 species (90 micros and still counting) was quite a pleasant surprise.  There was very little that wouldn't be found in any garden in the county but a small number of wetland species, mostly micros, suggested that it might perhaps be of more interest next month when the more uncommon Wainscots start to fly.  There were certainly more reeds and rushes in the Ouse and in some very nice ponds on site that weren't there ten years ago.  The wetland moths included Orthotelia sparganella (which I haven't seen anywhere for a few years now), Limnaecia phragmitella, Clepsis spectrana, Calamotropha paludella, Chilo phragmitella, all the China-marks and Round-winged Muslin. 

Orthotelia sparganella, Tingewick 21st July

Nymphula nitidulata, Tingewick 21st July

Round-winged Muslin, Tingewick 21st July

Dave Wilton Westcott, Bucks