Despite Clifden Nonpareil becoming considerably less scarce (witness recent items on this blog), Ayla Webb and I were astonished and hugely excited to find two in my small actinic battery-operated trap in Little Linford Wood on the early morning of 6th September. It only has six small egg boxes, though on this morning 120 moths were present. During my study since May 2018 there has been little sign of unexpected 'visitors', so the presence of two Clifden Nonpareil suggests it is now a local breeder. For those of you who rarely visit the north of Buckinghamshire, Little Linford Wood is primarily a modest-sized Oak wood, but with very few ancient trees. Of possible relevance to this sighting, while I'm not aware of Aspen (the favoured food-plant of this moth) in the immediate area of the wood in which I site the trap, there is a decent amount in the southern section which has grown up since the area was felled in the 1980s.
Andy Harding
These days I don't think the closeness to the food-plant ought necessarily to affect the chances of anyone in our area from seeing these fantastic moths. They are powerful flyers and their numbers seem to have built up to such an extent that they really could turn up anywhere now. If you haven't seen one yet, persevere - I'm sure you will eventually! They ought to be flying for another month yet. We had another larval record in Bucks this year, from a housing estate on the edge of Aylesbury which doesn't strike one as being typical breeding territory!
ReplyDeleteLast night at Westcott I was lucky enough to get three adults, one inside the MV and the other two found resting on a house wall & on garden furniture adjacent to the actinic. We have poplar nearby but the closest aspen is a good mile or more away.