A warmer night

With the temperature set to stay in double figures overnight I decided to try again in Bernwood Forest yesterday evening.  There was still no sign of Scarce Prominent but it shouldn't be too long before it appears now because I did get my first Swallow and Great Prominents of the year.  Other new species included Dyseriocrania subpurpurella, Semioscopis steinkellneriana, Acleris logiana, Scalloped Hook-tip & Grey Birch.

Semioscopis steinkellneriana, Bernwood 4th April

Acleris logiana, Bernwood 4th April

Scalloped Hook-tip, Bernwood 4th April

Grey Birch, Bernwood 4th April

Great Prominent, Bernwood 4th April

Small Quaker was still the count leader with 493 individuals but they're definitely in decline now.  Rather surprisingly the Frosted Green total came to just two moths.  Having seen 16 fresh individuals there only a week ago, perhaps many of them didn't survive the recent freezing temperatures.  

I had hoped that Acleris logiana would be new to the Bernwood species list but in fact it has been seen there once before, trapped by Peter Hall in July 2018.  This moth is a fairly recent arrival in Bucks (first recorded in the county in 2009) and, while fairly widespread now, is still relatively uncommon with only about 30 sightings altogether.  Having just been preparing a report for the Forestry Commission on last year's trapping at the site I'm fairly well up-to-date with Bernwood's moths and it is very pleasing to see that the cumulative species list since Peter and I started surveying there regularly in 2009 comes to 908 species.  There are previous records of a further 123 species from the site, 109 of them macro-moths of which many will unfortunately be extinct there now, but I'm sure further concentrated effort especially on the micros should be able to push the current list past the 1,000 mark.        

Dave Wilton Westcott, Bucks