Away trapping

I've been to my "locals" a few times already (Bernwood Forest and Finemere Wood) but last night, with some cloud cover at last and the temperature expected to hold up in double digits prior to rain arriving after midnight, I thought I'd make a start on visiting the half dozen or so other sites in Bucks at which I have made arrangements for regular trapping this year.  A couple of them are small areas of woodland in Aylesbury Vale, located in what is otherwise arable desert (and as a result quite under-recorded so far as invertebrates are concerned).  One such site near Granborough received its first three-hour session last night and, as always, it was a pleasure to go to somewhere new even though I wasn't expecting much!  Two MV traps were run underneath several really old oaks surrounded by blackthorn scrub and just short of 200 moths of 21 species put in an appearance, which was quite acceptable in the circumstances.  There were no surprises and the bulk of the count was made up by Small Quaker (78), Common Quaker (32) and other Orthosias, but new for me this year were Dyseriocrania subpurpurella, Frosted Green & Shuttle-shaped Dart.     

Dyseriocrania subpurpurella, Granborough 9th April

Frosted Green, Granborough 9th April

Shuttle-shaped Dart, Granborough 9th April

Dave Wilton Westcott, Bucks