6th March

Buckle Wood, Chapel Hill

Small Brindled Beauty- Part 1

A recent discovery last year in this wood of Small Brindled Beauty prompted me to mark on the calendar for 2018, a return visit to see if this nationally localised moth was a nearby wanderer or a resident here.
This evening I set out in hope I might see it again. I had to wait patiently for quite some time but true enough it came to light once again. It is pleasing to announce it is here in much greater numbers than the single discovered in 2017. A total of 6 were recorded that night which may be a record for an evening given the data compiled by Vice county recorder Martin Anthoney as of 2015 displaying its flight season on this Blog.

I also had 2 Satellite's and another Spring Usher here which I always enjoy seeing and decided to feature on this post. Dotted Border were most numerous this evening totalling 11.

3 of the 6 Small Brindled Beauty that turned up this evening

 

Spring Usher

 Satellite 

19th February

Llanishen

Conditions this evening were very similar to the night before. With quite mild, murky conditions for the time of year it looked set to be a reasonable night ahead for moths. From my perspective it was good too for the most part until I had to endure a spell of heavy, drizzly rain lasting 35 minutes  which moved steadily over the site half way through the session. It did not seemed to bother the moths too much because out of the night and around the moth trap came 27 moths of 7 species, which was pleasing at a little known site.
New for the year was a single Oak Beauty, which I find takes some time to settle down when it arrives. A really nice large, colourful moth, which has alternative bands involving black speckling on white and a brownish colour which seems to hint towards purple to me in given light.
The highlight probably was Spring Usher here because its a moth that I'm finding difficult to locate in Vice county 35 at the present time even though some of the habitats chosen appear favourable.

Moths top to bottom- Oak Beauty, Spring Usher, March Moth and Dotted Border.

18th February

St. Pierre's Great Wood, Mounton

An misty, murky night with light rain was a little tough going but it seemed worth it as 16 moths of 5 species arrived.

Seen quite a few Pale Brindled Beauty this year, and this species was among them. This time a new dark form turned up, a first for me. It had me puzzled for several minutes, but getting it back, viewing it in my book and online it now makes sense, its the form monacharia, so a nice bonus.

Pale Brindle Beauty with the dark form 'monacharia' on the right

The other moth featured here is the micro Winter Shade, Tortricodes alternella.
An early emerging species that probably gets overlooked as many people tend not to be trapping out in the wilds at this time of year.
It can be quite numerous given the right habitat and indeed I have found it so on several occasions reaching into double figures.
I'm not sure if this maybe a new site for it, but perhaps Sam might be able to enlighten me on this.

Winter Shade- Tortricodes alternella

16th February

Penhow Woodlamds NNR

- An unexpected surprise

An opportunity to get out into the woods this evening produced just 6 moths of 3 species.
There was some cloud around in the vicinity but here on site it remained clear for the most part and the temperature dropped close to a chilly 4c.

The three species that came to the trap included March Moth, Pale Brindled Beauty, (of which I ended up seeing quite a few around during February) and a big surprise Dotted Chestnut looking very fresh and bright.

I had found the Dotted Chestnut here two years ago in this wood at a slightly different location but it is very encouraging to know its status here is pretty much secure and it must be a resident.

29th January

Chapel Hill

Spring Usher ushering in the cold!

A chance outing to the woods near Chapel Hill after some awkward preceding weather over the last few days turned out to be a chilly ending on the 29th January as the evening set in. Clearing skies meant a full moon rose to shine through the trees in its upward arc and temperatures starting to fall.
It was mostly calm as a positive but I felt the full moon and the dipping temperatures would go against me enticing anything to the light trap.
With a thick coat and coffee to hand I sat there and watched more in hope that a moth might pay a visit with the backdrop of Tawny Owls hooting nearby.
The Owls are regular here but they always check in overseeing what I'm up to despite actually seeing me here quite often.
They could see as well as me that absolutely nothing was happening at all. Another coffee I thought as the Owls left on there customary flight around the woodland.

Then near 50 minutes into the trap session a flicker to the left signified a moth. It disappeared but returned and dived into the trap. Then another followed and I got my hands on it, carefully coaxing it into a pot. I left it for some time before it settled to reveal a Spring Usher. Nice one, as I had not seen too many of this species.
Nearly an hour passed and I decided to pack up as my hands were beginning to tingle with the cold, it must have been 5c (I later found out), I was sure I'm not seeing any more moths.
Then as I set the light to one side another moth came in followed by two others within a minute. They must have been waiting near by I reckoned.
After a check they were all Spring Usher's that evening, all 5 of them and I could not help think that these moths are extremely hardy, tough in this cold weather, tougher than me. One good thing that is at their advantage this time of year is very little in the way of predators are around especially bats so a wise evolutionary process going on here for survival me thinks.

 Four of the five Spring Usher's that turned up this cold evening

December 2017-

Deceivingly productive

Many people but not all, have packed away traps by this time of year and resigned themselves to armchairs for the winter months.
There are a select few that continue to search and I have decided to follow suit and keep looking for moths as a experimental project.
I had tried it last year and came up with a few moths and was of the opinion that the mothing season does not grind to a halt completely.
Some moths do overwinter, some emerge even on the much cooler days, and occasionally some moths are found in homes, sheds and outbuildings. All is not entirely dead quiet in the lepidoptera world yet, as one might think.
With December 2017 I continued to trap when possible between adverse weather, albeit with a few missed opportunities and surprisingly came up with figures of 140 moths of 14 species.
I was taken aback by these figures and equally very pleased with the result given the effort I put in plus backing up initial thoughts from 2016.
12 were macro's, some of which fly at this time of year and a few Autumn hanger-on's.
Two of the 14 species seen were overwintering micro's, one of Scarce A category, so it's definitely worth having an eye open even on the milder days.

 The appropriately named Winter Moth, which can be found quite commonly throughout the winter period.

3rd December 2017

Llanishen

A surprisingly productive trapping session at a little known site early in December produced 63 moths of 9 species.
A bit of a 'off-the-cuff' moment to trap here was quite rewarding and quite possibly a timely visit after several frosts.
I had considered the site way back in April but after completely forgetting about it in the frenetic escalating pace of life and fitting in other projects in between it got put back until today, in early December.
It was not until I drove towards it that I decided to have a quick survey to see if it was possible to trap here in the practical sense. It seemed alright but I did not expect much to turn up.

Arriving late afternoon to set up, a steady stream of  moths soon arrived nearly as soon the light got switched on which was encouraging.
Late Autumn and Early Winter moths turned up as expected with Winter Moth (21) and December Moth (32) making up the majority of the 63 total.

Others included a Brick, Feathered Thorn, Mottled Umber, Spruce Carpet, Chestnut, November Moth agg. and most definitely the highlight of the session as it was a first for me, was a Scarce Umber.

Its another moth that is classified as common according to the National UK status.
From my personal perspective I can't say that it is common at all, even though I have put my myself in the correct habitats and only found one so far. Maybe its just bad luck or poor timing in hindsight.
Overall there are scattered records in the county and I suspect it is more likely 'widespread and scattered' and in 'low frequency' in the county but without records to hand I do not know.

An immediate thought comes to mind over the word common used to describe this moth's status.

I don't know anybody else out there but I expect the word common to be used to describe anything in higher frequency numbers at possibly at least 2-5 in number or even more.
I don't want to get into a great debate about this but I find the definition 'common' to be not a true reflection of status at times. I'm finding difficult to understand as it turns up all to often when looking up a moths status.
It's an odd concept because 'Common' could represent 15-20 individuals or just one single moth that turns up in a single Ordinance survey square. Perhaps 'Widespread and frequent' or 'abundant' and 'Widespread and in Low numbers' might tidy things up, who knows.

I'm sure many other 'moth trappers' or even 'birders' (if the same applies) out there will have come across this situation all to often over the years of surveying I suspect.