Abercregan actinic last night (SS8497)

                                      Early thorn.
                                      Also - Mottled grey 1, Clouded drab 4, DS pug 1,
                                                Twin spotted quaker 2, Common quaker 6,
                                                Small engrailed 1, Small quaker 1 and an
                                                Early tooth-striped.

Cwmbach GMS

A chilly (2.90C) night, so a small catch, but some nice species. Eight species were recorded, of which Pine Beauty was a non GMS species. The others were my first Brindled Beauty and Lunar Marbled Brown of the year, plus Small Quaker, Common Quaker, Hebrew Character, Early Grey and The Satellite.

Rhoose Point 28/3

I'm not entirely sure what this one is. Possibly an Indian Meal Moth? Grateful if anyone can confirm! Despite the photo it has a bronze metallic sheen.














Also Mompha propinquella and an unusually light coloured Hebrew Character

Trealaw

A single Twin-spotted Quaker at rest this morning.

Llangynwyd

One Green veined white butterfly on the wing yesterday.

Oranges again

Casehill Woods, Dinas Powys this evening - Orange Underwing new for ST17.

They were much more sparse here than in some areas north of Cardiff - 4 were seen in about an hour of searching, compared with 10-15 flying together in Greenmeadow Wood (Tongwynlais) last week.

Also 5 Commas.

Penygraig

Two Garden Tiger larvae in the garden this evening. A Brimstone (butterfly) on the wing in Treforest on 23 March too.

Coed Cae Pica

New species for the year on March 24th & 26th: Shoulder Stripe, March Moth, Powdered Quaker (1st site record), Brindled Pug and Early Tooth-striped.

Also a Comma butterfly in the garden this am.

Llandaff North new species

21-26th March, new species for the year in the garden MV: Double-striped Pug, Small Quaker, Brindled Beauty, Early Thorn, White-shouldered House moth, Leek moth, Twenty-plumed moth and Epermenia chaerophylella.

Also two Holly Blues in Swansea yesterday, including one in the BC office yard.

Oxwich etc.

2 Orange Underwings and 1 Small Tortoiseshell at Oxwich today.
Yesterday, Rosemary Mason emailed to say that she'd seen Clouded Yellow at Penmaen plus 10 Brimstones on the walk out to Whiteford.

Rhoose Point

Some new species for the year over the last few evenings: Eudonia angustea, Powdered Quaker, Shoulder-stripe, Chinese Character, Mompha bradleyi/divisella and Double-striped Pug.

And a couple that are new for the garden record: Schreckensteinia festaliella and Leek Moth.

Maesteg

One Holly blue butterfly behind Maesteg cemetary today.

Cwmbach

GMS No4 and with the temperature down to 2.80C, I wasn't surprised that only six species were recorded. All the usual suspects present, but the highlight was my first Early Greys (six) of the year.

Coed Cae Pica

20W actinic & vertical sheet attracted 12 species on March 22nd. Nothing very exciting, the pick being: x3 Yellow Horned (appears to be a good site for the species), plus singletons of Engrailed and E monodactyla (both new for year). Most abundant species was x8 D fagella.

Holly Blue

In the garden at Llandaff North this lunchtime - I make this the earliest county record by 5 days (previous earliest 28th March in 1997 and 2002).

Orange Underwing

An Orange Underwing photographed at Coed Craig Ruperra 23/03 by Mike Pointon (New ST28)

Abercregan last night.

                                             Mottled grey. Also Common quaker.

More Oranges

2 Orange Underwing moths today at Brynmawr Mast, Maesteg, also 1 Red Admiral aand 2 Small Tortoiseshell

Orange Underwings

Saw 6 of these in the sunshine today: 3 at Coed-y-bedw Wildlife Trust site (ST1082, where last recorded by Mike Powell in 1998) and 3 at Craig y Lan, Gwaelod y Garth (ST1184). Seen well through binoculars, but none would come low enough for a photo unfortunately.

Also a male Brimstone, a Comma on sallow blossom, and a new species for me: Tinea pallescentella (Large Pale Clothes Moth) beneath M4 bridge at Coryton roundabout, presumably from pigeon nests.

Moth Article

An article by Steve Whitehouse on early Scottish moths including the Conformist - is it still in Glamorgan??
http://www.birdguides.com/webzine/article.asp?a=3167
Cut & paste.

Last night at Llandaff North

A good haul of micros in the garden last night: Zelleria hepariella (new for year), Eudonia angustea (new for year), Caloptilia stigmatella, and the plumes A acanthadactyla and E monodactyla.

The macros were less impressive - just singletons of Early Grey, Hebrew Char and Clouded Drab.

Rhoose Point

The slightly warmer weather and a bit of sunshine must be encouraging moths out of hibernation. The count shot up last night with 25 moths of 9 species. Debut appearances for the year from Early Thorn (3), Twin-spotted Quaker (2), Clouded Drab, Early Grey, LBAM and small Quaker.

Cwmbach

A fairly mild (4.40C), but rather wet night. Despite that, I had a reasonable GMS catch, with 27 moths of nine species, including my first pugs of the year: Brindled Pug, Double-striped Pug, Pale Brindled Beauty, Small Quaker, Common Quaker, Clouded Drab, Twin-spotted Quaker, Hebrew Character and The Chestnut. Still no Early Grey!

Llandaff North - GMS week 3

Another fairly mild GMS night, with 6 species recorded in the garden MV. Nothing terribly exciting though - the highlight was a Dotted Border, my third garden record (all this year).

Early migrant

Llandaff North: Along with the expected Common Quaker and Early Grey in the trap this morning was this fresh-looking Silver Y - my earliest garden record by nearly two months.




















Along with Adam's Dark Sword-grass at Rhoose, suggests a little bit of migrant activity.

Coed Cae Pica (ST130886)

I tried out a 20 watt actinic for the first time last night. I thought it might struggle a bit compared with the 40 watt light I've previously been using but it produced a very reasonable catch for the time of year. Interesting to see how it fares from now on.

Mottled Grey x2, Pale Brindled Beauty x2 - one being f. monacharia, Double-striped Pug x2, Yellow Horned x5, Twin-spotted Quaker x4, Small Quaker x3, Clouded Drab x4, Red Chestnut x2 and singles of Early Thorn, Common Quaker, Satellite (new for site), Hebrew Character, Chestnut and Diurnea fagella.

Gorseinon

Seven species in milder conditions : 18 Common Quakers, 17 Small Quakers, 5 Clouded Drabs, 4 Hebrew Characters and singles of Epiphyas, Early Grey and Grey Shoulder-knot, the latter being only the 3rd record for the garden. Hymenopteran interest was provided by a queen Bombus pratorum (Early Bumblebee).

Rhoose Point

A single Dark Sword-grass in the trap this morning - perhaps the first migrant of the year? Plus 2 Hebrew Characters.

Cwmbach

Having, at last found a place in my garden to run a 125w MV lamp on my garden trap, without disturbing anyone, I ran it overnight. The position isn't ideal, but better than nothing and with last night's fog and minimum temperature of 2.70 C being well below that forecast, the catch was small, though larger than I would have got with the 22w actinic.

It was certainly the night of the Small Quaker, with 13 of them in. on and around the trap, but I had six other species: Common Quaker = 2, Clouded Drab = 2, Twin-spotted Quaker = 3, Hebrew Character = 1, The Satellite = 1 and The Chestnut = 1.

Out and about...

...enjoying the sunshine this weekend.

10th March
A faded Red Admiral hill topping by the trig point on Garth Hill.

11th March
Pont y Gwaith, nr Treharris. Underpass beneath A470: Dotted Border 5, Pale Brindled Beauty and this Pale Pinion attracted to an underpass light.
















Also 3 Peacocks nearby and a Comma at Edwardsville beech woods.

Llangynwyd, actinic.

                                 Pale brindled beauty, Monachana form

                                  Yellow horned.
                                  Also - March moth 7, Engrailed agg 5, Clouded drab 3,
                                            Common quaker 4, Chestnut 3 and Diurnea fagella 4.

Cwmbach Again

A March Moth and a Mottled Grey to our house windows, this evening.

Cwmbach

A mild (min 7.90 C), damp night, so my GMS catch, this morning was eight moths of six species: Early Thorn-1; Oak Beauty- 2; Common Quaker- 1; Clouded Drab- 1; Hebrew Character- 1; and The Chestnut- 3. Also in the trap, but not counted for the GMS were two Depressaria daucella.

Senghenydd

5 moths of 3 species in the trap last night: a Double-striped Pug, 3 Chestnuts and this early Eudonia angustea.

Good start to GMS

A good start to the Garden Moth Scheme at Llandaff North last night, with a minimum temperature of 7.4 C and four species trapped: Hebrew Character 3, Dotted Border, Emmelina monodactyla and this Caloptilia stigmatella.















This is far better than the first week of GMS in any previous year:
2007: Nothing (6.2 C)
2008: missed first week
2009: Early Grey 1 (2.7 C)
2010: Nothing (-1 C)
2011: Nothing (-1.8 C)

Cwmbach

Running my 22w actinic garden trap for the GMS and although the minimum temperature was a respectable 5.80C and the wind and rain didn't really get going until later in the night, I had only four moths of three species : Acleris notana/ferrugana (a single, seen in the trap last night, but had skedaddled by the morning); two Mottled Greys and a Hebrew Character.

Purple Clay?

I photographed this at Waunwyllt Wood, Merthyr Tydfil, on the 28th February, but have only just got around to uploading it to the computer and trying to identify it. It seems to match the illustration and description of Purple Clay, in Porter, but I would welcome any other suggestions. It was quite small, as can be seen in comparison to the fencing wire, on which it was found. I've rotated the image by 180 degrees to render it the 'right way up'.

Llanishen - 29th Feb

Another reasonable night: Oak Beauty, Dotted border, Clouded Drab, Pale Brindled Beauty & Agonopterix sp (heracliana/ciliana)