Eighteen species in my garden trap, for the GMS, of which the highlights were Diamond-back Moth (2), Garden Pebble, The Sheers and Pale Mottled Willow (2).
Last night, lured out but the forecasts of a dry, relatively mild, but breezy night (poor gullible fools!), Mike Hogan and I ran our traps for Moth Nights 2012, on a disused and well vegetated colliery site in deepest, Cynon Valley.
We switched on at around 22:00 and all went well, at first, there being a steady trickle of moths to both traps, but at 00:20, the heavens opened and there was a mad dash to cover generators and lamps. The rain varied between light and stair rods and showed no sign of letting up, so after half an hour, with flooding traps and necks we reluctantly decided to call it an evening and packed up.
My trap attracted 24 species, the highlights being:
Pandemis cerasana
Broken-barred Carpet
Clouded Silver
Poplar Hawk Moth
Pebble Prominent
Lesser Swallow Prominent
Straw Dot
Beautiful Snout
Mike's trap attracted more than mine and a different suite of species. When I get a list from him, I'll probably post the highlights.
It's a pity the rain that wasn't forecast, caused us to end the session prematurely (how often has that happened to me), but at least we managed to salvage something from a disastrous 'Moth Nights 2012'. Most frustratingly, although the site was only 1.75km from my house, the rain there hadn't even managed to dampen the roads, by the time I got home, at 01:40, yet where we were, it was a completely different story.
I also had Diamond-back, and a Silver Y - seems there might have been a bit of migrant activity.
ReplyDeleteGeorge
So it seems, though I wonder if it occurred quite late on in the night, as Mike and I had not a sniff of it, trapping at the other end of the village. We stopped at about 01:15, so I wonder if the migrants started arriving after that, maybe in the wake of the rain front that halted our Moth Night session.
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