Thursday 20 June 2013

All Night at Blaen-nant


Knowing the weather would prevent me from working today and with the likelihood of a dry, mild and humid night, I decided to run my Skinner trap at Blaen-nant, above Abernant, Aberdare. The site is a mixed plantation adjacent to open hillside.
The trap was run from 10:00 until 03:30 and the weather remained dry, with a light ENE breeze. The minimum temperature was 12 C and the average relative humidity was 82%.
A good catch, numbering seventy species made it worth while, the highlights, in no particular order, being: Incurvaria Oehlmanniella, Map-winged Swift (2), Dingy Shell (3), Small Yellow Wave (2), Scorched Wing (2), Garden Pebble, Eulia ministrana, Small Seraphim (2), Red-necked Footman (2), Smoky Wave (2), Poplar Hawk-moth (7), Double-line, Grass Rivulet, Beautiful Golden Y, Silver Y (3), Knot-grass and Light Knot-grass.

Red-necked Footman

The Knot-grass
Light Knot-grass





2 comments:

  1. Congratulations. 70 species is certainly a great result and really nice pics too.

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  2. Thanks Chris. I'd worked on, to get some of today's work done, so I was really tired and wasn't sure how the session would go, but I was glad I made the effort. There weren't many micros, surprisingly, but amongst them was a Parornix, which I've kept for Dave to look at. The site and the kilometre square it is in, only have a handful of moth records, so it is even more satisfying to get a good catch on this first trapping session there.

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