I was pleased to see 6 Tissue Moths & 2 Heralds in Bone Cave along with Greater and Lesser Horseshoes. Leps in Llanrhidian Church tower were 2 Peacocks, 16 Small Torts & 15 Heralds. The garden trap produced just singletons of Light Brown Apple Moth and December Moth.
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| Greater Horseshoe |
Not as exciting as the Tissues, but I found a Satellite at rest on some street furniture on Mansel Street, Swansea today.
ReplyDeleteI've never seen the Tissue. Finding overwintering moths is always exciting to me, even if it is just a handful of Heralds in a river culvert. Bats are a complication I always hope to avoid.
ReplyDeleteYes Mark I must confess that Rob had a little chuckle when I got more excited by the Tissues than the big old fat Horseshoe - as you say exciting stuff and a change from emptying a trap. I should have added that this was a rare opportunity for me to look for cave moths as I was invited to join a licensed bat monitoring visit. There's much more to be learned about our hibernating leps, but this can only legitimately be done on the back of bat monitoring work in areas where bats are known to hibernate.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I take every available chance to explore these subterranean sites, while on my own, for known bat sites, such as the disused railway tunnels, Mike Hogan (a licensed bat worker and moth-er) and I team up. I always dread finding bats at a new site, as it means having to arrange with Mike to join me, if I want to visit it again: a complication I could do without.
DeleteIncidentally, the thing we rarely see in the tunnels is overwintering butterflies. I think that might be because they cling to the roof of the tunnel, so are high up and almost invisible against the dark sooty background. In caves, they do the same, but the roof is much closer and paler in colour.
Talking of over wintering butterflies I can remember the late Mary Gillham commenting on finding 10s if not 100s of hibernating Peacocks on the roof of the underground water tank(s) on Flatholm. I haven't stayed on that island since the mid 80s so don't know whether the water tanks are now back in use now.
DeleteMy only stay on there was in 2002 and the tank was certainly in use then, though only to supply water for washing and flushing the toilets. Having seen the state of the water collecting area (complete with gull carcasses, from the previous outbreak of botulism) I made sure I kept my lips tightly closed while washing.
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