Thurs 26th March

Had a look on Kilvey Hill, Swansea, for Orange Underwing where I saw several two years ago but not flying today.
Did find lots of cases of Coleophora laricella on larch though.

37.066 Coleophora laricella

Steve Moon

In case you have not heard, former GMRG president Steve Moon has passed away. His influence on the local recording community cannot be understated, and he will be missed.

Coed-y-bedw last night

I left two 6W actinics at Coed-y-bedw last night, my first mobile trapping of the year. Although it fell to 4C by dawn, it was still 10C at dusk and a reasonable catch of 14 species resulted. This included the micros Acleris cristana and A. notana/ferrugana (tbc), both new for the site, plus Semioscopis avellanella (a local species last recorded here in 1997).

Acleris cristana

Semioscopis avellanella

Macros included Mottled Grey, Oak Beauty, Satellite, Twin-spotted Quaker and Yellow-horned.

Springing a Leek

There was a Leek Moth (Acrolepiopsis assectella) sitting on a car roof in Llandaff North this evening. I thought this was an early date, but looking at the county database I see there are two February records, plus a few earlier in March - so not very unusual after all.

Parc Slip

Last night was my only choice for trapping this week and i wasn't expecting much while scraping the ice off my car...i did manage to get 22 moths of 7 species though which made it worthwhile. Only a couple of new ones for the year with the best being a shoulder stripe and the other a few small quakers.

Creigiau last night

At last, some moths in /around the trap!

The temperature last night dropped to 1.5C but I found 18 moths of 9 species, including three totally new to me - Yellow Horned, Tawny Pinion and an, as yet, unidentified micro. I think this may be of the Gracillariidae family but I haven't found a match yet.

hibernating small tortoiseshell

A Small Tortoiseshell came in from the cold in November and opted to spend the winter tucked against the wall/ceiling of the utility room at the back of the garage. For whatever reason, it dropped down on to the sink unit on Thursday and there it stayed until yesterday. I don't know if it has ventured outside or has decided it is still too cold and moved to a less obtrusive place in the garage.

Parc Slip

First good catch of the year for me at Parc Slip last night with the temperature not dropping below 8 degrees: 23 moths of 11 species in and around the trap. First for the year of yellow horned, oak beauty, clouded drab, common and twin-spotted quaker, hebrew character and  engrailed.  There was also a light brown apple moth and 6 pale brindled beauties including one f.monacharia. The other species were chestnut and dotted border.

Coleophore query

Whilst pruning my bonzais ready for spring I found 3 of these cases on oak. I've looked at MGBI, UK Moths etc (and Manley!) They don't seem to match C lutipennella or flavipennella and look nearest to ibipennella, albeit with a rather small pistol handle, which is not shown in Glamorgan in MapMate.
Any thoughts anyone? I will keep them anyway and see if I can get them through.

Creigiau 06 March

Following the prompts in recent posts I have signed up for GMS and was rewarded with 9 moths in/around the trap on Friday night. Only 4 species - 4x Dotted Border, 3x Hebrew Character, March Moth and Oak Beauty.

Parc Slip

Disappointing complete lack of moths in the trap this morning but at least there was a pale brindled beauty and an early moth attracted to the security lights of the office. Later in the day a brimstone and red admiral enjoying the warm sunshine.

Fence moth

This Angle Shades was resting on our garden fence on Saturday. Although this species can apparently be found as an adult moth in any month of the year, in previous years I've never seen one in the garden before April.

Garden Moth Scheme 2015

The Garden Moth Scheme recording season starts again in a few days’ time and Norman Lowe would like to get as many recorders involved as possible this year. for those that are not aware of the scheme, the idea is to run the same moth trap at same site, every week, on the same night of the week where possible, regardless of the weather. The scheme has been running for several years now and has amassed a very useful dataset for looking at recent trends in common species of moths across the UK.
For more information contact Norman Lowe(norman at enviro-consulting dot com) or check out the Scheme's website.