Creigiau - 22 December

Box out last night for Winter GMS. Best catch for a while 13 moths in/around the trap - December Moth (7), Winter Moth (2), and singles of Light Brown Apple Moth and Red-green Carpet. Also had singles of, what I think were, Chestnut and Brick. Never seen the latter before so not sure.

Maesteg tesco today.

                         
                                         Silver Y on the inside of the window.

Creigiau - last night

Box out last night for Winter GMS - temperature dropped to 1.4C but two sturdy December Moth came to visit.

Scarce umber, Abercregan last night.

Creigiau - 18 November

Box out in the garden last night. 'Twas 8C when I left it at midnight, but as the skies cleared the temperature bottomed out at 3.2C. Had 6 moths of 5 species - December Moth (2), Mottled Umber & Yellow-line Quaker and also my first ever Satellite.

The last one, on first sight, I thought was Pale Brindled Beauty and then I remembered that it was November! But ... Waring & Townsend say that it can occasionally be found in November & December so I'm sticking with my original ID.

Bridgend last night

Only three moths last night, a Light Brown Apple moth and 2 Red-line Quakers.

Creigiau - 10 November

Put the box out last night for the first week of Winter GMS - it makes sure I put the box out whatever the weather. Although it got a bit wet & windy during the night, the min temperature was 8.6C.
Twelve moths of six species in/around the box  -  Feathered Thorn (3), LBAM, Mottled Umber, November Moth agg (2), Red-green Carpet (3) and Spruce Carpet agg (2).

 a well camouflaged Mottled Umber

 Spruce Carpet agg

Creigiau - 02 November

A favourable forecast so put the box out last night, but although it was quite misty the temperature dropped to 5C and I ended up with 4 moths - E. postvittana, Red-green Carpet (2) and one I'd never seen before. As the marking is quite distinctive I think it's Scrobipalpa costella but grateful for confirmation/correction.

Top end of Cwm kenfig valley.

                                15 male Diurnea lipsiella on the wing this afternoon.

Parc Slip

Quite cool last night but 10 species wasn't too bad - the first brick since 2014 was probably the highlight:

Other than that, is this blurry photo a very early clouded drab??

Also, the first grey shoulder-knot of the year and only the 4th time I've caught them here and a very dark, almost black mottled umber.

A Vestal at last

One of the many Vestals which have recently arrived in the UK finally made it into my garden trap on Saturday night, along with two Silver Y and two more Crocidosema plebejana (I've now had 4 of those this month). 12 species were caught in total, a very good total for Llandaff North in late October.

Creigiau - 28 October

GMS box out on Saturday night - a bit breezy but quite mild with min temperature of 12.5C. A respectable catch of 10 moths of 8 species - Angle Shades (found dangling in a spiders web), Emmelina monodactyla, November Moth agg (2), Red-green Carpet, Red-line Quaker, Silver Y, Spruce Carpet agg (2) & Willow Beauty.
This is the latest that I have ever seen Silver Y and Willow Beauty.

Friday - 27th - Llandaff Garden

A very chilly night so wasnt expecting much if anything.

Highlight was a new for garden species, so was well worth it, a Large Wainscot. The other species being, Feathered Thorn, Chestnut, Red-green Carpet, Light Brown Apple Moth, Mompha divisella, Acleris sparsana and Tachystola acroxantha.

Merthyr mawr 25/10/17

                                     Blair's shoulder knot

                                    Dotted chestnut

                                   Vestal

                                   Hedya ochroleucana.
                                   23 sp in all inc Turnip, Mottled umber, Satellite,
                                   Red sword grass and Merveille du jour.

November moth

Thirteen moths of 5 species overnight in Bridgend, including our first November moth (agg) since 2014 and only the third record for the garden. This one looks well marked and a good candidate for November moth. We also had 7 LB Apple moth, 3 CM Carpet, 1 Large YU and a Vestal. We also had 30 Redwing over early this morning at dawn.

Migrants in Llandaff North

I don't get to use that title very often, but for once a few migrants turned up in the garden trap last night - no doubt encouraged by the warm south-westerlies. Star of the show was Palpita vitrealis, my second garden record and in mint condition. It was nice to catch the closely related crambids Rusty-dot Pearl and Rush Veneer too, as I've not had either species in the garden for a few years.

 

 

In total I had 16 species last night, probably my best ever garden catch at this time of year, including Tachystola acroxantha (2nd garden record), Red-green Carpet (2) and Cypress Carpet.

Last week I missed out on exciting migrants but did have Barred Sallow new for the garden and my 2nd garden record of Large Wainscot.

 

Bridgend, night of 18th October

The garden catch was 15 moths of 9 species, the highlight being Barred Sallow and Green-brindled Crescent both new for the year (YT to 192sp). Also trapped were LB Apple moth, CM Carpet, Spruce Carpet, Large YU, Lesser YU, 2 Vestal and Blair's Shoulder-knot. We also had a hoverfly,  Eupeodes sp, probably corollae and 2 caddisflies, probably Limnephilus lunatus

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Butterfly Conervation AGM/Members Day - This Saturday

Just a reminder that at Kenfig tomorrow the south Wales branch of BC is holding it's annual get together with the usual mix of speakers, including micro-moth guru David Agassiz, new Chief Exec Jim Asher, European Butterfly specialist Martin Davies as well as stuff from Norman Lowe and Russel Hobson. Non-members are welcome. It starts at 10:30 and should finish at around 4pm. Dave

Craig Gwladus Country Park

A NMN event at Craig Gwladus, Cadoxton Neath, on the night of the 13th, primarily based on two traps left overnight in gardens edging onto the park produced a good tally of 163 moths of 39 spp. Those of interest included Pandemis cinnamomeana 1, Acleris sparsana 2, Pseudargyrotoza conwagana 1, Pine Carpet 2, Spruce Carpet 26, Red-Green Carpet 12, Common Marbled Carpet 38, Pale November Moth 1, Scarce Umber 1, Pinion-streaked Snout 1, Flounced Chestnut 4, Chestnut 3, Dark Chestnut 1, Satellite 1, Merveille du Jour 5, Large Ranunculus 1, Grey Shoulder-knot 1 & Turnip Moth 2. There was a very good turnout of participants in the morning at the opening of the traps, the MDJs in particular pleasing parents and children alike. A re-run is planned for the summer which should add significantly more records to this interesting site, which comprises extensive plantings of Beech, Pine and Sitka, with a large open area recently cleared larch, plus a hanging oak wood with a long line of sandstone crags under its canopy. I did venture up there with a torch at night, unsuccessfully looking for Ivy, and was amazed at the number of young Palmate Newts hidden in the recesses of these vertical crags – clearly an important winter hibernation habitat for amphibians at this site. 

Many thanks to Lisa (Kirman) for organising the event, Jo, Ian and Sue for having the traps in their gardens and to Chris (Manley) for joining me in what turned out to be an exceptionally poor evening session (just 2 spp of moth in 2 hours with 3 traps running - thank goodness for the over-nighters!).

Gorseinon

There were 17 spp in the garden trap this morning, highlights being Grey Shoulder-knot & Delicate (just our 2nd garden rec. and a species which has been very scarce for the last 10 years ).

Query for Dave: For some reason MapMate is hiding my records of Grey Shoulder-knot where I have used the trinomial Lithophane ornitopus lactipennis (this annoyingly being the default entry for my 3 letter code data entry system, which I now change). Also I can see the trinomials don't plot on the atlas maps, e.g. my Oxwich record does not show and I suspect there must be a number of others which are mysteriously hidden. Even when I do an F5 query on the trinomial the records don't show. For ref I do have 4 garden entries for the binomial which show normally. When I figure out what's going on I'll change them to the binomial so they all plot on the same map.

Llantwit Major 17th October

We almost skipped putting the trap out on Tuesday night; now that it's dark in the mornings it's trickier to deal with before going in to work. Lucky we did though as one of only two moths in the trap was our first ever Merveille du Jour. Almost fell out of the shed scrambling for a moth pot. I think it might be a first for Llantwit as well.

The other moth was a Yellow-line Quaker so also new for the new garden!

Roath Ni Moth

Trapped at Roath 16.x.17. 6th garden rec. others in 1996 [2], 2003, 2006 & 2013. I've also been lucky enough to see another 3 in VC41 (KNNR 1992, Whiteford 1996 & Llanishen 2006). This 2017 record is the latest seen in VC41.

16th October - Llandaff - Garden

It was far to blustery to keep the trap on overnight last night. However, I kept it on till around 3am just in case. Sadly, it was not worth it with only a couple of moths, a Brimstone, a Snout and an almost fully grown Garden Tiger larvae inside amongst the egg boxes. I've had a Large White butterfly in the past but never a larvae. So is a first for me.

Creigiau - 14 October

Another good box for the time of year with 22 moths of 18 species. Highlights included Merveille du Jour (2), November Moth agg (2), Chestnut and Pseudargyrotoza conwagana. First arrivals of the year were Feathered Thorn, Lunar Underwing and Yellow-line Quaker.

Roath

Merveille du Jour (1st garden rec.) & Ni Moth (6th site rec.) - 11 species of migrants in garden this year.

Moth Nights 2 and 3

I left two portable traps at Lanlay Meadows (Peterston-super-Ely) on Saturday night. The results on Sunday morning were very good with a range of autumnal species present, including 6 Merveille du Jour. The highlight, though, was a Vestal.

Back home, the garden trap has been quite productive too, with several species new for the year and Crocidosema plebejana new for the site on Friday night. There were a few Cardiff records of this tortricid in the excellent migrant year 2006, but there haven't been any in the capital since then.

Bridgend last night

Just a worn Vestal the highlight among the Straw Dot, 3 CM Carpets, 10 LB Apple moths, 1 Light Emerald and 4 Blair's Shoulder-knots. WE also had some interesting Limnephilus type caddisfly species - anyone know a good person to sort the identity out for us?

Creigiau - Thursday night

As I was grounded and couldn't get to Lavernock to meet up with George & Co for NMN, I put the box out in the garden. 22 moths of 15 species including a couple that were new for the year - Red-green Carpet (3) and Vapourer.

GMRG

OTD 25 years ago the idea of the GMRG was first thought of. I was going through the trap at KNNR and we caught 3 Blair's Shoulder-knot and the beautiful Merveille du Jour. Steve Moon said they were both new for the reserve. I then asked him what was the significance of these species, and in fact, all the species we had caught that year at Kenfig in a Glamorgan context. He didn't know. It was then I said to him - being a bit of a stato - I'm going to find out. Any suggestions as to where I start? The trail was a long one, being both fascinating and revealing. It lead to the formation of the GMRG in 1995, the database and finally the Moths of Glamorgan a few years ago. We asked Steve Moon could he choose an emblem for the club, he just said it has to be the Merveille du Jour - the moth that made it all happen. 

In memory of Steve Moon & Stefan Golaswezski both founder members of the GMRG and dedicated moth recorders.

Coleophora cases in the Alun Valley

Last October, cases of Coleophora violacea and C. fuscocuprella were found in the Alun Valley. The former was only 2nd Glamorgan record and the latter was new for the county.

During a work party yesterday, in a different part of the site, cases of both species were seen. C. violacea was on bramble this time (rather than blackthorn) - the first time I've seen Coleophora mines and case on bramble (top two photos below). C. fuscocuprella was, like last year, on hazel (bottom photo).

The mines of both species were pretty obvious (many per leaf) and I doubt they are being widely overlooked elsewhere in the county - more likely they favour the Alun Valley either because of the warm microclimate there or because they like regenerating young scrub growth (plenty of that at the site, after clearance for fritillary butterflies).