Welcome

Hello and welcome to my moth Blog. I now reside in a small village in East Cambridgeshire called Fordham. My Blog's aim is to promote and encourage others to participate in the wonderful hobby that is Moth-trapping.
Moth records are vital for building a picture of our ecosystem around us, as they really are the bottom of the food chain. They are an excellent early indicator of how healthy a habitat is. I openly encourage people to share their findings via social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter & Instagram.
So why do we do it? well for some people it is to get an insight into the world of Moths, for others it is to build a list of species much like 'Twitching' in the Bird world. The reason I do it....you just never know what you might find when you open up that trap! I hope to show what different species inhabit Cambridgeshire and neighbouring counties.
On this Blog you will find up-to-date records and pictures.
I run a trap regularly in my garden and also enjoy doing field trips to various localities over several different counties.
Please also check out the links in the sidebar to the right for other people's Blogs and informative Websites.
Thanks for looking and happy Mothing!

KEY

NFY = New Species For The Year
NFG = New Species For The Garden
NEW! = New Species For My Records

Any Species highlighted in RED signifies a totally new species for my records.

If you have any questions or enquiries then please feel free to email me
Contact Email : bensale@rocketmail.com

My Latest Notables and Rarities

Wednesday 13 April 2016

Field Trip - Boxmoor Trust Land - Hemel Hempstead - 12/04/16

Last night I was joined by Roger at Gadesprings for our first field trapping session of the year.
The weather had been a mixed bag all day really but with highs of 15 degrees and little or no wind, it felt rather pleasant even if the sun was skulking behind the clouds for most of the day.

About two hours before I was due to leave we had a torrential downpour for nearly half an hour, the temperature dropped and I was dubious about going out all of a sudden!

We arrived at 7.15pm ready to set up. The plan was to do 3 different sites all in one night something that we hadn't done before.
The Robinson Mercury Vapor trap was set up at Gadesprings along with my mini actinic trap, switched on and left to its own devices until we returned later.
It was off to the old barn next at Westbrook Hay where we set up another MV, switched it on and then drove to our third and final site at Roughdown Common and started to go about setting up three traps.

Disaster! The generator just wouldn't keep going (I think it needs an oil change) but eventually by tinkering with the choke it was stable. The another mishap and quite a big one at that, my MV Robinson which I use at home....completely dead. We assumed it was the fuse, so Roger kindly nipped back home and returned with a bag of fuses but unfortunately it seemed more terminal (or perhaps just a bulb)..........ironically this morning I expect the worst but plug it in just on the off chance that it may work and Bingo! it worked just like that. Very strange.

With the lack of the highest output bulb we thought it would hamper us, but with a Mercury Blended 160w bulb and a twin 40w Actinic setup I couldn't have been further from the truth.

Apart from netting a few Agoonopterix heracliana's at dusk, the first moth in was a Dotted Chestnut! When Roger got back with the fuses I joked that we could pack up now as that would be the best moth of the night.
I was wrong. About 11pm a moth landed by the trap as we were kneeling down, a quick net and potting acrobats and on inspection it was one of the Pinions, Tawny Pinion! a moth I haven't seen since 2008 and Roger since 2006, a real uncommon moth in the County, super chuffed to say the least!

Roger was also pleased to see a Shoulder-stripe, a moth that has evaded his garden for ten years! The one we caught was at Gadesprings, less than 1/4 of a mile away.

Other moths of note were single of Twin-spotted Quaker, Frosted Green and a really nicely marked Common Quaker.

All in all we managed a grand total of 84 moths of 16 species over the 3 sites.
Not bad going considering that by midnight it was down to about 5 degrees and a clear sky.

Catch Report - 12/04/16 - Gadesprings - Hemel Hempstead - 1x 125w MV Robinson Trap and 1x 40w Actinic Trap


Macro Moths

1x Shoulder-stripe
3x Common Quaker
2x Clouded Drab
2x Hebrew Character

Micro Moths

None recorded!


Catch Report - 12/04/16 - Roughdown Common - Hemel Hempstead - 1x 160w MBT Robinson Trap and 1x 80w Actinic Suitcase Trap


Macro Moths

1x Tawny Pinion
1x Dotted Chestnut
1x Satellite
14x Common Quaker
11x Clouded Drab
6x Hebrew Character
1x March Moth
1x Early Grey
1x Early Thorn
3x Small Quaker
1x Double-striped Pug

Micro Moths

1x Diurnea fagella
2x Agonopterix heracliana


Catch Report - 12/04/16 - Westbrook Hay - Hemel Hempstead - 1x 125w MV Robinson Trap

Macro Moths

11x Common Quaker
10x Clouded Drab
6x Hebrew Character
2xTwin-spotted Quaker
1x Frosted Green
1x Small Quaker

Micro Moths

1x Agonopterix arenella

Tawny and Pale Pinion











Frosted Green










Twin-spotted Quaker












Dotted Chestnut





3 comments:

  1. Cor, you and Roger worked hard for those catches, Ben! Great to hear about the highlights for you both too.

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  2. Hi Lucy, thank very much...yes it was hard work and we were up against it with the threat of torrential rain though it went the opposite way with cold and clear conditions! Hope you are ok. I assume you will be searching for the Small Blues again this year!

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  3. Hiya Ben, yes, from the beginning of May, the first sunny day, I shall be out there looking for the Small Blues. Also, Green Hairstreaks will start emerging from now onwards, so, again, a bit of sunshine and I'll be out there. Have a great weekend and hopefully see you soon.

    ReplyDelete