What a lovely thought.

I have just recieved a very nice handmade thankyou card from two people (Debbie and Gabrielle) who attended the recent CAT event and I thought you all might like to see it and the note inside it.

A beautiful handmade card

With a lovely note inside

Thank you so much Debbie and Gabrielle for this - a few kind words always go a long way.

Peter.

Mothing Event at CAT, 01-08-15

During Saturday we had many heavy, prolonged showers, which, the met office had said would dissipate by late afternoon, and as it turned out, this is exactly what happened – everything pointed towards a dry and fairly mild event with the potential for a good species list.

Unloading the kit from the landrover on the lower trapping level

 Douglas, Peter, Alan and myself arrived onsite by 7:15 pm to set up the kit. The first thing we had to do was to transfer Douglas’ kit into my landrover because to access the trapping site we had to get the kit up a very steep, rough track, no place for an ordinary car. The trapping site was above the old quarry, it was basically on two levels therefore we were all going to get plenty of exercise checking the traps during the event. On this occasion we were using ten traps so the trapping area was very well covered with the traps available. With the kit all set up, as we waited for dusk to arrive, we all dived into our tuck bags to fuel us up for the evening’s proceedings.

One of the Skinner traps

                                      

View of the quarry from the trapping site

The pool above the quarry

A view showing the scree covered hillsides

No sooner had the lights been switched on when the first moth arrived at the table – and what a moth it was, it was the ‘nationally scarce A species’ Barred Carpet. We couldn’t believe our luck, but that was only the start of it – by the end of the evening our disbelief grew and our heads shook more each time as we saw at least ten individuals. It was an astounding haul of this scarce species. And seeing so many at each visit to the traps we feel there was, in all likelihood, many more. Indeed, on one visit to a trap someone exclaimed ‘Oh what’s this one?’, so, Douglas replied ‘Oh it’s just another Barred Carpet’!

The 'Nationally scarce A species' Barred Carpet

During the evening we were kept very busy with exactly 100 species being recorded. The more notable macros were : - Satin Beauty, Satin Lutestring, a lovely Scalloped Shell, Northern Spinach, Yellow Shell, Beautiful Snout, Dot Moth, Minor-shoulder Knot, the uncommonly seen Bordered White, and finally, a stunning and very uncommon Beech-green Carpet.

Scallop Shell

Beech-green Carpet

Notable micro species were: - Epinotia brunnichana, Eudonia ancipitella, Argyresthia laevigatella and Coleophora flavipennella and the rather lovely looking species of Scoparia pyralella and Catoptria pinella. 

Celypha striana

Argyresthia brockeella

  

No migrant species were recorded at this event. Full species list can be seen here.

Later in the evening Douglas took out some home made cake – he said that due to the recent dearth of good mothing conditions at home he had plenty of time on his hands and therefore he’d been trying his arm at baking, and I must say, we all enjoyed the three cakes he brought along – as they were all were devoured in no time – ok Douglas, no need for a baking CV, you’ve got the job for future events!

By about 1:45 we decided we had all had enough so we started to pack away the traps systematically checking them and one at a time, it was about 3:00am when the last trap was shut down. It had been a long, but very fruitful event – the recording of all those Barred Carpets will certainly stay with me for a long time –  even now, I’m still shacking my head!

Peter.

Mothing event at CAT on Saturday 1st August

Hello Everyone,

Our next mothing event is this Saturday (I st July) at the Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT). This site is on the far western side of the county, and the ‘heathy’ area we’re actually trapping (which is above the old abandoned quarry) has never been trapped before, so it may well throw up a few surprises, you never know.  So, if you’ve never been to one of these events before, treat yourself, please come along and join us, for a great night’s mothing and who knows what might turn up!

Full event details are:-

Venue: Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT)

Event Date: Saturday I st August

Event Time: 8:30 onwards, at the main car park.

Directions: From Machynlleth head north on the A487 for about three miles: CAT is signposted and the centre is on the right hand side of the road.

Grid Reference: SH754044.

Montgomeryshire Moth Group (MMG) is an independent voluntary group of people interested in moths. All ages are welcome to attend events whether experts or beginners.

This year all the events are light trapping events. We set up the light traps at dusk to attract moths and then release them after identification.

As with all our evening events, please bring a torch and wear suitable outdoor clothing.

You are welcome to join us for as much of the evening that suits you, we are likely to stay for several hours. However, in case of cancellation, due to poor weather or unforeseen circumstances, always ring or e-mail to check the event is on before joining us.

Please note that some sites are not easy to find, so please make sure you know where the venue is before you set off.

All the best, 

Peter

A welcome visitor

I had a good surprise in the trap this morming, a Small Mottled Willow, a species which I haven't recorded for nine years. There still must be a few individuals about from the recent influx across the UK.

Peter.

Cors Dyfi Event Cancelled

Hello All,

The Dovey Osprey Centre at Cors Dyfi Nature Reserve has today informed us that due to very unfortunate circumstances they can no longer host our joint mothing event and therefore the event has to be cancelled. I’m very sorry about this for those of you who will be disappointed. Hopefully, we’ll see some of you at our next event which will be at Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) on the 1st of August.

Peter.

Cors Dyfi mothing event Saturday 18 July

Hello Moth-ers,

Our next mothing event is this Saturday (18 July) at the Cors Dyfi Nature Reserve. This site, on the far western side of the county has hosted an annual mothing event for the last ten years, during which time it has produced many new county records. Indeed, as Cors Dyfi is situated near the Dovey estuary it has the greatest potential to produce a good migrant species, only two years ago we caught the first Feathered Ranunculus recorded in the county and there are many more migrant species out there, still to be recorded.  So, if you’ve never been to one of these events before, treat yourself, please come along and join us, for a great night’s mothing and who knows what might turn up!

Full event details are:-

Venue: Cors Dyfi Nature reserve

Event Date: Saturday 18 July

Event Time: 8:30 onwards, at the reserve car park.

Directions: The reserve is found on the right-hand side, 4 miles south west of Machynlleth on the A487.

Grid Reference: SN704984.

Montgomeryshire Moth Group (MMG) is an independent voluntary group of people interested in moths. All ages are welcome to attend events whether experts or beginners.

This year all the events are light trapping events. We set up the light traps at dusk to attract moths and then release them after identification.

As with all our evening events, please bring a torch and wear suitable outdoor clothing.

You are welcome to join us for as much of the evening that suits you, we are likely to stay for several hours. However, in case of cancellation, due to poor weather or unforeseen circumstances, always ring or e-mail to check the event is on before joining us.

Please note that some sites are not easy to find, so please make sure you know where the venue is before you set off.

All the best,

Peter.

Glaslyn

Took a trip to the reserve last night. Chris Manely was hoping to photograph Ashworth's Rustic so I thought I'd offer to show him the best parts of the site.

Fairly cool and breezy night but was enough for plenty of Ashworth's Rustic. I had around 30 in my heath traps.

Other nice moorland moths included Light Knot Grass, Northern Rustic, Grey Mountain Carpet, Scarce Silver Y, Pleurota bicostella and a probable Eudonia murana.

Pics:

Glaslyn 9-7-15

Llandinam Gravels

I headed to Llandinam Gravels on Wednesday. A nice MWT reserve that's had some trapping done before but never in summer. I was able to record 152 species, most of these being new to the reserve.

The night was extremely warm, though a breeze probably reduced the catch somewhat.

The best macros were Little Emerald, Oblique Carpet, Beautiful Carpet, Larch Pug, Dwarf Pug, Blomer's Rivulet, Small Seraphim, Clouded Magpie, Lilac Beauty, Brussels Lace and Double Dart.

The most interesting micros was Capperia britanniodactylus - a plume moth feeding on wood sage which is new to Montgomeryshire. Others included: Calybites phasianipennella, Triaxomera fulvimitrella, Monochroa tenebrella and Dichrorampha montanana.

As usual, full species list and load of photos on link below:

Llandinam Gravels 01-07-15

Glaslyn

Took a trip to Glaslyn last night. An extremely warm night but strong winds meant only the most sheltered traps caught moths. Those in good shelter did extremely well though, especially with micros. A total of 48 species were caught.

Best macros were Smoky Wave, Grey Mountain Carpet, Galium Carpet, Clouded Buff, Dark Brocade and Emperor Moth (a rather late male).

Best micros included Stigmella myrtillella (new for the county, though undoubtedly very overlooked), Pleurota bicostella,  Phiaris schulziana,  Incurvaria oehlmanniella, Ancylis myrtillana and Elachista albidella.

Some photos and a full species list on the link below:

Glaslyn 30-06-15

Another account of the Roundton event

Hello All,

 

Below is a message sent to me from Dave & Anthea Wilson who were at the Roundton Event, as you can see, they enjoyed the event very much and there is a link to their 'Visit Montgomery' website where a further account of the evening activities and more photos can be seen. 

 

Thank you Dave & Anthea for such a glowing account of the evening, I do hope that you both join us at future events.

 

Peter.

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Hi Peter

My wife Anthea and myself attended your wonderful Moths and Bats evening on Saturday and really had a fabulous time.

We have documented it with a load of photos that I took showing close ups of many moths and placed them into a post on our Montgomery website.  ( I only wish I'd stayed after 11:35pm to shoot some more. )

We have added a Pictorial Blog post to our Montgomery Visitor website... Please pass the URL onto the members who were there to review it and let me know what they think.  

Anthea and I now intend to join the Wildlife Trust after enjoying the evening so much. Your team in attendance were very friendly and knowledgeable too.

The direct URL for the article is here...  

http://www.visitmontgomery.co.uk/vm4/category/nature/

Why not also search for 'Walks' in the search box to get a taste of what else we have on there..

The main website is   www.VisitMontgomery.co.uk

We'd love the teams feedback.. and I'd also be interested in photographing future events as part of the volunteer team.

Best wishes and regards

Dave & Anthea Wilson

Montgomery