Mothing event at Cors Dyfi Nature Reserve

Hello All,

This Saturday the MMG (Montgomeryshire Moth Group) is holding a mothing event at Cors Dyfi Nature Reserve (The Osprey Centre) in the far west of the county. This event is part of the ‘Bio Blitz’ week which MWT staff are holding at the reserve, so please come along and join us for this blue ribbon event for what I hope will be an excellent evening’s mothing.

Full event details are:-

Venue: Cors Dyfi Nature Reserve.

Target Species: Rosy Marsh Moth and August Thorn.

Event Date: Saturday 2 August 2014.

Event time: 8:30 onwards, at the trapping site.

Directions: at 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.

Llyn Mawr

Took a trip to MWT's Llyn Mawr reserve earlier in the week. A warm, still night and as a result I recorded just over 100 species, which is excellent for an upland site like this.

Most of the site is pretty boggy, with large amounts of bracken but little cover otherwise. At the far end of the lake is a patch of very old woodland: mainly birch, willows and rowan. Trekked a few heath traps down to this part of the site, aiming to catch a few extra species (which they did).

Some of the more interesting records of the night were Anarsia spartiella, Eana osseana, Oblique Carpet, Galium Carpet, Tissue and Confused.

Photos & species list on the link below:

Llyn Mawr (22/07/14)

Another trip to the woods

A couple of nights ago I headed off to MWT's Dolforwyn Woods reserve for a spot of trapping. A very warm night, with temperatures not dropping below 15c. Packed up the six traps at around 1am: a little earlier than I usually would due to an impending storm but luckily the kit managed to stay completely dry.

Recorded 161 species in total. There was an amazing showing of micros - making up half of the species list, which is a much high proportion than I usually get. A good chunk of the macros were new to the site, as were most of the micros.

Macros. Most notable record was a Beech-green Carpet. Other nice things included Scallop Shell, Blomer's Rivulet (about 20 seen) and Clouded Magpie.

Best micro records:

• Epiblema tetragonana - a nationally scarce A species. New for the county.
• Elachista adscitella - an Nb species. New county record.
• Mompha lacteella - Nb. New CR.
• Coleophora taeniipennella - new CR
• Nemaxera betulinella - Nb. Second county record.
• Cydia fagiglandana  - second county record
• Coleophora flavipennella - second CR.

Other good micros included Ypsolopha nemorella, Scoparia ancipitella, Epinotia signatana and Zeiraphera ratzeburgiana.

Photos and species list below:

Dolforwyn Woods (17/07/14)

Llanmerewig Glebe

Peter and I trapped at this MWT reserve last night (located in the center of the county: not far from Abermule). A fairly warm night, dropping down to 10c in the early hours. We managed just over 130 species, virtually all of which will be new to the reserve.

The reserve is very small: consisting of a meadow which is surrounded my large hedgerows with plenty of mature trees. A good selection of summer species were caught. Some of the more notable macros were Leopard Moth, Scallop Shell, Cloaked Carpet, V-moth, Cloaked Minor and Marsh Oblique-barred.

The best micros species were Caloptilia betulicola and Biselachista albidella which were both new for the county.

Follow the link for some photos of the moths caught, as well as the species list:

Glebe (16/07/14)

500 and counting...

I started recording moths on MWT's Cors Dyfi reserve back in 2009 using a simple setup of a battery running an old tube from a fish tank! The first proper trap was soon purchased and the records started to roll in, new species for the reserve and for the county.

Over the 5 years since I started there have been some very memorable nights; ones when hundreds of moths were flying around my head, ones where only 1 or 2 turned up in the trap in the morning, ones where over 900 moths had to be counted, identified and released . I have probably counted well over 60,000 moths since 2009 - moths in traps, moths flying by day, moths resting underneath security lights in the morning, caterpillars, leaf miners, case bearers and moths that turned up in the hands of volunteers and staff wanting to have an identification.

I set myself a target early on, to record 500 moths at Cors Dyfi. Quite often I thought the target would never be achieved, this is after all a relatively small reserve and due to lack of power options I could only set out traps at the top 100 metres  of the site.

I have now reached my target 500 and have actually gone beyond it with 2 new micro moths from my last trapping session and the one prior to it, the total at writing of this blog stands at 503. I have no intention of stopping, maybe by the time I'm 60 there will be 800 moths recorded here - just think, a third of all UK species! That would just be phenomenal!

I've been called Moffboff,  Bug Lady, and am now accepted as Mothy Maria - I quite like the names, they kind of 'define' me.

The 500 mark could not have been achieved without the constant help of Peter Williams who spends endless hours identifying moths for all of us and puts up with endless hours of me harassing him when I want prove identification of a certain species I photographed (does psyche casta ring a bell Peter?) and also a massive thanks to all the volunteers who have helped over the past 5 years, your services are still required!

I've added a selection of photos which are just a few of my favourites and I always love to see.

Mothy Maria

Silver Hook, in the whole of Montgomeryshire, still only recorded ay Cors Dyfi

Numerous, clumsy but always a delight to see the Drinker Moths appearing

Elephant Hawk-moths, you wait for one and then dozens turn up at the same time

 

Shades of grey

Took another trip to Glaslyn MWT reserve last night. Arrived at the site to find completely clear skies and a temperature of 10c. However, not long after getting the traps switched on it began to cloud over and the temperature rose to 12.5c where it stayed for the rest of the night.

When driving down the track to reach the car park I noticed some scree slopes. There were no site records of Ashworth's Rustic but I thought it might be worth placing a couple of heath traps around the top of these scree slopes (about 500m from the main traps). Much to my surprise, not only did I catch AR, I caught loads of them! 38 in total. 36 of these were between the strategically-placed two 6w heath traps. Only two turned up in the MVs. Which, I think, just goes to show how much it's depend on the rocky slopes; these two were probably wanderers. Really quite a variable moth - some forms were very pretty, though all very grey.

Other moorland moths seen included Striped Twin-spot Carpet, Northern Spinach, Narrow-winged Pug, True Lover's Knot, Antler Moth, Dark Brocade, Gold Spange and Scarce Silver Y.

Once again there were several out-of-place moths, for example Rosy Footman and Iron Prominent. But the prize for 'the moth caught that would be least expected on moorland' goes to Zeiraphera isertana (of which two were recorded). This is meant to be species of oak woodland. No idea where the nearest oak was but would certainly be a considerable distance.

The main challenge of the night was low cloud which began to envelope the site once the traps were set up. It reduced visibility to less than 10m at times. The MVs were just about bright enough to penetrate the cloud but the actinics were not and were consequently very difficult to locate! Had to just set off, hoping I was walking in the right direction! Luckily it seemed to work.

53 species were seen in total. The list and some photos can be seen here:

Glaslyn (11/07/14)

Borth Bog

Last night I took a trip to Cors Fochno (Borth Bog). The site is just outside of the county in Ceredigion. It's a peat bog - vegetation on the bog is dominated by heather and bog myrtle. The track leading onto the bog is lined with willows and birch. Put out 3 MVs and 3 actinic traps - 4 out on the bog and 2 on the track.

Being a whole country's width away, I caught lots of species that I don't usually see. This included Lackey, Rosy Footman, Four-dotted Footman and Lesser Cream Wave. Other notable records were good numbers of Marsh Oblique-barred, Striped Wainscot, Southern Wainscot and also Double Kidney, Apotomis semifasciana, Eudonia pallida, Celypha cespitana and Biselachista albidella.

Mostly species that would be expected on the far western side of Montgomeryshire - especially at Cors Dyfi. However I did record about three or four species not on our county list. A couple of them I suspect will be present (small, obscure micros).

With Ynyslas Sand Dunes only a five minute drive away, I couldn't resist a quick visit. Unfortunately I'd left my bucket and spade at home but was able to have nearly as much fun with my net. The productivity of the site was just incredible: so many moths. Didn't net anything too special but definitely a site I will do some trapping at this summer. Though next time I'll take a compass - I ended up getting lost for about half an hour: sand dunes all look the same in the dark!

At one point, what I believe were a pair of ospreys flew low over the bog. (Probably should point out I'm talking about the military aircraft, not the bird. Strangest things: half helicopter, half plane - see here.)

At around midnight, I suddenly realised that although I'd put the garden trap out, I hadn't plugged it in. In my experience this does tend to reduce the catch somewhat... Knowing there probably wouldn't be all that many moths waiting for me in the garden, I decided to stay later than I usually would - didn't leave the site until about 4am. The temperature had dropped to 10c and the final species total was 129.

As ever, follow the link for a load of crappy camera phone photos: (also a species list)

Borth Bog (10/07/14)

MMG event at Coed y Dinas

The event report and species list from our trip to the Coed y Dinas MWT reserve can be viewed here.

A nugget of gold

This turned up in the garden last night. A Golden Plusia:

Resting on its foodplant: Aconitum.

There are only a handful of county records and oddly enough, all from one year: 1987. It's almost exclusively a garden moth due to its foodplants. The moth colonised the UK towards the end of 19th century and spread rapidly. It was fairly common at one point across much of the UK, though in recent times seems to have declined.

Roundton Hill

On the 3/7 I did some trapping at Roundton Hill NNR (MWT reserve). The site has had very little trapping done over the years (well illustrated by the fact that Dark Arches - and indeed most of what I caught - were new to site!). The site has two main habitats: grassland and woodland. My trapping was centered around the car park, which is mainly wooded. I have never known a site with so much ash, almost every tree was that species! Caught lots of elm feeders so there must have been some of that present too.

Once I'd set up and turned on all the traps, I decided to leave them to it and headed off on a quest to find some mobile signal. I began climbing the hill and although I couldn't get signal, I found something nearly as good: some lovely habitat. This bit of hillside was covered with lady's bedstraw, wild thyme, clovers and trefoil as well as a really nice mix of other grassland plants. Decided I'd relocate one of my actinic traps up here - despite it being a bit of trek!

The temperature didn't drop below 15.5c, even approaching dawn. There was a pretty strong wind that night but I was well sheltered by the hill itself and the trees surrounding it. As a result I ended up with an exceptionally high species list of 167 species (101 macro and 66 micro). This is the highest total I've had on a single night, outside of the garden.

A nice selection of woodland species were seen including Coleophora alnifoliae (a nationally scarce species and the second county record - first being from 1975), Batia unitella, Carpatolechia fugitivella, Epinotia signatana, Blomer's Rivulet, Dingy Shell, Clouded Magpie and Beautiful Hook-tip. All new to the site (and indeed the 10km square).

Some of the grassland species seen included Coleophora saxicolella, Platyptilia pallidactyla, Stenoptilia pterodactyla and Metzneria metzneriella. One interesting record was the rather out-of-place Confused, which coincidentally I had in the garden a few nights earlier (see post below).

Few pics on the following link. (mainly of the site - didn't take many of the moths this time...) Also a species list for the night.

Roundton Hill - 03/07/14

The site probably holds a number of other good species - especially associated with the flowery grassland. Merits some more trapping and daytime visits. I'll certainly be returning later this summer.

I'm Confused (and so is the moth)

Quite a cool night and at about 2:30 this morning I decided to pack up the garden trap. Sitting on the sheet was this moth. Immediately realised it wasn't a species I knew well. In the back of my mind was the Confused (a moth I've been hoping to find in some of the more specialist habitats I'm visiting this summer). And indeed a quick look at the book confirmed my suspicions. Fairly uncommon in the county: last seen in 2011 and then other records predate 1976.

The Confused. What a dull moth.

W&T tells me it should be found on "rocky coasts", "mountain moorland" and occasionally "sand dunes". I'm no ecologist but I can be fairly sure the garden doesn't fit into either of these habitats. I can only guess it's got very confused and forgotten where it's meant to be living.

'Moth night' event at Coed Y Dinas Nature Reserve.

Hello Moth-ers,

This Saturday the MMG (Montgomeryshire Moth Group) is holding the annual ‘Moth Night’ event at Coed Y Dinas Nature Reserve. It is a joint event in conjunction with Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust (MWT) who will be bat recording on the night. We have never held a moth trapping event at this site before, therefore we don’t quite know what will turn up, but we are hoping to record some species associated with water loving plants, like Wainscot and China Mark species. The weather looks ‘set fair’ for the weekend, so please come along and join us for what I hope will be an excellent evening’s mothing.

Full event details are:-

Venue: Coed Y Dinas Nature Reserve.

Target Species: Species associated with water.

Event Date: Saturday 5 July 2014.

Event time: 8:30 at reserve car park car park.

Directions: From Welshpool head south on the A490 for about a mile and a half and the reserve entrance is just before the roundabout on the left.                                                                                                                                                                                        Reference: SJ221052

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.