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.