Friday 5 September 2014

Coed Pendugwm (and Glaslyn)

Took another visit to Pendugwm woods the other day. Arrived to find the reserve track completely blocked by a large lorry. Luckily was able to find the farmer to move it. By the time I got into the reserve, it was already very dark - it was about 9:30pm before all the traps were on.

Don't think this affected the catch too much though. A very warm night with 76 species in total, 40 of which were new for the site. The best macros were Barred Chestnut (several seen), Devon Carpet, Red Underwing, Pale Eggar, Clay Triple-lines and Grey Pine Carpet. Best micros were Anacampsis blattariella (new county record), Caloptilia robustella and Argyresthia semitestacella (5 seen). Nice to see quite a few Ypsolopha sequella too.

One added challenge for the night was hornets. At least seven came to the traps. Tried to pot them all up (easier said than done!) and keep them in custody until I was ready to leave the site - to save myself from being stung and all my moths being dismantled!

Images and species list:
Coed Pendugwm (03/09/14)

The next night (4/9) I went up to Glaslyn. Unfortunately a rather cool night and largely uneventful - except for a visit from a very friendly policeman who had seen the lights from the main road. Between my 6 traps, I only caught 18 species (7 were new to reserve though). A couple of good records including Heath Rustic, Neglected Rustic and Tissue. Migrants were represented by a single Dark Sword-grass.

1 comment:

  1. Sounds like you had a very good trapping session at Coed Pendugym and it's excellent news that you found another population of Barred Chestnut.

    Finding the hornets was also a real bonus, actually they are very docile creatures and the least likely to sting you out of all the wasp species, but they do like a bit of 'fresh moth meat' at this time of year, to keep them going.

    As regard the Glaslyn trap perhaps you should add 'The policeman' to your list of species!!

    Peter.

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