On the Saturday
morning of the Cors Dyfi event it was very wet and I’m sure everyone who was
thinking of attending must have been wondering how the day would pan out, but,
thankfully, it dried up in the afternoon leaving the weather fine and dry for
the rest of the day.
I arrived on site
by 7:30pm and with the aid of Julie, Mark and Clare we set up eight traps around
the car park area, below the ‘bird hide’, and onto the main boardwalk. After a
short introduction talk by myself the traps were turned on by 9:15 and we were
ready to go.
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| Setting up a Skinner trap |
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| Introduction talk |
It wasn’t long before the first moth, a Common Carpet was brought
to the table, this was quickly followed by a Devon Carpet and a Small
Phoenix, in fact the ‘carpet’ species were very plentiful throughout the
evening and when a Broken-barred Carpet was potted it gave us the first
of three ‘new site records’. The other two ‘new site records’ were; Small
Seraphim and Neofaculta ericetella.
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| Small Seraphim |
As the evening progressed species were coming in thick and fast, these
included the Iron Prominent, Great Prominent and Lesser Swallow
Prominent. Crowd pleasers are always welcome and a pristine Pale Tussock
and a beautiful Campion with its violet markings on its wings were
potted and admired.
Micro species were generally thin on the ground and only five species
were
recorded, the best being the Neofaculta ericetella, but a rather nice pale form of Elophila
nymphaeata Brown China-mark was also recorded
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| Square Spot |
No migrant species were recorded. To see a
full species list, please click here.
A cool breeze picked up late in the evening which slowed things down
considerably, so, just after midnight we decided to call it a night. However,
as is
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| Neofaculta ericetella |
often the case, as we were dismantling the traps a few more species were
added to the evening’s list, these included a Common White Wave, Narrow-winged
Pug and in the very last trap a fabulous Peach Blossom
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| Narrow-winged Pug |
Many thanks to all those who helped me set up and take down the kit and
for those who collected moths throughout the evening, also to the Cors Dyfi
staff for use of their facilities and, finally, to those members of the general
public for coming to the event – I’m sure that a good time was had by all.
Peter.
