Cors Dyfi - event report

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.

Setting up a Skinner trap

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.

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

Square Spot

recorded, the best being the Neofaculta ericetella, but a rather nice pale form of Elophila nymphaeata Brown China-mark was also recorded

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

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

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.