On Saturday 21 October a few hardy members of the events team decided to brave the weather and set up a few traps at Pendugwm Woods (near Pontrobert). Following the deluge of the day before, and reports that access wasn't that great, it wasn't opened up as a public event just in case. Phil very kindly checked out the reserve at lunch time on the Saturday and cleared out the culvert, so we went ahead with 3 traps to see what was out there.
We didn't set up the gazebo or any tables, so base camp was Mark's truck, and whilst Mark and Phil went out to pot up what was appearing in traps, I worked through the pots on the dashboard. And we didn't do too badly at all. First up was a Barred Sallow - a lovely sign of Autumn.
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| Barred Sallow (all photos by Phil McGregor) |
The most numerous moth was the November Moth, and we agonised over each and every one but put most of them down as November Moth Agg. We did however find one female which we were able to confidently say was definitely November Moth.
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| Female November Moth |
As we were getting Winter Moth as well, I sent Mark & Phil to check the trunks of the trees to see if we could find any females. They are wingless and can apparently be found walking up tree trunks after dark. We didn't locate any, but well worth a try.
We also assiduously checked the Red-Green Carpets, just in case we could find an Autumn Green Carpet, which have been recorded at site. But despite Phil's best efforts it was not to be. He even took one on the chin, so to speak, as a Carpet rested there for a while! In the end we recorded 8 species (list to be attached here), which seemed a good result for the last "event" of the year.
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| Red-Green Carpet |
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| Also a Red-Green Carpet |
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| Spruce Carpet |
Hope to have more luck with events next year. Keep trapping everyone, and many thanks to all in the events team for their hard work and enthusiasm.
