The Hobbits of Pendugwm ‘Middle Moth’ Woods

Well, what an event this turned out to be! – They said we were going to get stormy weather, and to be fair, that’s exactly what we got. When we arrived on site at 6:00pm conditions weren’t too bad, it was a bit breezy, but that was ok, in fact, in all, conditions looked pretty good for the mothing, but then…….

View of path to the right of car park

We had just finished setting up the traps and white sheet as it was getting dark, so, we settled in for the evening. It wasn’t too long before moths were being brought to the table; in fact, we had ten species in the very first 30 minutes and only a few more within the next hour. Chestnut and Small Quaker were first potted and these were swiftly followed by Twin-spotted Quaker, Common Quaker, Hebrew Character, Brindled Pug, March Moth, Pale Brindled Beauty, Engrailed and the Satellite. The striking Oak Beauty (the star of the evening) and the remaining species were trapped soon afterwards.

No micro moths or migrant species were recorded at the event.

To see the full species list, please click here.

It all went downhill from thereon. After about an hour and a half or so the wind started to pick up and was gusting quite strongly, the white sheet was billowing out like a sail on a ship, and I could see the support poles breaking at any minute. Therefore, I had to make a quick decision as to whether we could re-site the sheet or needed to take it down completely. We did find a better site for the sheet, so things were temporally better, but then the wind got even stronger and the gazebo tried to ‘take off’, so now we all had to keep a hand on it’s legs to keep it grounded. Someone suggested ‘why don’t we retract the legs which would lower the gazebo, thus making it less susceptible the wind, this did work and was better for a while, in fact it was pointed out that as we were all stooping to be under the gazebo we all took on the guise of ‘Hobbits’ (see image), which was very amusing to all of us. Ultimately however, the weather, soon after, just got too severe for us all and we started to pack the kit away much earlier than we would normally.

Hobbits Peer out from under the lowered gazebo

Many thanks to those few brave souls that did turn up for the evening, but, it has to be said that, on this occasion the weather and perhaps the spirits of the wood certainly had the last laugh and between them, drove us away!

Peter. 

Blossom Underwing

I had another good, early spring trap at home last night. I recorded 17 species in all, but the pick of the bunch was definitely a Blossom Underwing (picture below), which is rather an uncommon species in the county.

This species is one to look out for as it's probably overlooked in amongst the more common, but very similar Small and Common Quakers - so please be alert when checking your traps.

Peter.

Mothing event at Coed Pendugwm Nature Reserve on Sat 28 March

Hello Moth-ers,

Our first mothing event of the year is this Saturday at Coed Pendugwm Nature Reserve, which hasn’t been trapped before at this time of year, so who knows what might turn up. We are hoping to record various spring species, including Oak Beauty, thorn and prominent species and if we’re very lucky a Blossom Underwing (our target species). If you’ve never been to one of these events before, treat yourself, please come along and join us, for a great night’s mothing.

Full event details are:-

Venue: Coed Pendugwm Nature Reserve.

Target Species: Early spring species; Blossom Underwing.

Event Date: Saturday 28 March 2015.

Event time: 6:00 onwards, at the reserve car park.

Directions: from the A458 at Heniarth take the B4389 for approximately half a mile, then on the left take the B4382 for about a mile and a half, where you will turn right towards Pont Robert. Coed Pendugwm is on a minor road a mile north of Pontrobert towards Llanfihangel; follow the brown signs from Pontrobert. Park in the reserve car park down the short track opposite Pendugwm Farm.

Grid Reference: SJ103143.

Montgomeryshire Moth Group (MMG) is an independent voluntary group of people interested in moths. All ages are welcome to attend events whether experts or beginners.

This year all the events are light trapping events. We set up the light traps at dusk to attract moths and then release them after identification.

As with all our evening events, please bring a torch and wear suitable outdoor clothing.

You are welcome to join us for as much of the evening that suits you, we are likely to stay for several hours. However, in case of cancellation, due to poor weather or unforeseen circumstances, always ring or e-mail to check the event is on before joining us.

Please note that some sites are not easy to find, so please make sure you know where the venue is before you set off.

All the best,

Peter.

Warming up - here come those spring species!

Things are really starting to get going now, I had my best mothing of the year last night, the trap was buzzing with moths. I recorded 18 species, 74 moths - the best record was a pristine Red Sword-grass - very nice.

Hopefully these favorable weather conditions will prevail for our first public event of the year at Coed Pendugwm Nature Reserve next Saturday, 28th March.


Peter.

Butterflies of Montgomeryshire - 2015

Current 'black holes' as of 2015

I have just updated my 'Butterflies of Montgomeryshire' pdf. The new version is now available at the bottom of the 'Articles & reports' section of the site. The new version includes any recent data I've received; all the maps have been refreshed.

2014 saw around 50 tetrads, that previously had absolutely no butterfly records, being filled in. Hopefully we can fill in a similar number this summer. If you would like to know exact boundaries of an empty square, please get in touch.

In addition, so many squares have only a handful of records, so wherever you are in the county, please keep a note of what you see if you can.

As detailed in the post below, butterflies are already flying this year. Here's hoping for a good hot summer - I'm hoping we continue to have the most records for a single year. Any questions relating to recording your butterfly sightings, just drop me an email.

Spring is here!

I saw my first butterflies of the year today, a Red Admiral and a Small Tortoiseshell both feeding on heather flowers - nice.

Please add your first butterfly sightings as a comment onto this post, thanks.

Peter.

Butterfly records

Another quick reminder from me about butterfly records. If anyone has records from last year who hasn't already sent them in, please could you get them to me as soon as possible. Details on a previous post here.

With spring fast approaching, now's an excellent time to get keep your eyes peeled and get your 2015 butterfly records going!

Thanks,

D.

January challenge - the results

Hello All.

All the results for the 2015 January challenge are now in and have been collated into the charts below.

This years’ challenge was particularly difficult due to the very adverse weather conditions we had throughout the month, which was, as a whole, cold, wet and generally quite windy, a combination not favourable to moth trapping at all, but in the face of all these adverse conditions10 stalwarts braved the elements and between us we did manage to get a few moths, so well done to everyone who had a go.

Now let’s have a look at the data its self – 13 species of macro moth and 4 species of micro moth were recorded (17 in all), a big reduction from the 25 species which were recorded during 2014. Only one person managed to achieve the 10 species for macro, which was Douglas. His achievement was all the more remarkable due to the fact that he managed to record all ten species on one night of trapping, an amazing feat which has never been done before in this challenge. No one else really came close to Douglas, I recorded 7 species and next best was Sue who managed 6 species. The micro part of the challenge (5 species) wasn’t achieved by anyone; the best returns were 2 species, by Sue and myself. The number of moths recorded was also greatly reduced this year; again, this can only be due to the inclement weather.

The comparison chart below shows the top five species recorded in each of the four years the challenge has been going. As usual, the Winter Moth takes top spot with another of the ‘usual suspects’ the Mottled Umber taking the runners up place. For the first time, the Mottled Grey doesn’t make a showing in the top five. Finally, just take a look at the number of moths recorded this year compared to previous years, 122, a drastic reduction on past performances, but hopefully something to build on next year.

Many thanks to all of those who took part in this years 'challenge' (and what a challenge it was too!). And please remember, as well as being ‘fun to do’ the January trapping also gives us extra data for those winter flying species which we wouldn't have were it not for extra trapping done in the 'challenge'.

The final word – A special mention must be given to Deborah who managed to trap 26 times during the month for a total catch of ‘zero’ - now there’s dedication for you!

The full list of recorders who took part this year is:-

JH        Jeny Heard

DB       Douglas Boyes

PRW    Peter Williams

MW     Maria Wagland

DG       Deborah Griffith

PR       Paul Roughly

AT       Alan Tadman

TS        Tammy Stretton

SOS     Sue Southam

SS        Simon Spencer

I hope you all have a great mothing 2015.

Peter. 

 

 

January Challenge - update

The weather is promising to warm up (or so they tell us!) over the next few days - a good oppertunity to add a few more species for the January Challenge. As far as I know at this time, only one person has managed to reach the target of 10 macro species (Douglas), but there's still time to add to your January list. So come on everyone, light those traps up, you never know, that rare, winter flying Small Eggar may turn up!

Peter.

January trapping

With a mild night forecast, I thought I'd get the ball rolling with my 2015 records by putting three traps out last night.Two MVs, either side of the house and an actinic trap tucked up by some oaks. One of the MVs was rather exposed and caught nothing, while the actinic and other MV - both well sheltered - performed equally: 7 species each.

Managed to record 11 species (meaning I've completed Peter's January challenge in one night!). Between the traps:

Winter Moth, Operophtera brumata - 9
Mottled Umber, Erannis defoliaria - 5
Chestnut, Conistra vaccinii - 3
Early Moth, Theria primaria - 2
Satellite, Eupsilia transversa - 1
Spring Usher, Agriopis leucophaearia - 1
Pale Brindled Beauty, Phigalia pilosaria - 1
Dotted Border, Agriopis marginaria - 1
Scarce Umber, Agriopis aurantiaria - 1
Dark Chestnut, Conistra ligula - 1

Tortricodes alternella - 1