Three churrs for Alder moths at Leith

The first field trapping session of the year (which, thanks to the weather is much later than usual) was at the beautiful Leith Hill on the 31st.  I had an early-ish start the next morning, so wasn't going to bother going, that is until I heard the warden, Sam Bayley, was planning to attempt to ring Nightjars at the same time. 

We started to set up 5 traps in a 'string of pearls' type formation along the paths.  Sam set his nets up much further away, so our lights would not interfere with his efforts. 

The sun had barely set before we heard the first Nightjar.  There was one particular spot near one of Bob Arnfield's traps that was absolutely brilliant for them, and we were treated to a magnificent display by at least three birds, often flying about over our heads! They weren't bothered by our presence at all.  This was in the end a little frustrating, as sadly, Sam failed to catch any birds. In fact the spot he had chosen saw little activity!  We held the monopoly where we were!  I have never been to a site with so much activity from the nocturnal birds, beacuse in addition to the caprimulgus-fest, a couple of Cuckoos called late into dusk, and there were loads of Tawny Owl and Woodcock about.

Onto the moths.  It was a nice muggy evening to start with, but the sky soon cleared.  At first numbers appeared pretty poor (the story of the year so far it seems), but we actually accumilated a decent haul by the time we packed up at 1:30.  The highlights were a load of Alder Kitten, and 2 Little Thorn, both lifers for me.  I did see a few micro lifers, but it was a fairly poor night for micros in truth, with little variety.  I am unsure which ones were lifers, as my laptop has recently broken, so I don't have my life list to hand.

31st May, Leith Hill:
Macros:
6 Scalloped Hook-tip
3 Red Twin-spot Carpet
3 Common Carpet
1 Purple Bar
1 Small Phoenix
2 Red-green Carpet
7 Grey Pine Carpet
15 Green Carpet
2 Foxglove Pug
2 White-spotted Pug
8 Narrow-winged Pug
2 Little Thorn
1 Peppered Moth (intermediate form)
1 Common White Wave
1 Pine Hawk
6 Alder Kitten
2 Sallow Kitten
2 Pebble Prominent
2 Lesser Swallow Prominent
1 Coxcomb Prominent
2 Pale Prominent
9 Marbled Brown
2 Lobster Moth
20 Great Prominent
25 Pale Prominent
1 Orange Footman
1 Buff Ermine
3 Flame Shoulder
1 Light Brocade
1 Pale-shouldered Brocade
1 Common Quaker
1 Treble Lines
10 Nut-tree Tussock
1 Silver Y

Total: 146 of 34 species

Micros:
3 Nematopogon swammerdamella
1 Phyllonorycter harrisella
2 Elachista canapennella
30 Neofaculta ericetella
5 Syndemis musculana
1 Celypha lacunana
1 Scorparia pyralella

Alder Kitten



Little Thorn

In a couple of weeks time, I will be moving down to Portland, Dorset, so I will be leaving this blog.  Many thanks to all the blogs followers, and I hope you will continue to support it.  Thanks as well to all the other contributors to the blog, particularly Bill, who originally set it up and invited me to join.  Keep it going from strength to strength guys!

Once settled in, I will probably set up a new blog encorporating all my wildlife sightings from the island, and I will hopefully add a link here once it's started.