White Sheet at Lake Vyrnwy

Well, it’s April and the first event of the year was last Saturday. The weather didn’t look too promising. During the previous week or so nightly temperatures had dipped and the general weather had been accompanied by a chilly breeze, all of which didn’t bode well for good mothing.

When I arrived on site Douglas and Dave were already there, we all mumbled something negative about the weather then proceeded to set up base camp. The chilly breeze was blowing along the car park from the main road so we decided to give the ‘white sheet set up’ some protection. We fixed it on the side of my Landover (as pictured), facing away from the breeze; this seemed to be the best answer. As we were setting up the other traps Chris Williams turned up with his traps, so ultimately we had the site well covered with seven traps – shortly after 8pm the lights were switched on - all we needed then were the moths.

Mutterings about the cold night continued and, as usual, several of us gave our prediction as to how many species would be trapped during the night; this ranged between 11 and 18 (the 18 was mine guess, very optimistic by the way). It wasn’t long however before the first moth was potted, a Chestnut, this was quickly followed by influx of species; Hebrew Character, Small Quaker, Common Quaker and Red Chestnut.  This was making me think that my 18 species wasn’t too optimistic after all, but things slowed down after that and I knew I was on a looser. Slowly, throughout the evening, further species came to the table: Clouded Drab, a pristine Pale Brindled Beauty and Mottled Grey, but it was hard going especially hanging around in the cold. As the evening drew on, a Twin-spotted Quaker and a cracking Water Carpet were potted. The final species of the evening, and arguably the best, was a lovely Pine Beauty, a species which several attending hadn’t seen before.

Unfortunately, our target species, the Blossom Underwing, didn’t make a show and no micro moths were recorded, although Douglas did see one micro but it dive bombed into the undergrowth as he swished the net to catch it – the one that got away!

Shortly after 11:00pm we decided to call it a night. Chris Williams had rightly guessed that 11 species would be recorded. I get the dunces hat for being way off the mark with my 18, still, what do I know, I must do better next time! Another debate ensued throughout the evening as to what the actual temperature was. Both Douglas and I had taken along thermometers and we joked about the differing temperatures both devices showed throughout the evening, but quality came to the front in the end, and of course my thermometer which showed 6.7c. was clearly correct and this was the lowest temperature recorded (however, had Douglas written this report I feel this tale may have had a different outcome!!). I sense the ‘battle of the temperatures’ may continue on our next event!

Many thanks to the ten enthusiastic moth-ers who turned up for the event. It was an excellent number for this time of year given the weather conditions. Let’s hope our next event at Llanymynech Rocks is a little more conducive for our mothing.

Peter.

It was 6:30 pm and I was about to leave for Llanymynech Rocks for the evening’s mothing event, but I must admit, there was more than a little bit of trepidation in my mind as to whether I should have cancelled the event. It had rained for most of the day (very heavy at times), at my home in the west of the county, but I had kept an eye on the weather forecast which seemed to suggest that the further north and east you travelled in Wales, the more patchy and light the rain would become. Several people had contacted me throughout the day to confirm whether the event was still on and going by the strength of the weather forecast, and the gazebo serving as a dry base camp, I had said yes, so, I was really keeping my fingers crossed that the weather would ‘play ball’ and not turn awful.
 
During my journey to Llanymynech Rocks (which takes me about an hour), it became apparent that the rain was indeed getting lighter, this certainly lifted my spirits and by the time I arrived ‘on site’ the rain was almost non existent. I was greeted by Chris, Douglas and Rhona, we all had a quick chat about the weather (as you do), then proceeded to set the traps up, which were all switched on at about 9:00pm. Unfortunately, Rhona’s generator was playing up, we tried to get it going, but it kept cutting out, so we gave up on using that particular trap. We were now running 4 x 125w mv traps, 1 x 30w synergetic trap and a white sheet using a 125w bulb. By now, eleven of us had braved the weather and turned up, so I really hoped that the main participants in this theatre, i.e. the moths, were going to play their part and arrive on cue... and they did, not in numbers, but they were there to be recorded.
 
Within the first few minutes of switching on the traps, a Small Phoenix and a Spruce Carpet were potted, these were soon followed by a Scalloped Hazel, Green Carpet and the White-pinion Spotted, a species which can be quite uncommon, but we saw a few during the evening. A pristine Brimstone Moth was brought to the table along with what was probably the best species of the evening, a Dark Brocade. As the evening progressed, species were steadily coming to the table, Flame Shoulder, Common Marbled Carpet, Silver-ground Carpet, Flame Shoulder, Pale Tussock and a very nice Clouded Silver. There were a few Nut-tree Tussock and Shuttle-shaped Dart and a Treble Lines, the only pug of the evening was a 

At approx 12:30am we decided that we’d had enough and as we were packing away the kit we found a Buff-tip, a Small Square-spot, and a very nice Cream Wave sitting on the outside of a trap; what a nice way to wrap up the event.
 
We had come along to this site with the hope of recording a few species which are particularly associated with limestone and we weren’t disappointed as we recorded the Small Waved Umber and a Light Feathered Rustic, both good species for the county.
 
Micro moths were very thin on the ground and only one species was potted, a Pyrausta aurata. A few others were seen, but the windy conditions meant that netting them was really difficult. On this occasion, no migrant species were recorded.
 
Unfortunately, the white sheet, which is usually very good at drawing the moths to it, was pretty useless at this event, because of the gusty wind, nothing much settled on it, or if it was soon blown off.
 
Many thanks to Rhona from Shropshire Wildlife Trust, with whom I organised this joint event, and to everyone else who came along, for what in the end, turned out to be quite a good evening’s mothing.
 
Peter.