Friday 28th
While extremely windy, the forecast predicted overnight temperatures to be as high as 12°C so traps were placed in the shelter of the Ringing Room and Elms. Amazingly, there were moths! The Elm's trap had our first Winter Moth of the year, a November Moth, a Mottled Umber and a Rusty Dot Pearl. Another Rusty Dot Pearl, two C. plebejana and a C. stigmatella were behind the ringing room. Between the two traps were also an enormous haul of 13 December Moths, possibly a record for the Recording Area as 1-5 in a year is more typical.
Friday 21st
It was forecasted to be fairly warm with only a brief period of rain so a trap was placed in shelter by the Ringing Room with some light optimism. Said brief period of rain turned into an intense thunderstorm and so it is understandable that there were no moths...
Tuesday 18th
The frost has hit us and at -1.1°C, a single Satellite present in the trap was almost an miracle. The end might be near.
Monday 17th
The wind switched around to a strong Northerly, the temperatures crashed to below 5°C, the night was clear and the moon outshined our poor MV traps! The Ringing Room trap held just one moth, unsurprisingly a Rusty Dot Pearl and the Car Park trap seemed equally dire as a single Light Brown Apple Moth appeared to be the sole occupant... Until the last row of egg cartons revealed a Golden Twin-spot.
Saturday 15th
Another good night with 64 moths of 17 species between the Ringing Room and Car Park traps. Rusty Dot Pearls had dropped in number to a mere 24 along with two Diamondbacks, two Rush Veneers, a Turnip and three more Palpita vitrealis's continuing an excellent streak of migrants this month. Of the residents there were Satellites of both colour forms and a Lunar Underwing.
Friday 14th
Perfect conditions again last night despite the drizzle, a catch of 112 moths of 17 species was staggering to say the least and a testament to the mild conditions so far this winter. Most of the catch was migratory in nature - 55 were Rusty Dot Pearls plus another nine were scattered around the Obs and Ringing Room, four Diamondbacks, a Rush Veneer, a Turnip, a Silver Y, another Gem and a Palpita vitrealis.
Thursday 13th
The wind has dropped a bit and the nights remain warm at 12.5°C and a modest 26 of 11 moths were caught around HQ. Rusty Dot Pearls again took the lead with 17 and a Gem continued their good run this year. Most surprising was our third Radford's Flame Shoulder this year hiding underneath the trap.
A brief search for leafmines produced a few notable species, namely Ectoedemia subbimaculella on Oak and Stigmella assimiliella on Aspen, both new species for the area. Other species such as Leucographella mallifoliella, Bucculatrix bechsteinella, Parornix anglicella, and Phyllonorycter quinqueguttella were recorded.
Wednesday 12th
The strong winds kept numbers low and there were only five moths of four species despite the double-digit temperatures. Another December Moth stuck out as the sole resident amongst a migrant Turnip and Silver Y.
Sunday 9th
Cold. At 2.5°C there wasn't going to be much flying but ten moths of nine species were present equally between the two traps. A lovely fresh male December Moth was the obvious highlight, a species that we can struggle to catch as overnight conditions are not brilliant during their flight period.
Saturday 8th
Back to normalcy after the previous days shenanigans. The Car Park trap bumped up to 13 moths of nine species where a Red-green Carpet and a Turnip were the highlights. Numbers were again higher behind the Ringing Room with 27 moths of 12 species though Rusty Dot Pearls had now fallen to 14.
Friday 7th
A very weird one. Overnight conditions were similar to the day before and so two traps were placed around the Obs. The main Car Park trap dropped to 11 moths of four species but the trap behind the Ringing Room managed to attract 78 moths of 12 species! It's very, very unusual for micro moths to outnumber the macro moths but there were only seven of the latter. There was a large fall of Rusty Dot Pearls as 45 were caught with more migrants including two Diamondbacks and a Rush Veneer.
Thursday 6th
It was a night of high hopes - the forecast included strong south-easterlies, Saharan dust, and overnight temperatures in excess of 14°C. All of which suggested a good night for moth'ing and the chance for more unusual species turning up. Sadly, none of this seemed to manifest itself in the car park trap where there were 26 moths of 14 species. Diamondbacks made a return after a few months with four present and two Cosmopterix pulchrimella added some colour.
Traps in the more sheltered Elms faired much better and amassed over 180 moths, though 150 of these were of November Moth-types. Meanwhile a walk along the Green Wall revealed leaf mines of Stigmella anomalella, Ectoedemia erythrogenella, and Stigmella trimaculella, the latter new for Sandwich Bay.
