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Field Trip - Boxmoor Trust Land - Hemel Hempstead - 12/04/16 Last night I was joined by Roger at Gadesprings for our first field trapping session of the year. The weather had been a mixed bag all day really but with highs of 15 degrees and little or no wind, it felt rather pleasant even if the sun was skulking behind the clouds for most of the day.

About two hours before I was due to leave we had a torrential downpour for nearly half an hour, the temperature dropped and I was dubious about going out all of a sudden!

We arrived at 7.15pm ready to set up. The plan was to do 3 different sites all in one night something that we hadn't done before. The Robinson Mercury Vapor trap was set up at Gadesprings along with my mini actinic trap, switched on and left to its own devices until we returned later. It was off to the old barn next at Westbrook Hay where we set up another MV, switched it on and then drove to our third and final site at Roughdown Common and started to go about setting up three traps.

Disaster! The generator just wouldn't keep going (I think it needs an oil change) but eventually by tinkering with the choke it was stable. The another mishap and quite a big one at that, my MV Robinson which I use at home....completely dead. We assumed it was the fuse, so Roger kindly nipped back home and returned with a bag of fuses but unfortunately it seemed more terminal (or perhaps just a bulb)..........ironically this morning I expect the worst but plug it in just on the off chance that it may work and Bingo! it worked just like that. Very strange.

With the lack of the highest output bulb we thought it would hamper us, but with a Mercury Blended 160w bulb and a twin 40w Actinic setup I couldn't have been further from the truth.

Apart from netting a few Agoonopterix heracliana's at dusk, the first moth in was a Dotted Chestnut! When Roger got back with the fuses I joked that we could pack up now as that would be the best moth of the night. I was wrong. About 11pm a moth landed by the trap as we were kneeling down, a quick net and potting acrobats and on inspection it was one of the Pinions, Tawny Pinion! a moth I haven't seen since 2008 and Roger since 2006, a real uncommon moth in the County, super chuffed to say the least!

Roger was also pleased to see a Shoulder-stripe, a moth that has evaded his garden for ten years! The one we caught was at Gadesprings, less than 1/4 of a mile away.

Other moths of note were single of Twin-spotted Quaker, Frosted Green and a really nicely marked Common Quaker.

All in all we managed a grand total of 84 moths of 16 species over the 3 sites. Not bad going considering that by midnight it was down to about 5 degrees and a clear sky.

Catch Report - 12/04/16 - Gadesprings - Hemel Hempstead - 1x 125w MV Robinson Trap and 1x 40w Actinic Trap

Macro Moths

1x Shoulder-stripe 3x Common Quaker 2x Clouded Drab 2x Hebrew Character

Micro Moths

None recorded!

Catch Report - 12/04/16 - Roughdown Common - Hemel Hempstead - 1x 160w MBT Robinson Trap and 1x 80w Actinic Suitcase Trap

Macro Moths

1x Tawny Pinion 1x Dotted Chestnut 1x Satellite 14x Common Quaker 11x Clouded Drab 6x Hebrew Character 1x March Moth 1x Early Grey 1x Early Thorn 3x Small Quaker 1x Double-striped Pug

Micro Moths

1x Diurnea fagella 2x Agonopterix heracliana

Catch Report - 12/04/16 - Westbrook Hay - Hemel Hempstead - 1x 125w MV Robinson Trap

Macro Moths

11x Common Quaker 10x Clouded Drab 6x Hebrew Character 2x Twin-spotted Quaker 1x Frosted Green 1x Small Quaker

Micro Moths