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Field Trip - Broxbourne Woods - 14/05/16

Last night the Herts moth group assembled at the West car park at Broxbourne woods for the second official outing of the year. We were also joined by the ranger whom was there on hand to introduce a handful of people to the nocturnal delights that we would hope to see in the woods. The group went off in search of Bats whilst the final traps were being set up. In total 16 traps and one sheet and bulb were set up running in all directions from the car park, probably complete over-kill considering the dismal conditions of clear skies and falling temperatures. By dusk and before any lights were on we could see our breath and an hour into the session dew was visible on the grass. Coupled with a bright near first-quarter moon things were not looking good. The bat walk had returned and luckily we had a few bits to show them but it was literally scraping at the barrel for a moth as it continued to get cooler and cooler and after packing away the equipment at 11.30pm, the temperature on my car read 3 degrees! Many thanks to Broxbourne Woods for allowing us to host this event in which we plan to do again this year on a (hopefully) more favourable night. Also thank you to all of the people who turned up and made this event happen and for those who stayed to help me pack up. Finally I will end on some GOOD NEWS. We did manage to catch our target species, the Great Prominent, 4 in total although only one that I was aware of on the night as we had packed up and left before Graeme Smith did at 1:20am. The moth came in as we were standing at the actinic briefcase trap, flittering around the tubes it was very clear what the moth was before it even settled. The spectators were suitable impressed with how large the moth was compared to the first species we had showed them (a Male Pale Tussock) Another moth of note was a single Grey Birch that Steve Easby spotted on a tree trunk no where near a light, a great find and a particularly uncommon moth for the County, well done Steve.

There are of course some pending identifications of some Elachista and Coleophora species.

Another species of Caterpillar was shown to me, but I cannot recall what it was?

All in all it was nice to spend an evening with like minded people and great to catch up on everything moths!

NEXT TRIP

Our third trip is on Thursday 09th of June at Roughdown Common in Hemel Hempstead followed closely by the fourth trip at Balls Wood, Hertford on Saturday the 11th of June (our effort for National Moth Night)

Catch Report - 14/05/16 - Broxbourne Woods -16 traps a mixture of 125w MV, 160w MBT and Actinic bulbs

Macro Moths

4x Great Proninent 1x Green Carpet 3x Lesser Swallow Prominent 1x Swallow Prominent 1x White Pinion-spotted 1x Grey Birch 3x Pale Tussock 1x Angle Shades 1x Clouded-bordered Brindle 2x Silver-ground Carpet 3x Green Carpet

Micro Moths

5x Nematopogon swammerdamella 1x Adela reamurella 1x Tinea semifulvella 1x Incurvaria mascuelella 2x Elachista canapennella 1x Elachista sp 3x Coleophora sp

Leaf-mines

Stigmella aurella - Abundant Eriocrania chrysolepidella - Many Emmetia marginea - Few

Larvae