Bank Holiday Blues

After having scouted round a few of the blogs I follow, I'm going to start off with a recurring theme...that of the weather being so poor that I haven't really done much at all. But this does give me time to update the blog with the results from the trapping session at Carr Wood on Saturday and then back in the garden last night (despite the rain!).

Carr Wood trapping was not exactly a thrill a minute, but it was certainly very interesting. It was the first time that I'd trapped by myself (but I had help from my non-mothing brother and my very-eager-moth-er son) and all went very smoothly, although it was generally agreed that carrying the generator to the same spot next time was not going to happen! The thing is so damn heavy that I'm going to either need some wheels or invest in my own (smaller) genny. Other than that we had no bother. One guy did walk his dog past us, and after watching him cast his eyes over the wooden boxes, petrol can, sheets and then across to us three stood round looking sheepish I assumed that he'd ask us what the hell we were up to. But he just said "Hello" and carried on past!

On to the moths...We ran 1 x 80W MV and 1 x 15W Actinic/20W CFL combo and the MV lost by 6 moths to 9. Not a great total, but the temperature dipped from 10C to 7C by 2200hrs, at which point it started to rain so we decided to pack up at 2230hrs. 15 moths in just under 2 hours isn't that bad going for a new site. And I'm confident that some warm weather and a bit more growth will bring us a much bigger haul.

Moth list was:
Common Quaker x 6
Hebrew Character x 2
Clouded Drab x 1
Twin-spotted Quaker x 1
Chestnut x 2
Diurnea fagella x 1
Agonopterix heracliana/ciliella x 1
Agonopterix arenella x 1



Twin-spotted Quaker

Diurnea fagella



Agonopterix arenella (new for year)

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8th April 2012 - Garden

Due to the imposing rain clouds, and predicted downpours, I decided to run the Actinic/CFL combo (and also because it out-performed the MV last night!) and not risk blowing my new MV bulb up. I left it out all night, and crossed my fingers that it wouldn't rain too badly before 6am. But it did, quite a few millimetres actually but fortunately the hardy bulbs didn't give up and I ended up with a very bedraggled 7 moths.

Hebrew Character x 3

Early Grey x 2

Twin-spotted Quaker x 1 (did it follow us home from Carr Wood?)

Agonopterix heracliana/ciliella x 1

Looks like there won't be much action this week either as the temperatures are set to stay pretty low during day and night! Well, just have to look forward to sunnier times. After all we're ready for this rain (that's what my parents keep saying anyway!)