Birds, Leps, Observations & Generalities - the images and ramblings of Mark Skevington. Sometimes.

Monday 29 March 2010

Mega Mothing

Not long back home from a short mothing session at one of the best sites in VC55 - Pickworth Great Wood right over in the north-east on the border with Lincs. I decided very late this afternoon that I'd go, loaded up the car and headed off picking up Adrian Russell on the way.

I ran 1 x 125W MV light over a sheet, and 3 x 125W MV traps from 20:00 - 22:45. 9°C - 7°C, mainly cloudy, mainly still and dry. The forecast rain moving in did not appear.

Suffice to say there were more moths than I am likely to get in the garden! The total catch was 629 individuals of 24 sp. Full details and photos to follow, hopefully tomorrow night though I am out tomorrow evening so it will be late.

4 comments:

Stewart said...

ckinell! Thats more than I'll get all year! And I thought 198 for March in the garden was great...

Skev said...

Stewart - 198 for March in the garden is great, trust me. This just shows how much difference there can be between hoping the moths come to you and going to where the moths are. It's like looking out to sea from a south-western coastal headland for a Wilson's Petrel and then finding that when you sail out they are regularly around. ish.

Bennyboymothman said...

Superb Mark, glad you managed a bumper haul! yes 198 is brilliant for a Garden, the most i've ever managed from mine was about 180 in late July! this time of year breaking into double-figures is an achievement.

Skev said...

Ben - I think Stewart was talking about 198 for the whole of March?

Surely you've had more than 180 individuals on one night in the garden? You've got me thinking now - I'll trawl through my garden records to work out the two best nights ever (to date) in terms of numbers of species and individuals and post the results later.