Devil’s Dingle Moth Night

 

What a great night July 8th, 2011 turned out to be!

Our second trip to Devil’s Dingle was a fine, mainly dry night with just a light breeze, the temperature dropping down to just 13.5 deg C and a light shower at around 3am - not that we really noticed that, tucked up as we were in our sleeping bags then, but come dawn we were emptying the traps and a busy time it was for the three of us who remained all night.

And if you’re wondering what the opening pic is all about - it’s not actually an eerie-looking UFO about to descend on the unsuspecting clan of moth-ers with the threat of possible abduction and integration into an alien society - oh… it’s amazing what imaginative thoughts grab you in dark and remote places very late at night!    No… it was in fact a glow worm - one of 2 we found not far from one of the traps. A search in the vicinity, however,  gave no further records but a useful addition to this wonderful Wildlife Site.

But moths we had galore. Having finally identified her last remaining specimens Liz has added 4 more species to the already impressive count giving no less than 586 individuals across 85 species.

One of Liz’s additions was this lovely micro with the equally lovely name of Aethes cnicana. We didn’t manage a pic on the night so this one comes courtesy of the UK Moths website



We also saw Elephant Hawkmoth



Poplar Hawkmoth, Nutmeg



This rather striking Beautiful Golden Y also popped into one of my traps



And a micro that I haven’t seen before (in fact this was one of 9 moths new to me from the night). This is Nemapogon cloacella, otherwise known as the Cork Moth. The larva feed on various types of bracket fungus



Another first for me was the Brown-line Bright Eye not to be confused with the more common Bright-line Brown-eye, of course!



So an excellent night once again at Devil’s Dingle and my thanks go to Mary Thornton, Community Liaison Officer of the Ironbridge Power Station who kindly arranged access for the night staying with us to help set up and record in the morning.



Thanks also to Tony and Andy for their records and help with ID’s, not forgetting Keith’s sheet and torch which proved to be a very worthwhile addition with a nice white sheet spread out over his cars’ bonnet proving to be an excellent way to get up close and personal to the moths of the night.

Fellow WuFuV’s Stephen and Margaret also came along and were a great help with erecting the moth pavilion, traps and generally assisting with ID’s etcetera.

Last, but by no means least, for Liz’s contribution using Les’s old trap which for some reason seems to be bringing in far better results than Les ever had! Liz puts this down to the blue handles she’s attached. As that seems to be the only modification I can only assume that’s the reason for her success!



Catch up with you all soon

Paul Watts
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Apley Castle Moth Night June 24th, 2011

Report from Paul Watts

What a wet night last Friday was!

I think the rain started around 6pm and looked as if it was here for the night but I picked Liz and her moth-trap up at 7pm as arranged and had a brief conversation with Sean at Apley Woods on the way and I have to admit I was all set for cancelling the event. Although moths do still fly on a wet night the numbers are usually much lower and I just felt it might be prudent to postpone to another date.

However, when we arrived I discovered that Tony & Andy were already there with a trap and looking for a suitable tree canopy to set up. I had a wander around myself looking to see if it was feasible. It was still raining when I bumped into 2 people and asked if they were here for the moth night. They said yes! I later found out they were father and son Mike and Charlie here for their first moth night. A few minutes later I met a small group of umbrellas and discovered another happy band of virgin moth-ers sheltering under them.

And still it rained.

Graham arrived with his Heath Trap and more people emerged from the trees as I wandered around so I eventually decided on setting up in what I call the arena area of Apley Woods where once the grand Georgian Manor House stood. This seemed to be an ideal place to set up the traps under the trees that skirt the arena, also giving us space to set up 2 gazebo’s for shelter.



So that’s what we did. We set up a total of 5 traps running off 2 generators.

And the rain continued.

Within an hour we were ready to go and a brief under-the-canvas intro talk by yours truly led to us switching on the generators at around 9:15pm. Olly was on hand to bring a little extra heat to the evening with a much appreciated camp-fire just outside the gazebo’s.

It wasn’t long before the first moth appeared - an unexpected Light Emerald that popped into Tony’s trap. This later proved to be the 2nd most trapped moth of the night.

 

And still it rained!

On a night where I thought perhaps just 3 or 4 of us might have braved the atrocious weather I was very pleased to see around 20 souls congregating in the gazebos hoping for the rain to stop. So, all things considered an excellent turn-out. No doubt, had it not been for the rain, the numbers would have easily doubled.

But… d’you know what? It was an excellent night. We sat in the dry (apart from anyone who happened to position themselves under the 9” gap between the gazebos!) telling stories and chatting, with Tony, Liz, Graham and Keith bringing in the odd moth either trapped or found venturing out to see what the lights were all about. And still it rained.

And who was the strange hooded dude who arrived complete with a very suspect light sabre? Or was it just a very bright shining lollipop?



Was it Graham I wonder?



What made the night even better though was the food and drink supplied by The Friends of Apley Castle. Thanks guys for looking after us all so well.

The whole event was funded by Telford & Wrekin Council’s ‘£££’s 4 Projects’. So thanks go to all, not forgetting Sean Thomas, of course, for co-ordinating everything so well.

The Wrekin Forest Moth Night at Apley Castle is always one of the highlights of the moth calendar for us and they get better every time. You see so much change here with the careful and dedicated management of the woods, pools and meadow that it can only be a matter of time before it is recognised as a true wildlife haven and receives the designation it deserves. For all who work and volunteer at Apley Woods the increase in flora and fauna shows you’re doing something right! More power to your elbows, legs and backs!

And still it rained.

By midnight most people had drifted back home and then at around 12:15am the rain finally ceased (although it returned through the night)! Shortly after the witching hour the moths started to arrive in slightly higher numbers.

A lovely Peppered Moth dropped by



along with one of my favourite micro-moths - Agapeta zoegana



A couple of Snouts also made an appearance



along with a Clouded Silver and a Brimstone Moth

      

One of the traps at around midnight



Around 1am Liz and I retired to our tents whilst Olly tended to the dying embers of the fire. As is always the case I find it very easy to sleep under canvas drifting off within a few minutes and waking around 6am to find Liz sitting by the stoked-up and rejuvenated fire. “What are you doing?” I asked. She replied “My tent was leaking so I’ve spent most of the night out here in front of the fire!”  I think you’d better invest in that new tent Liz - your beach tent is just not up to protecting you from anything other than the sun and we didn’t see a lot of that!

We opened up the four remaining traps and were surprised to find more than what we expected with a total, including Tony’s trap which ran till around midnight, of 114 individuals across 28 species. Numbers were obviously down from previous years at Apley (800 and 400 approx) but it was more than we hoped for so a good result and an excellent night spent in convivial company and topped off with an excellent breakfast of bacon, sausage and egg butties at Rosemary and David’s. All other trappers were off to Prees Heath early in the morning to watch the Silver-studded Blues emerging so it was just Olly and me who partook of this superb feast. Thanks again you two! You’re the best!

The Top 10 moths of the night were:

Heart and Dart        35   
Light Emerald        14   
Uncertain        14   
Large Yellow Underwing    9   
Garden Grass-veneer    6
Eudonia truncicolella    6
Scoparia ambigualis    5
Peppered Moth        3   
Double Square-spot    2   
Snout            2

If you’d like a copy of the full list of moths you can download it below and if you’d like to see pics and short info of the moths you can use the search field using either the Code Number or name at UK Moths

Click here for spreadsheet:-

Excel File of Moths trapped

Before I take my leave just a quick mention of Apley Woods’ new website which is looking superb at the moment and I know Sean and his team have loads of ideas to implement which can only make it glow even more. Take a look around - there’s lots to get involved with here!

Apley Woods Website
 
Paul Watts
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Prees Heath and Whixall Moss

Report by Keith Fowler

Liz, Graham and I travelled to Prees Heath to view Silver-studded-blue emergence, and to Whixall Moss to view  Large heath, Argent and Sable and White-faced darter. We only saw one of these targets but we had an enjoyable day!!

It was cool, damp and breezy as I collected Graham from home and Liz from Apley Park where she had spent a wet night moth trapping. At 8am we arrived at the Butterfly Conservation site, Prees Heath, where we met Stephen Lewis, the warden and about six others who had turned out for the guided walk.
 

Although the rain held off for most of the time we were there it remained cool and breezy which was bad news for emergent Silver-studded blues but good news for viewing the emerged blues as they were still roosting which made them very easy to view.



Stephen pointed out several places where the moths were roosting. Eventually we got our eyes in and were able to locate them for ourselves.

After 90 minutes or so of searching for emergent butterflies we abandoned our search. So our first failure! It was not a wasted journey. We had the chance to get close to around 50 Silver-studded blues; we found other larvae – Mullein and Burnet; and saw very recently emerged Chaffinch chicks.

Failure number two occurred before we left Prees Heath when Stephen let Graham know that Argent and Sable were no longer flying at Whixall Moss. Also it had started to rain so we visited the local Transport café to decide our next move.

Refreshed by tea, coffee and excellent bacon sandwiches we travelled on to Whixall Moss, excellently navigated by Graham (apart from a rather dodgy short-cut).

There is quite a long walk to get from the car park to the moss along a well vegetated lane. At the start of the lane we were greeted by a couple of Swallows who posed for photographs. Here is one of them:



The lane yielded lots of butterflies, mainly Ringlets, and a few moths. I heard a Grasshopper warbler. As we watched the Ringlets one disappeared as it was grabbed in mid-air by a speeding swallow. We were in for a good session … or so we thought. When we got to the area of the moss it was blowing a gale. A passing bird-watcher told us that it was too windy for Hobbies and there was not much about. Such a gloomy forecast never deters the folk of WFV.

He was right, there was not much about, but, there was not ”nothing”. There was one blue damselfly but no dragonflies – so failure number three.

As we walked along Liz pounced and caught a Large heath – SUCCESS. Eventually we saw about half a dozen of these butterflies.




As we made our way back Liz pounced again and captured this moth



A Purple-bordered gold, a Nationally Scarce B moth (id confirmed by Tony Jacques).

After a late lunch by the canal we returned home … and the sun came out.
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