Leading upto the New Year!

Looks very cold leading upto the New Year

Temperatures only reaching about 3-4c daytime and dropping to -3/-4c at night means I won't be trapping anytime soon!

Hope everyone has a great New Year, see you in 09'!

End of year report.......Happy Christmas everyone!

Well its the season to be jolly etc etc

Although this year seems alot harder what with the credit crunch in full swing!

As this has been my first year of Mothing so to speak I am still unaware of any population trends within my back garden and only next year will help to map out what my garden can sustain and what species have declined and/or made progress.

Next year will see me doing more field work for the National Trust, monitoring Hatfield Forest and possibly even Epping Forest.

Anyway here is my complete records for this years Mothing.

just copy and paste the link into your web browser and it will download as an XLS file which can be viewed in Microsoft Excel

http://www.yourfilelink.com/get.php?fid=478945

If you do not have Microsoft Excel then where have you been! on a serious note you can also download a csv file version of it which can be viewed in many free programs such as open office (get it here.....http://www.openoffice.org/)

http://www.yourfilelink.com/get.php?fid=478946

All the best and Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Moth Trapping

This afternoon I set off up the road to Hatfield Forest, the forecast was very mild and at just before 4.00pm it was registering 10c
I set up the trap and sheet and ran the Actinic for an hour to see what turned up.

Within 10 minutes I had 6 Winter Moths

15 minutes - my first fresh new season Satellite :)

at 4.30pm the count of Winter Moths had reached 26 and 1 Satellite

at 5.00pm the total count was 72 Winter Moths, 1 Satellite and one Northern Winter Moth, which was very very good indeed, I thought that trapping for just one hour would give a good indication as to how prolific this habitat can be.

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Catch Report
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• 1x Satellite

• 72x Winter Moth

• 1x Northern Winter Moth [NFY]
  

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Moths this evening

At work at the moment, at apprx 5.00pm I was walking through the Apple Orchard at work and spotted 50+ Winter Moths all flying around, certainly an abundant spot for them!, searched the tree trunks for wingless females but could not find any!

In the field

Last night was the first time that I have trapped away from the trusty plug socket and went mobile with a Halfords 200 Powerpack and 40w Actinic tube.

I decided on going to the outskirts of Hatfield Forest.

This was merely a test to see if anything would go wrong and what needs to me improved.

Firstly the Halfords Powerpack took about a minute to finally strike the 40w Actinic tube, I was praying just before!, knowing my luck it wouldn't light up and just keep flickering.

Once illuminated, both sheets were put in place. I had some difficulty in doing this......the trees that I selected to suspend it from were insufficient but gave the idea of what I wanted to achieve.

within 10 minutes I had my First ever Winter Moth, and what a delightful thing he was.

I decided to pack up and reassess the location further (when it is daylight)

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Catch Report
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• 1x Winter Moth [NFY]

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Weather

The weather this morning has really got me concerned for any hope of trapping over the weekend. Gale force winds, heavy rain and cold temperatures expected to last for a few days yet!
Here's a picture outside my cottage this morning, red sky in morning shepherd's warning?

Trapping Tonight

I have set-up my 160w MBT homemade trap complete with vertical white sheet and hanging 40w Actinic tube in a vain attempt to actually attract a moth in my garden tonight!

Currently at 5.00pm its is 6.0c using my Lifemax weather station

The weather at present is breezy and mild considering that we have seen frosts nearly every night for the past 2 weeks.

No moths yet but there's still time for a Winter Moth or Mottled Umber both which have eluded my so far!

Ben

Edit : Stopped trapping at 9.45pm due to high winds. Nothing in the trap or on the sheet. Awaiting the next mild night so I can take my 40w Actinic further afield into established woodland.

12th December 2008

Hello all and welcome to my new blog, here I will be posting happenings that have been going on in my garden and further afield using my 160wMBT bulb trap and suspended 40w Actinic light, I will cover catch reports, weather trends, and any further updates to my website which can be found at http://essexmoths.website.orange.co.uk

All the best

Ben