Gadesprings - Hemel Hempstead - Moth, Bat and Glowworm Evening

On Friday night, I joined a group of amateur naturalists at Gadesprings for the annual Moth, Bat and Glowworm event, which unfortunately I missed out on last year.

The evening started at around 9.15pm with around 30 guests in attendance. Most of the people had a keen interest in Bats and Birds, but not so much for the moths and some were eager to see Glowworms for the first time ever.

The crowd were not disappointed as they found at least 25 Glowworms along the stretch of Grand Union Canal that borders Gadesprings nature reserve.

There were also plenty of Bats to see and hear and a low flying Barn Owl was a nice surprise for everybody.

...Whilst this was all going on, Roger Prue and myself were busy setting up traps for the moth part of the evening.

We had set up one MV trap near the entrance, a second  MV trap was set up by David kirk 100 metres down the towpath, along with a 40w Lucent Briefcase Trap next to the shed.

A further 3 traps were walked and wheelbarrowed approx 300 metres further down the reserve and run from the generator.

The evening guests were enthralled to see such variety of moths, all different shapes and colours were turning up in good time including Brimstone Moths, Elephant Hawk-moths, Buff Arches and Clouded Silver's.
The kids that joined us were particularly interested in them and as David said on the night, if only one younger person comes though and gets interested in not just moths, but natural history in general, then the Trusts work has been worth it.

Traps were run until 2am and it was a mammoth effort getting them all in, with the help of a wheelbarrow mind!

Highlights of the Macro's were 14! Elephant Hawk-moths, 8 Drinker Moths, Sycamore, Green Arches, Large Emerald, Round-winged Muslin, Haworth's Pug, White Satin, Plain Golden-Y and Leopard Moth.

White Ermine seem to be quite scarce this year, 7-1 in favour of Buff Ermine. This is mirrored from my garden trap as well recently.

Micro moths were pretty thin on the ground possibly due to quite cool temperatures soon after dark, but a Scoparid needs checking, it looks very similiar to Scoparia ambigualis (and probably is), but seems very white in appearance and stood out immediately. It has certain characteristics present in Eudonia delunella, which is currently not found in Herts.

To be checked....
Strangely in the photo it doesn't look that white!

Catch Report - 27/06/14 - Westbrook Hay - Hemel Hempstead - 3x 125w MV Robinson Trap, 1x 40w Lucent Suitcase Trap, 1x 160w MBT Robinson Trap & 1x 80w Actinic Suitcase Trap.

76 Macros and 38 Micros ( 114 species)

Macro Moths

1x Angle Shades
3x Barred Straw
1x Beautiful Golden-Y
2x Beautiful Hook-tip
3x Bright-line Brown-eye
6x Brimstone Moth
3x Buff Arches
7x Buff Ermine 
2x Buff Footman  
5x Burnished Brass  
1x Cinnabar
25+ Clouded Border  
10x Clouded Silver  
1x Common Emerald
5x Common Footman
5x Common Wave 
1x Common White Wave  
3x Coronet
10x Dark Arches  
3x Dingy shears 
2x Dot Moth
5x Double Square-spot  
8x Drinker  
1x Dun-bar
2x Dwarf Cream Wave
14x Elephant Hawk-moth
1x Engrailed
1x Eyed Hawk-moth
1x Fan-foot  
1x Fern
2x Flame  
4x Flame Shoulder 
1x Green Arches  
1x Green Pug
2x Grey Pug
1x Haworth's Pug
2x Heart & Club  
20x Heart & Dart   
4x July Highflyer
1x Large Emerald
4x Large Yellow Underwing
1x Leopard Moth
2x Light Arches  
1x Light Emerald  
1x Lychnis
2x Maple Prominent
3x Marbled Minor
1x Miller
5x Mottled Beauty  
8x Mottled Rustic  
2x Oak Nycteoline
1x Pale Mottled Willow
1x Pale Prominent
9x Peppered Moth  
1x Plain Golden-Y 
2x Poplar Grey
1x Poplar Hawk-moth
4x Riband Wave  
3x Round-winged Muslin
1x Scarce Footman
1x Shark
2x Short-cloaked Moth
3x Silver-ground Carpet  
2x Single-dotted Wave
2x Small Fan-footed Wave
6x Smoky Wainscot
2x Snout
1x Straw Dot 
4x Swallow-tailed Moth
1x Sycamore
1x Tawny Marbled Minor
1x Turnip Moth
10x Uncertain  
1x White Ermine
2x White Satin Moth
2x Willow Beauty

Micro Moths

1x Blastobasis laticolella
1x Pleuroptya ruralis
1x Agapeta hamana  
1x Aphomia sociella  
3x Eurrhypara hortulata
10x Chrysoteuchia culmella
1x Phtheochroa rugosana
1x Gypsonoma dealbana
1x Phlyctaenia coronata
1x Pandemis cerasana  
1x Pandemis heparana  
2x Celypha lacunana
1x Archips podana
1x Hedya pruniana  
2x Hedya nubiferana
1x Hedya salicella  
3x Clepsis spectrana  
1x Acentria ephemerella
2x Elachista maculicerusella
3x Pterophorus pentadactyla
1x Aleimma loeflingiana
2x Eudonia mercurella  
2x Cnephasia sp
1x Coleophora sp  
1x Ditula angustiorana
2x Crambus pascuella
1x Phycitodes binaevella
1x Dipleurina lacustrata
1x Paraswammerdamia nebulella
2x Eucosma cana
1x Batia unitella  
2x Udea olivalis
1x Eudonia pallida 
2x Archips xylosteana
2x Celypha striana  
10x Scoparia ambigualis
2x Scoparia pyralella
1x Yponomeuta evonymella

Sycamore

Large Emerald

Blastobasis laticolella - odd colour

Hedya salicella

Paraswammerdamia nebulella

Eudonia sp