Welcome

Hello and welcome to my moth Blog. I now reside in a small village in East Cambridgeshire called Fordham. My Blog's aim is to promote and encourage others to participate in the wonderful hobby that is Moth-trapping.
Moth records are vital for building a picture of our ecosystem around us, as they really are the bottom of the food chain. They are an excellent early indicator of how healthy a habitat is. I openly encourage people to share their findings via social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter & Instagram.
So why do we do it? well for some people it is to get an insight into the world of Moths, for others it is to build a list of species much like 'Twitching' in the Bird world. The reason I do it....you just never know what you might find when you open up that trap! I hope to show what different species inhabit Cambridgeshire and neighbouring counties.
On this Blog you will find up-to-date records and pictures.
I run a trap regularly in my garden and also enjoy doing field trips to various localities over several different counties.
Please also check out the links in the sidebar to the right for other people's Blogs and informative Websites.
Thanks for looking and happy Mothing!

KEY

NFY = New Species For The Year
NFG = New Species For The Garden
NEW! = New Species For My Records

Any Species highlighted in RED signifies a totally new species for my records.

If you have any questions or enquiries then please feel free to email me
Contact Email : bensale@rocketmail.com

My Latest Notables and Rarities

Sunday 12 January 2020

Best Macro Moths of 2019

1. Four-dotted Footman (14/06/19) - Chippenham Fen - New to me - A fairly common moth in the Brecks and Fens but absent from Hertfordshire. A really lovely moth and a pleasure to see and not many British Moths are blue.

2. Reed Leopard (14/06/19) - Chippenham Fen - New to me - A known location for this species and the next one also, we trapped around 10 of these, a real treat to see.

3. Silver Barred (14/06/19) - Chippenham Fen - New to me - The target monitoring species for the night and unbelievably the first moth that I jotted down on my list, it was to be the only one all night to my traps, but others did trap it on the same night in different locations.

4. Pearly Underwing (20/06/19) - Stevenage Garden - New for garden - An infrequent migrant for me, with 4 Herts records now over 9 years. This was the 700th species for my garden at the time, also I struck lucky twice and trapped another one in September!

5. Beautiful Carpet (23/06/19) - Bramfield Park Woods - New to me - This site continued to deliver all year and on the 23rd of June it was no different, with 3 new moths for my records. This one had to top it all! It was one of two as well, such a pretty moth owing well to it's name.

6. Purple-bordered Gold (03/07/19) - Holt Heath NR - New to me - My favourite moth from the trip, what a stunner. A moth that I never expected to find but I guess I was in the right habitat for it!

7. Marsh Oblique-barred (03/07/19) - Holt Heath NR - New to me - More the size of a micro really, this plain little thing and similar to the common Pinion-streaked Snout, that I see here in Herts, was again a welcome moth and nice to add to my records. I spotted it flying around the Reedbeds at dusk.

8. Dotted Rustic (11/07/19) - Stevenage Garden - New to me - Only the 5th modern record (post 2000) for Herts. This was a big shock for me in the trap and one of my best garden moths of the year. This use to be a regular moth in Herts in the 70s and 80s. Could it be making a slow come back? We all hope so.

9. Beautiful Marbled (26/07/19) - Stevenage Garden - New for garden & New to Herts - The highlight of the year for me was trapping this little stunner, found on the last egg box in the Robinson Trap. It was during a week of good migration, and it turned up in a fair few other places as well Nationally.

Next... to the micros!


Posted by Bennyboymothman at 11:54

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