It's always nice to get some new ones on a field trip! Had a great night moth-trapping in Essex last night with a good friend Graham Bailey, a trip that had been well over-due, we decided on Thorndon Park as opposed to the more exposed Canvey Island site as it was predicted to be clear and a little cooler later on. Indeed the weather forecast did not disappoint and the sky promptly cleared as I was driving towards Brentwood, though we did get a smattering of cloud at various intervals.

All in all we did better than we thought we would, with plenty of moths coming to all 3 of the MV traps, but little else apart from lots of micros to the Actinic trap and MBT. It did tend to be great numbers of the same moths, notably Light Emerald, Small White Wave, Blotched Emerald, Brindled White-spot and Scorched Wing. Best moths of the night included our target species and one we had the last time we visited at this time of year, the Great Oak Beauty, I think we managed 13 in the end, abit down on the previous amount (20) but it is pleasing to know that their seems to be a stronghold here for this scarce moth.

Red-necked Footman was a surprise and only my second ever. We also had plenty of Lime Hawk-moths (4 or 5) but sadly that was the only species of Hawk-moth we got!

On the micro front, Pandemis cinnamomeana was a good record, possbly 5th or 6th County record, a new one for me. Others of note were several Ptycholomoides aeriferanus, lots of Apotomis turbidana and five Cydia fagiglandana, the two later species both new for me aswell.

Numbers below are approximate

Provisional list

Catch Report - 03/07/13 - Thorndon Country Park, Brentwood - 3x 125w MV Robinson trap, 1x 160w MBT trap and 40w Actinic/26w CFL trap

Macro Moths

1 1/2x Angle Shades (I found a wing!) 1x Barred Yellow 1x Beautiful Hook-tip 15x Blotched Emerald 20x Brindled White-spot 1x Broken-barred Carpet 6x Brown Rustic 8x Brown Silver-line 1x Buff Arches 1x Buff Ermine 1x Clouded Border 5x Clouded Silver 8x Common Marbled Carpet 1x Common Pug 5x Common White Wave 1x Dingy Shell 1x Fan-foot 1x Flame 1x Flame Carpet 13x Great Oak Beauty 1x Green Carpet 1x Green Silver-lines 1x Grey Dagger 1x Grey-pine Carpet 3x Grey Pug 1x Heart & Club 2x Heart & Dart 4x Iron Prominent 1x Large Yellow Underwing 50x Light Emerald 4x Lime Hawk-moth 3x Lobster Moth 5x Marbled White Spot 10x Mottled Beauty 2x Orange Footman 25x Pale Oak Beauty 4x Peacock Moth 1x Red-necked Footman 2 Riband Wave 20x Scorched Wing 1x Silver-ground Carpet 3x Small Angle Shades 15x Small White Wave 3x Small Yellow Wave 3x Snout 5x Straw Dot 10x Tawny-barred Angle 2x Treble Lines 1x Uncertain 8x White-pinion Spotted

Micro Moths 1x Pandemis cinnamomeana [NEW!] 1x Anthophila fabriciana 15x Apotomis turbidana [NEW!] 5x Cydia fagiglandana [NEW!] 2x Piniphila bifasciana 2x Ptycholomoides aeriferanus 2x Strophedra weirana/nitidana 100x Tortrix viridana 10x Scoparia ambigualis 1x Acrobasis consociella 2x Cnephasia sp 2x Aleimma loeflingiana 1X Epinotia demarniana 5x Epiblema trimaculana 2x Aleimma loeflingiana 10x Pandemis cerasana 4x Pandemis heparana 5x Epiblema uddmanniana 2x Coleophora sp 1x Epinotia bilunana 2x Celypha lacunana 2x Eucosma cana 2x Crambus lathoniellus 2x Crambus pascuella 1x Archips podana