Wildlife

James Lowen 

Our night of coasteering didn't turn out quite as planned, migrant wise at least. With a Boathouse Gem in Sussex the night before, hopes were high. But we had only common migrants; indeed, all the species that perhaps arrived from overseas could equally have well been locally bred (Tree-lichen Beauty, Large Yellow Underwing, Silver Y, Diamond Back & Turnip). Nuls points. However, we did well with coastal specialities. About 20 Coast Dart (very variable; see slideshow below) was a new moth for me and other quality macros included c70 Shore Wainscot, a (tardy?) Lyme Grass, and good numbers of both Archer's and White-lined darts.

Wildlife

BLOG

3 August 2020 Coasteering

Late last week produced rather good conditions for mothing: warm nights with a southerly wind blowing French heat our way. So good for both residents and migrants. I was keen to get in on the action, so ran some traps with Jack Morris on the east Norfolk coast. Before then though, I enjoyed the headiest night of the garden year with 415 moths of 78 species including two species that seem to have taken Norwich by storm in the past year: Toadflax Brocade (two) and Caloptilia hemidactylella (my fourth of the year). Other roamers (both new for the garden) were Oak Eggar and Argyresthia prunella; Bucculatrix nigricomella another the run of records of this scarce species; and I even managed to put names to five different Phyllonorycter species. 

Beach micros sneakily stole the show, with good numbers of Elachista biatomella (new for me and apparently Norfolk's first for five years), Lamora zelleri (including a mating pair), Pediasia fascelinella (new for me) and P. contaminella, Anerastia lotella, Nyctegretis lineana, Platytes alpinella and Cnephasia longana (new for me). So no migrants (and a missed opportunity to have a mind-blowing night at home in still conditions never falling below 23C), but four new moths all told - and all scarce coastal stuff. Excellent!