Mothing Memories - Portland 03/09/2005

Doubling up as an On This Day posting aswell, I've dug out a couple of shots from a poorly planned but eventually successful mothing trip to Portland on 03/09/2005 in the hope of migrants. I travelled down with Keith Tailby in the afternoon, and we entertained ourselves looking for Adonis Blue and the like before meeting up with Adrian Russell for the overnight trapping. We hadn't really thought about where exactly we could trap, and the conditions were not ideal with a very strong wind increasing from the south-east. Setting up traps on a coastal headland could have meant trying to reclaim them from the sea in the morning. After a bit of discussion, and a chat with Martin Cade from the Obs., we decided to set up at Tout Quarry - not ideal but likely to be sheltered, still a chance of picking up the odd migrant and also a chance of picking up one or two local specialities. By the time we decided to get some sleep, we'd already noted a few good species and the morning trawl through the 8 x 125W MV traps was surprisingly good with a total of 368 of 48 species. The main highlights for me (ticks, treats and migrants) were: Cochylis molliculana 1 Eudonia mercurella f.portlandica 1 Rusty-dot Pearl (Udea ferrugalis) 1 Mecyna asinalis 1 Rush Veneer (Nomophila noctuella) 1 Oncocera semirubella 3 Galium Carpet (Epirrhoe galiata) 1 Annulet (Charissa obscurata) 5 Yellow Belle (Semiaspilates ochrearia) 2 Convolvulus Hawk-moth (Agrius convolvuli) 1 Humming-bird Hawk-moth (Macroglossum stellatarum) 1 Dingy Footman (Eilema griseola) 1 Dark Sword-grass (Agrotis ipsilon) 2 White-point (Mythimna albipuncta) 7 Delicate (Mythimna vitellina) 1 Beautiful Gothic (Leucochlaena oditis) 7 Silver Y (Autographa gamma) 13 Beautiful Gothic - a smart resident RDB species recorded locally in the south-west The Delicate - a regular immigrant White-point - a regular immigrant and recently established colonist along the south coast