Birds, Leps, Observations & Generalities - the images and ramblings of Mark Skevington. Sometimes.

Wednesday 14 April 2010

Pants Trap

Dropped into Grove Park on the way home - pleased to see that the pair of LRPs are still present. Nothing else of real note though, other than my first on-patch Swallows of the year hawking over the balancing pool.

Ran the garden traps last night after leaving them off for a couple of cool nights. It wasn't ideal conditions, again cool and windy and the cloud lifted. I didn't even need the fingers of both hands to count the catch: 5 of 3sp. (125W MV 4 of 3, 80W actinic 1 of 1)

1862 Double-striped Pug (Gymnoscelis rufifasciata) 1
2188 Clouded Drab (Orthosia incerta) 1
2190 Hebrew Character (Orthosia gothica) 3

I've left it of again tonight in disgust.

2 comments:

Bennyboymothman said...

Mine is off too! having a few days break of rising at 6am!

RE: where I live.

It's a village just outside of Hatfield Forest (which is situated about 2 miles away)
Thje garden backs onto a cul-de-sac, that backs onto just acres and acres of flat featureless farmland.
To this day i'm still bewildered by how many species and of what species have turned up, Fen Wainscot for example, to my knowledge there being no habitat that near for them to be anywhere near my trap!
Cheers

Ben

Skev said...

Know how you feel about the variety and where does it come from! We have sterile farmland close by aswell, along with an industrial estate and the M1 - but no decent woodland for many miles.
As for Fen Wainscot and the like; the only reliable known breeding colony of Fen Wainscot in VC55 is at Narborough Bog which is less than a mile from my garden as the crow flies. In ten years I have only had one in the garden, yet others in VC55 nowhere near reedbeds have had the same or more. Reedbed species in particular seem to wander far and wide from their usual habitat in search of new sites. I reckon this explains both why those far away from suitable sites might get one, and also why those close (like me) miss out - anything dispersing from Narborough Bog is likely to head off far and high, not hop a mile down the road.