July 24th 2008

Went mothing in Ryton Meadows last night with permission of the warden Mike Slater. My first time here so used the opportunity as a recce to see if it was a suitable place to take the warwickbirders mothing as an alternative to Brandon Marsh. The place is excellent, met up with Mike who was very welcoming and as we set up 4 traps and a light sheet Alan Prior was also setting up independently of us some distance away so I managed to introduce me self as we have never met. The man knows his micros so was very helpful in identifying some those extremely small moths we normally ignore because they are so hard to tell apart.
Weather was very humid, not dropping below 15c and the moths poured in and with just one report to come in we have so far reached 93 species of 588 moths with the highlight being three new species for me in Warwickshire, Mere Wainscot, Suspect caught by Alan and a cracking Lobster Moth caught by Dennis. This moth was presumed to be extinct in Warwickshire with the last published record in 1974 though there was a visual sighting of one in 2006 by Alan so he was pretty chuffed when we showed him the moth.
Plenty of Badger activity and Tawny Owls were very vocal half way through the night.
The valley was very quiet this evening with only 2 Buzzards and a few Linnets seen.

Richard

Richard