Field Trip - Thorndon Country Park - 23/09/10

Awful, absolutely awful is what our latest trapping session was.

All day it rained but the temperatures remained very good at 18c and it was predicted to stop raining for the evening...good! and it did just that, with cloud still lingering I proceeded down the chocker M11 only to be confronted with not one but two accidents, a stranded lorry and a broken down car, so I eventually got there after nearly 2 hours travelling (a journey which normally only takes me 40 minutes)
Arriving the sky had, yes you've guessed it...Cleared! argh! and to top it all off the moon was still shining bright.
We'd hope the light breeze would bring some cloud over, it did for a while, fine wispy stuff that could not conceal the moon and then it didn't as the breeze dropped off, leaving us with a clear sky a bright moon and very little coming to the trap.

In short we spotted more species of Fungi than Moths! with just a single Brimstone Moth, Lesser Yellow Underwing, Agonopterix arenella, 4 Light Emerald....that's four species so far are you keeping up?
The 5th species we were very surprised about as it made up about 97% of the catch, it was to be the Oak Lutestring, not a common moth here in Essex but it seemed pretty common here tonight with to my knowledge more than 25 individuals turning up to all 3 traps.

Maybe we will get one more field trip in before the year ends, i'm hopeful but please don't grace us with clear skies and full moon again on arriving to our destination.