Yatton Moth Trapping : Mid August weekend part 2

 As if Saturday's trip out to West Somerset and a wildflower field wasn't enough, at 8.30 am on Sunday I found myself driving the 8 miles or so to a friend of mine's garden in North Somerset, where, despite the rain and the wind the evening before, a moth trap had been set up the previous night. 

Higgy (for he is a man of one name) had long been trying to organise a moth trapping event for the local conservation group YACWAG (Yatton And Congresbury Wildlife Action Group) of which he is a member. This planning had been going on for weeks, but with the recent run of wet and windy weekends all attempts to fire up the moth trap had been cancelled. However this weekend despite the weather forecast being at best 'iffy' Higgy informed me the trap would be lit and come-what-may it is going ahead so come to the garden at 9am when all will be revealed. I arrived at ten to 9 in the morning, the only person at that point.

Now, I have been to moth trapping set ups before but in every case I'd been there for work. Fascinating though they were at the time, I was there to record radio programmes so having to concentrate on that I always left having absolutely no idea what I'd seen. This then would be my very first participation moment for the reveal, and I wasn't disappointed, though as 9am came and went for a while I feared no one else would turn up.

Higgy's garden is a wildlife haven - the width of a 1960's house, the garden is long, and beyond the fence he also owns a slice of the field at the back. In fact this is where YACWAG are interesting, as not only are they an excellent conservation group who run events, provide advice and can undertake surveys, but YACWAG own parcels of land around the two villages in North Somerset and once in their ownership that land is managed solely for wildlife. That alone makes it a remarkable local conservation organisation.

Not only had the trap been set up the night before but Higgy had been up since first light emptying the trap and placing examples of the 283 individual moths caught that night into specimen tubes and arranging them for us to peer at.  It was now well after 9am and I was still the only person and that made me feel sad for Higgy over the work and effort he'd put in, but eventually we swelled to a group of 4 other plus his daughter who was asked to be chief moth releaser, as all moths were released once identified. Enough people really otherwise it would become unwieldy, and as a group we set to flicking through the books and listening to Higgy's hints and tips while gazing manically at an as yet unidentified brown moth in a specimen tube. 

Some I recognised immediately like this Jersey Tiger [Euplagia quadripunctaria]. This year has been phenomenal down south for these fabulous looking moths, who seem to be exploding northwards due to climate changes. Five were caught overnight, which is interesting given they are a day flying moth. We quickly got through the easy ones, elephant hawk-moth, box bush moth, and then came the difficult ones. I was hopeless, and at one point resorted to Google Lens to identify a moth. I may end up being ex-communicated for that, but I was intrigued to see how accurate it was - as it turned out 100% and in less than 2 seconds. Impressive. But that's why I'd come, to learn. Everyone was helping each other while helping themselves to scones or flapjack made by Higgy's wife. There were far too many moths to photograph but my particular highlights were....

Uncertain moth [Hoplodrina octogenaria] - 45 caught overnight. What a beast to identify for a beginner. Scanning the books there are about a 100 near identical moths. [Update - this is a Common rustic agg. Thanks Stewart - turns out this is also how it was identified on the day - I messed up with my notes] 

Grey Dagger - [Acronicta psi] - 3 caught overnight. I loved this moth, don't think I've seen it before but its markings just say its name.  I've long loved moth names, they're so flamboyant.

Flame Carpet - Xanthorhoe designata - just the one caught overnight and it took us a good 30 minutes to work out what it was. There are so many similar species, it's going to be a while before I get my knowledge, and eye in.

Now this was my all time favourite of the day - Gold Spot - [Plusia festucae ] of which 11 were caught overnight. What a moth with it's triceratops looking shoulder plate, and burnished gold spots, it was like an art deco jewel. Loved it.

These two were interesting - I identified them as September Thorn - [Ennomos erosaria] on the right and a Dusky Thorn - [Ennomos fuscantaria] on the left. Just one of each caught overnight but Higgy was impressed I worked out they were different species of thorn moth, which is why they're photographed next to the book. In a later write up of the day for the YACWAG group I get a mention..

" I should mention Andrew J Dawes who is now my official 'September Thorn Moth & Dusky Thorn Moth' expert!"

Which fails to recognise that next week if I saw anything like this I'd fail to even recognise it as a thorn spp.

Now this beauty had us all foxed, I could see Higgy enjoying our discomfort of scratching heads and endless flicking through the identification books. After many attempts (and more than a little help) we finally got to Setaceous Hebrew Character - [Xestia c-nigrum] of which 12 were caught. Another stunning moth. I was getting quite into this.

And finally this one had us all completely stumped. Eventually we gave up and Higgy let us know that it was a Swallow Prominent - [Pheosia tremula] of which there were 2 caught. A lot of discussion took place over whether this was actually a Scarce Swallow Prominent, and in the end why it wasn't, none of which I remember writing this. 

But what a fabulous morning, three hours in the end and what I didn't realise until later was this event was being run as part of a YACWAG's "wellness-walks programme" aimed at getting people out into nature. Well we certainly did get involved and I absolutely loved it. In total 53 species were identified, which Higgy mentioned was quite low for his garden due to the weather, he can regularly collect 400 individuals and near 100 species. Amazing really from a garden that is no bigger than a cricket wicket. 

After everyone had gone Higgy and I had a chat and he invited me back one night to see the trap running and identify the moths as they come in, while having a few beers. Now that sounds like a good moth trapping experience to me. I can't wait.

YACWAGS website  https://yacwag.org.uk/

Stogumber Wildflowers : Mid August weekend part 1

 It's been a hectic few weeks and looking back it is almost a month since I posted anything. In that time I've been to Devon to walk alpaca, Somerset to ride on a steam train, Wiltshire Archives to look through some of the Richard Jefferies archive held there. Then trips to London to view two excellent art exhibitions, at Buckingham Palace (Georgian clothing) and the Tate Britain (The Rossetti's), I had new windows installed at home, spent a glorious evening watching nightjar on the Quantocks for the last time this year,  and in-between this tried to hold down a full time job while the rain lashed down every weekend.

Time to put this absence of wordsmithing to one side and recall two lovely events this weekend.

Firstly The Stogumber Wildflower Meadow.

To be truthful and accurate this isn't a wildflower meadow. It is an arable field which has had annual wildflowers like field poppy, cornflower, corn marigold and linseed sown each year, but not this year. More of that later. This sowing began around eight years ago in the corner of a much larger arable field between the villages of Stogumber and Monksilver. I've known about it for a while and tried to visit before but always thwarted by time or an excuse. A friend of Mrs Wessex Reiver visited on the previous Wednesday and sent some images saying it was still beautiful. Checking it was still open this Saturday we made a bee-line to discover for ourselves on its penultimate day of 2023. And what turned out probably to be its final year.  

We arrived the same time as what turned out to be the farmer who began all this (seated in the top image). Chatting to him he said it first came about as slugs devastated a crop he'd sown. So to not leave the field empty he sowed some wildflower seed opened up the field for charity and that first year having been very successful, he had repeated this event every year, raising money for a different charity, until this year. However he has now retired and his nephew runs the farm. His nephew has a different philosophy (the nephew thinks these flowers are weeds the farmer said) and this year ploughed and sowed a single crop of linseed. However what happened was the seedbank in the soil had other ideas and this corner of the field once again erupted into bloom and outcompeted the linseed. However in 2024 the field will be under barley and probably that'll be it. But there's still hope given the 2023 bloom wasn't meant to happen - will the wildflowers return in 2024 anyway.

I absolutely understand both land uses and the changing of the guard. The older farmer said he has received great joy from sowing the seed to opening up the field for visitors, making me think is that an age thing? As we age we look on life in a different way to when we were young. I appreciate too the nephew wanting to farm and maximise his business. All things are born, mature and then wither away, making this experiment and labour of love no different. If this field had been a traditional hay-meadow this would have been a different story. But it is an arable field which through work, time and of course money has been sown and nurtured for nearly a decade. 

And it worked, it was stunning, and has raised money for charity. Not large, maybe a hectare possibly two, but alive with honeybees. The drone-noise of their activity was everywhere. I learnt that there are hives all around that area and the keepers know their bees head for this field. Oddly though I discovered very little other insect life, albeit without really looking. Large white butterflies were everywhere but the farmer said only 6 species of butterfly have been recorded over the years (he didn't name them), a few dragonflies but mainly bees of various forms. The ecologist in me thinking that is probably due to this being a mono-crop of sorts, admittedly a stunning one, but simply a handful of annual flowers.

As I write this the field is now closed to visitors. Chatting to the farmer before we left I asked what happens next. In previous years they've left the seed heads to ripen then cut them down, ploughed and re-sown with fresh seed. This is why the residual seedbank over seven years of sowings has taken over this year. But this autumn the crop will be ploughed in and winter barley sown.  That got me thinking. If it was simply left to grass over, all of these annual arable flowers would die out, though of course they'd be replaced by perennial meadow species. Now that would make an interesting experiment, botanical succession from a ploughed field, through annual botany, then to perennial plants and all that associated species abundance and biodiversity. Could take twenty years maybe?

I'm glad I made the effort to go and visit this field even on a blustery grey moody day in August. A patch of vibrant colour in a beautiful, but predominantly green landscape. And we never know what may happen in 2024.