May 4th - Shark in the Fen
Moth-ers present:
Stephen Thompson, Lois Clarke, Adrian Matthews, Sue Fowler, Steve Lee, Bill Mansfield, Les Gardner.
As part of Wicken's 125th anniversary, we had our first Moth night of the year at the reserve
7 intrepid Moth-ers ventured out to find some Moths and show visitors what we had found. We were not expecting much as the year hadn't started well and Mothing had been slow. The journey to Wicken was an eventful one, one of my traps didn't quite make it in one piece, the bulb holder became loose, the screws came out and so did the wires from the holder! No tools to fix on site so 1 trap down was not the start I was looking for, Hopefully, it wasn't a sign of things to come. The weather was reasonable for the time of year, there was a threat of rain but luckily for us, It didn't make reality and stayed dry.
A good start to the night before we had even switched our lights on. A Cinnabar moth was found, nestled in some long grass by the visitor centre.
photo by Lois Clarke
We had 13 traps around the Visitor Centre and Sedge Fen area, along the boardwalks, by the Windmill, and near the outdoor education area—some pics of the fen below before it got dark.
As we were setting up a Barn Owl flew past to check out what was going on.
A selection of Moths found during the night.
As well as Moths we came across a rather special Diving Beetle that was very scarce in the county with few records, The Great Silver Diving Beetle.
Myself and Lois were doing the final check of the traps around 00:30 when we came to Adrian's traps to close them down, one of his traps was running by battery. We were checking around the trap and noticed something a bit different on the white sheet. Lois took a closer look and immediately shouted SHARK! It wasn't a dangerous Great White in the fens but a Chamomile Shark Moth that neither of us had seen before and turned out to be a new species for the reserve, what a way to celebrate 125 years of the Fen. (see photo below).
After a little sleep in the car, I woke to a misty morning over the fen. A few of us had stayed over, we switched off traps, covered them up, and headed for the Kettle for a strong coffee to wake up a bit. It would be a while before the public arrived so myself and Lois headed out for a walk along the boardwalk where we got amazing views of a Water Vole, which I had never seen at Wicken before.
Amazing views of Water Vole
The public started turning up at about 9 am to see us open up the remaining traps, what extras would we find that we hadn't seen overnight?
Perhaps the most surprising find of the morning was this rather scarce moth (photo above), The Small Chocolate Tip, right at the start of its normal flight period. The earliest I had ever seen one.
Below is a link to the list of Moths we saw on the night:
June 1st - Glow in the Dark
Moth-ers present:
Stephen Thompson, Sue Fowler, Ian Leach, Steve, Whitehouse, Steve Lee, Steve Green, Seb Bucton, Lois Clarke
Mothing up until now had not been that good but we were hopeful that Wicken would turn up something good. We wanted to maximize our chances and ended up having 22 traps out, the most we have had out at Wicken, The map below shows roughly where the traps were located.
Early into the evening, we came across a swarm of Bees on a post along the path to Adventurers Fen.
You might think that the title of this report A Glow in the Dark would refer to the amount of light traps we had out on the reserve but actually, it referred to something completely natural that I had not seen before. Along the edge of one of the boardwalks, my wife saw something glistening in the torchlight that could have been a piece of metal, upon closer inspection it was a Glow Worm!, Wow, neither of us had seen one before and it was putting on a good show in the darkness of the fen.
I think the last photo in this sequence looks like a small rocket on blast off!
We were doing quite well for Moths during the night despite a windy start but the weather settled down. Below are a few of the Mothy Highlights. The Twin Spotted Plume was found in one of my traps and was the first Wicken record since 2022.
Another busy morning at the public demo, in this photo I have 2 Elephants on my arm. I have to hold my arm up they are so heavy!
Below is a file to download of the Moths recorded on the night:
10th August Marsh Magic
Moth-ers present: Stephen Thompson, Ian & Lawrence Machin, Stephen Plummer, Lois Clarke, Seb Bucton, Ian Leach, Andy Symes, Adrian Matthews, Sue Fowler and Steve Green
It was August and time for our major summer Moth night at Wicken, 11 of us arrived on site with mixed expectations of what we might find. The previous year around the same time (see 2023 blog https://www.theconservationbuddha.co.uk/post/going-for-gold) we amassed our highest-ever species count of 274, I didn't think we would get anywhere near that with the kind of year it has been for moths in the UK but Wicken is always full of magic and there was hope it could conjure up something good. I wanted to spread the traps out a bit more and try a few places where we have not had a trap previously, you can see from the map below, that some of the new trap positions were in the main visitor's car park and some on the far side of Sedge Fen, conditions were pretty good, warm and cloudy, Lights on and let the night begin!
Some of the highlights of the night are below:
In terms of Magic Moths, Wicken really did come up trumps with 2 particularly scarce Moths that are specialists of the Reedbed Habitat found on the reserve: the Silver Barred and Marsh Carpet. This was only the second time we had recorded Marsh Carpet on the reserve, and two came to Ian Leach's traps. It is fantastic to see both of these beautiful Moths and to see Wicken working its magic yet again.
The morning demonstration for the public gave us the chance to see the Moths we had caught in decent light rather than just by torchlight the night before. The photo below shows a few moths nicely sitting on a log posing for the camera.
A Video of a Garden Tiger in the hand. A moth I have only ever seen in Wales and Wicken Fen
One of the group, Stephen Plummer arrived at Wicken in his Camper Van and thought it a good idea to drape a white sheet over the back of the van and the floor with a simple light and see what settled on the sheet but it needed to be held in place on the roof. Can you see from the photo what he used? They were still on the roof when he got home ) about 1hr away) the following morning.
This night at Wicken surpassed all my expectations and we ended up with 272 species, a huge amount and only just behind the total from 2023, this is subject to confirmation of some, particularly of a possible Small Golden Rod Plume which would be a first for the county if accepted but no photo was taken so that might well be discounted. See the file below to download the complete list from the night.
I have been Mothing with a small group at Wicken for 4 years now and we have added several new species to the site list in that time and also discovered species not seen for a while. Below is some text from an email I received recently from Stuart Warrington at Wicken concerning some of our records from the last 2 years.
I have your data from 10th August, a great list, and also several less commonly recorded species, such as
Amblyptilla acanthadactyla, , 1st Wicken Fen record. Great.
Epinotia sordidana, Brown Alder Bell, 1st Wicken Fen record. Great.
Marbled Beauty, 1st record for 25 years.
Rhyacionia pinicolana, Orange-spotted Shoot, only the 2nd record.
Pammene aurita, Sycamore piercer, only the 2nd record.
Grapholita janthinana, Pale-bordered Piercer - uncommon, last record 20 years ago, but Ben Sale did get it at Wicken in June 2024.
Evergestis limbata, 2nd record, after yours in 2022.
Epinotia signatana, 3rd Wicken record, all in the 2020s.
Epinotia cinereana, 2nd record, after yours in 2023.
Caloptilia robustella, 2nd record, after Emmet in 1999.
Aproaerema anthyllidella, only the 3rd record.
Also, on your blog was a visit on 30 April 2023. As you say, there are very few visits from moth-ers in April and so, your list on the blog is excellent and includes several we had no data for many years.
Eupithecia insigniata, Pinion-spotted Pug, 1st Wicken record.
Platyedra subcinerea, 1st Wicken record.
Semioscopis steinkellneriana, 1st Wicken record.
Pseudoswammerdamia combinella, 2nd record, and 1st since 1920.
Eupithecia dodoneata, Oak-tree Pug, only 2nd record and 1st since 1973.
Earophila badiata, Shoulder Stripe, 1st record for 25 years.
Water Carpet, only 3rd record, 1st for 17 years.
Elachista apicipunctella, 3rd record.
Elachista rufocinerea, 1st for 28 years.
Phyllonorycter quercifoliella, 2nd record, 1st was Emmet 1968.
Do keep coming to Wicken, and please do go to different spots and different seasons. It is amazing what you and your friends have discovered.
Wicken Fen is a truly remarkable place and full of an amazing array of wildlife. Please do pay it a visit and see what you can discover. https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/cambridgeshire/wicken-fen-national-nature-reserve
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