PORTLAND MIGRANTS AND A DEVONSHIRE WAINSCOT FINALE

I stayed down in Oxfordshire this weekend instead of heading back home to Cheshire, as the weather was looking great, so I arranged to do some moth trapping with my good friend Alan Lewis on Portland in Dorset.

Me in the sun arriving at Portland

We met up on Friday night at Freshwater Bay in Portland and set out seven traps along the coastline, hoping to catch a few migrant moths.

Freshwater Bay, Portland

As soon as the sun went down, the traps were switched on.

By morning we'd had a brilliant night. Silver Y moths were well into the two hundreds, unbelievable numbers.

We had also trapped seven Striped Hawk-moths, but the highlight was a moth I never thought I'd get there, a Rosy Underwing. It was first spotted torched on a cliff before we managed to pot it.

Striped Hawk-moth

Rosy Underwing

The Rosy Underwing is a rare autumn visitor to the British Isles, with only a small number of records, mostly along the south coast during September. Since 2002, it has occurred in the Channel Islands with some regularity and may even be becoming established there. In Europe, it occurs in central and southern regions, where it inhabits mixed woodland.

We trapped some cracking moths during the night...

Purple Marbled

Tree Lichen Beauty

NI Moth

Cresent Dart

Scarce Bordered Straw

Pearly underwing

Bordered Straw

By daybreak, we made our way to the Portland Bird Observatory, where Martin Cade, the warden, had also set out several traps overnight. There were birds everywhere as well, and I couldn't believe my eyes when we scoped out to sea. We counted about 550 Mediterranean Gulls bobbing around on the water. Unbelievable! It was the biggest colony I'd ever seen in Britain.

Mediterranean Gulls

(c)Martin Cade

Martin had also trapped some cracking moths overnight, and I was finally about to join the Eastern Bordered Straw Club. What a moth!

Eastern Bordered Straw

This rare immigrant was unknown in Britain until 1958, when three appeared during a larger influx into Europe. Since then there have only been a handful of records, although the big influx in 2006 more than doubled the total number ever recorded in Britain. Other moths trapped of note were:

Cosmopolitan

White-speck

With Portland done, our next plan of action was to meet up with Cambridgeshire moth-er Mark Howes at Bolberry Down in Devon to try and trap the Devonshire Wainscot.

After the drive down, I had to get some sleep in the van, as I'd been awake for the best part of 24 hours. After a good afternoon's sleep and some food, I felt refreshed and ready to go again.

Between us, we set up nine moth traps along the coastline, but things weren't looking great.

A weather front had moved in from the west; it had started raining, and the wind had really picked up. We trapped a few moths, but nothing like the numbers we'd hoped for. On the final walk around at first light, it looked like we were going to dip on the Devonshire Wainscot.

I wandered over to the trap I'd tucked under a cliff out of the worst of the wind. I opened it up and, lo and behold... there it was!

A Devonshire Wainscot.

At the end, we'd managed to trap one. Get in!

Devonshire Wainscot

The Devonshire Wainscot is a local species found mainly around the coasts of south-west England and south Wales. It inhabits grassy cliffs and coastal grassland, with the larvae feeding on a range of grasses.

What a great weekend with some brilliant company, loads of quality moths and a few very special lifers thrown in for good measure. The Rosy Underwing was never on my radar, and to finish the trip with a Devonshire Wainscot made it even sweeter.

Roll on the next adventure!