Last night was the night of all nights! very warm all day and the evening was dead calm on the edge of the mouth of the Thames down on Canvey Island, it really is a strange and almost messy place being made up of huge areas of waste ground but it has to have something good as i has been awarded the SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest) and Moths from what I had heard from my friends Graham Bailey & Don Down, were no exception! We started off walking through the rough ground and then set about getting the lights on. We had Don's 125w MV bulb on a tripod with sheets and egg trays around the base, Graham set his dual 40w Actinic and halogen combination up and I had a 26w Daylight bulb attached to a pole, dug into the ground and sheets placed underneath.
Clear skies prevailed but this did not affect the catch, estimates of 1500 Moths wouldn't be far wrong...they were literally everywhere!
(1) Beautiful Snout (the best Moth of the night and I believe only the 2nd ever Essex record?
other species of note
(1) Garden Tiger (15+) Kent Black Arches (5+) Slender Pug (1) Shaded Pug (10+) Cream-bordered Green Pea (3+) Brown Scallop (1) Round-winged Muslin (3+) Southern Wainscot (5+) Obscure Wainscot (10+) Lappet (5+) Rosy Wave (1) Lesser Cream Wave (5+) Star-wort (8+) White-line Dart (3+) Brown Scallop (10+) Oncocera semirubella (30+) Melissoblaptes zelleri (10+) Pyrausta despicta (5+) Platytes alpinella (1) Schoenobius gigantella (3+) Catoptria pinella
More details can be fiound at my blog. http://bensale-essexmoths.blogspot.com/