1st: Well, its been a few days and I am starting to miss finding any moths, been raining or too cold to find anything lately its between 1C and -5C (33.8F and 23F) at night here, if it didn't rain, I'd put trap out just to see if anything is around, but so far, its too wet to try, even if night is dry, morning is wet and too wet to check trap if I did put it out. Hopefully will get the chance soon.

2nd: Put heath trap out tonight in Mountstewart, Co Down, Northern Ireland (J559699) in a small forest beside my house, its about 6C (42.8F) at moment and cloudy, with full moon peaking between cloud, but seems ok for trapping, supposed to get as low as -3C (37.4F), but hopefully something will come before it gets too cold.

3rd: Checked my heath trap and caught one moth and what appeared to be hundreds of Sminthuridae species of springtails, never seen so many before. Really amazed at how many there was. It did rain last night, trap was a little wet. The only moth I caught was a single Chestnut (Conistra vaccinii)

4th: Going to trap tonight in Mountstewart, Co Down, Northern Ireland (J559699), however the weather report I got was for between 9C (48.2F) and -7C (19.4F) tonight! So if it gets that low, not a chance of really finding anything, possibly snow at that temperature. But it stopped raining and temperature didn't get as cold as the report I was reading.

As I was returning home from placing moth trap out, on wall beside my house, I found a single Chestnut (Conistra vaccinii).

5th: I had trap in a doorway of a creamery building that is between a forest and an orchard. The building used to be for making cream and storing milk. Got two Winter Moths (Operophtera brumata) males. One had 24mm wingspan, other I mistook for Northern Winter Moth (Operophtera fagata) as it had a 34mm wingspan, but it was a large Winter Moth male.

6th: Did the same as previous night and put trap in doorway to creamery, nothing came. Next time I may move trap as its not in a great place, especially for December.

7th: I put trap out last night in Mountstewart, Co Down, Northern Ireland (J557703). Someone I know was throwing out an old small metal table, so I took that and put trap on top of it for more height to the light. Battery is heavy enough (motorcycle battery) to stop table falling over as it only has one leg on stand, plus it comes apart easily so I can move it around and get more height in some lower lying areas here.

I put trap against wall, but it didn't help. It was 5C (41F) and strong wind though, maybe that didn't help much and the trap light could not be seen too well from wall.

8th: A few people mentioned looking for Winter Moths (Operophtera brumata) by searching at night with a light. I did the same by searching the forest near my house and found:

1 Winter Moth Male (Operophtera brumata) - Came to torch light and sat on a beech nut case.
1 Chestnut (Conistra vaccinii)
1 Red-Green Carpet (Chloroclysta siterata)

Was not a bad search, liked the Red-Green Carpet. (See gallery above for images)

9th: Put trap in apple orchard in Mountstewart, Co Down, Northern Ireland (J559699) and was not expecting anything. I got 3 male Mottled Umber (Erannis defoliaria) two were typical coloured and other was a dark form that was brown. Video of the moths are here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gbjJVqdyvo

10th: Found a Winter Moth Male (Operophtera brumata) on window of my house in Mountstewart, Co Down, Northern Ireland. (J559699). Its 4C and quite foggy here, so I put trap out anyway in orchard nearby my house, but don't know if I'll get anything.

11th: Found one Winter Moth Male (Operophtera brumata) and several slugs in trap. It was misty when I went out and surprised anything was in trap.

13th: Put one trap in the forest right next to my house, up a little hill in the forest so the light can get out up the forest hill on one side, and across the road and (not sure if anything in forest across the hill will see it, but still, worth a try)

14th: Checked my trap in morning and nothing was in it, guess it was too cold. In evening I went out for a walk in forest in Mountstewart, Co Down, Northern Ireland (J553703) and when I was out, I came across 7 Winter Moth Males (Operophtera brumata) which all came to torch light, three landed on me, one flew towards a tree and one landed in my heath trap as I was setting it up in the same area as I found all winter moths. The weather was about 8C (48.2f) and I set my trap out about 8:30pm after the rain had died off.

On way back home, I found a Chestnut (Conistra vaccinii) which was sitting on a young beech tree trunk not far from where I set up heath trap. As I came close to it, it "played dead" and fell to the vegetation below. I have observed this behaviour in this species before, it can deter a predator if its prey falls to the vegetation below and is hard to spot.

15th: Weather started 8C and got down to about 6C (42.8f) at 1:30pm, weather was foggy for a while, but then cleared, but I don't know how long the light of the heath trap will last on a 18amp motorcycle battery. I went to check trap and got quite a few moths, quite surprising as this was the most I had got in ages:

9 Winter Moth Male (Operophtera brumata)
1 Chestnut (Conistra vaccinii) - Very worn
3 Mottled Umber Males (Erannis defoliaria)

17th: it was 5C most of the night with a slight cold wind. Put trap out day before at 8pm in Mountstewart, Co Down, Northern Ireland (J559699). As I was about to get my trap ready for setting out on 8th, I looked inside it and found two small caterpillars in an egg box! Both are  and not sure how they got in there. I am currently feeding them on bramble and hoping to see them become adults next year.

While I am still trapping and recording my sightings, I am also working on updates to the pages on this site, and its taking a long time, not sure if I'll be done in a long while. Well Merry Christmas everyone, hope you all have a great one and always remember to keep checking this website for updates and additions.

22nd: Well, its very close to Christmas and snow has been falling in flakes. Its been too cold to really find anything, so I have not trapped in a few days. Hoping to have my new heath trap up and running by the middle of January and then maybe turn up more species. I did however see one White-Shouldered House Moth (Endrosis sarcitrella) in my bathroom yesterday. Well, they are found in houses as well as outdoors, hence the name. It did have a much duller white band below its head than normal and it was a male.

Page last edited: 23/12/2009 00:12