Wildlife

But maddest of all was this Psyche casta bagworm moth, which decided to ascend the wall of my office one afternoon. It climbed 2.5 m in a couple of hours, then vanished onto the roof. A mammoth achievement for something so small. And begged the question: why bother? As Phil Sterling, a moth guru who has devoted (diverted?) much of his life to this wacky moth family: "Ah, bagworms! Yes, that way lies madness."

Wildlife

The evening was hugely mothy - more like July than March. Indeed, it was mad, with scores of moths flying around us - up noses, down jumpers and even into underwear. We estimated around 600 moths of 24 species, with the vast majority being Small Quaker. 

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2 April 2021 Mad March Moth

A couple of warm nights this week proved good for mothing. On one evening, a couple of us ran some LED and actinic traps in a local oak woodland. I was hoping for Small Brindled Beauty (but suspected we would be too late in their season), Pammene giganteana (for which it would be a new site for this Nationally Scarce species that I have otherwise seen only with a pheromone lure) and - ever hopeful - Blossom Underwing. We managed six of the middle, which was a nice result. 

James Lowen 

Despite checking them carefully, their morass revealed no rare congener. Nevertheless, there was a nice array of moths: a few Satellite, Engrailed, Oak Beauty, Pine Beauty, Frosted Green and (relatively early) Nut-tree Tussock plus a single Yellow Horned (a moth that I've not seen very often). A bit of 'noc mig' birding too: some Bar-tailed Godwits chattered their way overhead (a Norwich area mega, and a species also recorded that evening by Dave Andrews nearby at Hellesdon) and two flocks of Wigeon whistled their way east. All in all, most pleasing.