Mothing at Buryas Bridge by Laurie and Helen Oakes

My wife Helen and I run a light trap at Buryas Bridge near Penzance, having been inspired when we saw the catch from a light trap at a Cornwall Wildlife Trust meeting in 1999. Some beautiful moths were caught which I had not seen since I was a child and I thought had probably been lost through changes and loss of habitat. I went home and lashed up a trap based on four 8-watt sunlamp tubes and a reflector from a car boot. This trap has worked well to date. I am lucky in that Helen is as keen as I am on the moth catching and the pleasure of beautiful moths and new species is shared, although I must admit that we do not always agree on the defining markings of moth identification! We are fortunate in having a good variety of shrubs, mature sycamores and ash and extensive 'rough' cover/unkempt Cornish countryside on the side of a valley running from Drift Reservoir down to Newlyn. This, together with considerable shelter from the prevailing winds, makes it, we feel, quite a good mothing site. We have had a little over 300 species of macros so far and our patch does produce a good catch of the Four Spotted Footman. Last year’s total for July and August was 122. Our nearest claim to fame is perhaps the Blomer’s Rivulet, 3 recorded here.

February this year brought some real surprises. Between the 2nd and 5th with minimum temperatures of between 8 and 11ºC., we had 5 Dark Sword-grasses, 4 Small Mottled Willows and 3 Rush Veneers. All migrants that we suspected may have been brought in by the very strong southerly winds. I checked on Steve Nash's migrant moth website and found these species had been recorded all along the South coast as far as Kent during this period, including Painted Ladies which we also saw in the Penwith area. We continued trapping but as temperatures dropped we were back to normal with Early Thorns, Quakers, Hebrews Characters and Dotted Borders etc.