Doc.B's Nature Blog

Well going back to the ringing session this week,having trapped 2 Long Tailed Tits in the feeding flock,I could not remember when I had last caught a LOTTI at this site so I checked the Junta de Los Rios excel folder and found that since I had started ringing there in March 2000 I had only trapped the species in 2014,a total of 8 birds in the July of that year and 6 alone on the 9th-WOW,doesnt time fly!!

So,back to yesterday the 9th.,alarm bells ringing ,or rather NOT.For the 2nd time this week reset alarm on mobile for 6.00 and forgot to save it,senile dementia set in!! I got up as nature was calling and thought ,I feel quite awake really so checked the phone and it was 7..00!! Whatever clothes came to hand and were flung on,luckily I still had about an hour before it started to get light.,dodged a bullet.

And anyway just like the other occasion I neednt have panicked,as there were the fewest moths in the traps that I can remember since last winter time.Why ?? Well to tell the truth it was a bit cooler,but the wind was the telling factor,as where I am situated,a W.wind whatever the strength is a bit of a no no ,the moths just dont venture forth.Its pretty much the opposite to the birding and bird ringing as a general rule.Coupled with the fact that a number of species that I would normally be catching,are coming to the end of their flight period..To tell the truth I feel lucky to catch any unsuspecting moth with the huge amounts of unnecessary light pollution surrounding me.,and its getting worse with the horrendous building program going on down here on the Costa del Sol.So far I have seen since been living here,3 booms and 2 busts,and where is this boom gonna end,in tears again,its hard to predict,and if you thought house prices were bad in UK,uuuffff,the new apartments down here cost a fortune for what you are getting!!

Back off the soap box and more important things.Firstly the moths.I only trapped 17 of which there were 8 species.As has been for some time the commonest was Dark Mottled Willow,Spodoptera cilium,followed by some other regular species of late,Grass Webworm,Herpetogramma licarsisalis,Small Marbled,Eublemma parva and Mniotype occidentalis.As for Trichophaga bipartita,I only ever seem to trap 1 in a session.But 1 did catch 1 new moth,a beautiful thing when you look closely at it,and it is so variable,Mallow Moth,Larentia malvata.Its English name comes from 1 of the larval food plants.Looking back in my records for last year,I caught 1 on 5th,Nov.and 1 on 11th,Nov,2024.On 1 of the mothing sites its flight period is given as mid Sept to mid Oct.but down here in S.W.Spain flight times can be very variable.Well I am going to post what I have as dont want to loose the type then shall attempt to add some pictures.