Heysham Obs
A Chestnut was in the Heysham moth trap this morning. Interestingly a trap put out last night at a very sheltered woodland site at Millhouses held "leftovers" from early winter with 44 Mottled Umber, a single (late) December Moth and 3 Winter Moth. No hibernators there and no 'new' 2011 moths like Early Moth or Dotted Border. The numbers of late emerging Mottled Umber (and indeed the December Moth) are presumably a continuation of the 'knock-on' effect of the early unusually severe freezing weather (which included two short milder interludes which also led to mass belated emergence) since mid/late November. This looks like being a longer period of mild weather and it will be interesting to see what the next few nights produces, surely starting with a lot of Chestnut/Satellite coming out of hibernation. IF (and its a bit 'if') you have shelter, worth running your trap at least the next two nights before it gets a bit wild and woolly
Apologies to any birding purists for this posting
