Just a quick one tonight as I have had yet another very busy day in the field. I'm even running 24 hours behind with my blog. OK, so last night Michael took Mat and I to Rowland Wood to look for this cool fungi, Bog Beacon. It's really quite bright, almost luminous, and grows in boggy pools in the wood there. A new one on me, thanks for the tick Michael!
Mat thought they were lollies...
Last night was National Moth Night and we heped out at Michael Blencowe's event in Rowlands Wood near Laughton. Despite recently poor nights, last night was pretty good and there was a steady trickle of moths that produced a fairly good species list by the end of the night. We had a quick walk around Park Corner Heath first and heard Garden Warbler as well as seeing some Heath Milkwort and Bitter Vetchling. There were about 8 MV traps set up throughout Rowlands Wood, the first time it had been light trapped. Highlights included:
Great Prominent
Ochreous Pug
Scarce Prominent
Tawny-barred Angle (photo attached)
Scalloped Hook-tip
Square-spot
Chocolate-tip
The moths were domianted by geometrids as is typical this time of year so there were very few moths getting into the traps.
And several of the huge cranefly, Tipula maxima were also caught (photo atatched). All three newt species were visible by torching in the pond. Oli showed me how to tell the constellation Leo which thanks to his great way of explaining things I will always remember. I'm definatley keen to do more astronomy again and I think if I can back it up with some photos, I might start posting that on here too.
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