A new one for Pilmoor

Having not done any trapping for weeks now, probably mainly due to the lack of mild, calm and dry nights, along with a general malaise that sets in as moth numbers plummet, Saturday 20th Oct looked a good night to do some trapping.  Pilmoor was the easiest and closest site to home and four hours in perfect conditions produced 46 moths of 12 species.  The highlight, although not realised at the time, was a December moth, which was new for site.  Amazingly I have only had one other record, and as its name implies is a late flier, and obviously under-recorded due lack of trapping effort in late autumn.  

Taxa
1044x  Acleris ferrugana/notana  1
1048  Garden Rose Tortrix (Acleris variegana)  2
1062  Acleris emargana  1
1631  December Moth (Poecilocampa populi)  1
1769  Spruce Carpet (Thera britannica)  1
1795x  November Moth agg. (Epirrita dilutata agg.)  27
1923  Feathered Thorn (Colotois pennaria)  8
2126  Setaceous Hebrew Character (Xestia c-nigrum)  1
2247  Merveille du Jour (Dichonia aprilina)  1
2258  Chestnut (Conistra vaccinii)  1
2263  Red-line Quaker (Agrochola lota)  1
2477  Snout (Hypena proboscidalis)  1

Acleris emargana

Noah can rest easy now....

Now ten days or so since the floods here in Langthorpe it was time for some photos of what the river should look like.  Not entirely true as there was torrential rain last night and the rather muddy water is about 50cm above normal levels; this is still 5.5 metres lower than last weeks record level.  The following pic shows some Giant Hogweed suspended in the willow to the left, which gives an indication of the flood level.  

In addition, the white water level scale attached to the bridge which tops out at 15.75 metres cannot be seen in last weeks photo!

Also compare the next photo with last week, now the detritus that was backing up against the bridge has gone.  Such blockages cause extra strain to the structure and the bridge was closed for 4 days allowing engineers to check the integrity had not been compromised.

Our house is actually just west of here and the water levels are artificially kept higher there due to the weir and the lock gates on the Milby Canal.  So the water level needs to 'fill in' the lower level river east of the weir before the level rises on our bit of the river.  It was still squeaky bum time for a while....

 

Here is a photo of our building, then a brewery for Mustill Brothers, and looking at the vehicles it must be around the 1920's.