Mothing at Llyn Fach

I joined Mark for a spot of mothing at Llyn Fach on Friday evening. the forecast wasn't promising, with a fair chance of rain in the wee small hours. Low cloud covering the top of the craig above the lake welcomed us as we set up the trap. The only thing of note on the lake were the host Water Lobelia. As we got better looks at these we flushed a number of micro-moths, many of which were Beautiful China-marks. A couple of fish leapt out of the lakes icy waters - a check on SEWBREC shows only Brown Trout recorded for the site. No sign of any waterfowl at all.

As it grew dark and we started up the generator, a Little Grebe called, followed by a Coot. Both calling on and off throught the rest of our stay. At one point I heard a brief churring of a Nightjar, whilst another call had both of us puzzeled. It sounded a bit like a Snipes "chipper" call but was brief, sounder quite low.

The cloud descended and we had several bouts of light rain, but nothing to get us too damp. The catch, however was quite small but did include a number of lifers, as well as year ticks for myself - Species No 1000 for the year was passed at some point through the catch. We decided to call it quits not long before 2am, and were packing up when heavier rain arrived. By the time we got back to the forestry gate, we were back in the dry.

Thanks for the invite Mark.

                                          Beautiful China-mark

                                          Grey Mountain Carpet

                                          Gold Spot

                                          Scalloped Hook-tip

                                          Scarce Silver Y