Brickfield Meadow moth trap

By Alice Parfit

Reserve Manager

The weather has been so good recently I thought it was about time we ran a moth trap at Brickfield Meadow on the edge of Ashdown Forest. While we have carried out quite a bit of day time survey work in the meadow we have never run any light traps so we were eager to see what might turn up. So on Friday night we ran two mercury vapor lamps and one actinic light.

It was an excellent evening with over 90 species recorded (with some still to be identified) and we added over 80 species to the reserves species list.

Highlights included several notable species including festoon, waved carpet and great oak beauty, but some of my personal favourites were scallop shell, suspected and lilac beauty, none of which I see very often.

There was plenty of other wildlife on offer too with a woodcock roding over the meadow, young tawny owls making a lot of noise and glow-worms attracted to the lights.

scallop shell

lilac beauty

waved carpet