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April 2011
The weather in early April up to 10th was very warm with some of the warmest April days on record. Emperor adults hatched out from bred pupae and females were used for assembling with varying success. As they emerged rather early this year the method was rather his and miss with males arriving to virgin females in Cockayne Hatley, Lower Stondon, Sandhouse Lane NR, RSPB Sandy, Shefford and a male independently found at Fancott Meadow NR. Some county date records have been broken with the earliest ever records of species such at Scorched Carpet, Pale Prominent,  Pebble Prominent and Bright-line Brown-eye and second earliest for Silver Y, Least Black Arches and Pale Tussock. A Nutmeg in Lionel Burgess' Biggleswade garden trap on 12th was the equal earliest joining records for Bedford in 1961 and Potton in 2007. Another early V-Pug came to actinic light at Lower Stondon on 8th. An early Scorched Carpet came to a window in Renhold on 11th (Tom & Ace Yates). A foray to Chicksands Wood on 15th by Melissa and Andy with Mike & Marg Harrison resulted in catching another White-marked. It came to a 125w MV Robinson trap in exactly the same please as the first county record on 21st March. This was a female and was rather worn but was photographed before release back at the site. Another early V-Pug was also recorded in the wood that night. There were 4 further Dotted Chestnuts (2 in Ian Woiwod's Cockayne Hatley RIS trap on 1st and 6th, 1 at Eaton Bray on 6th by Mark Telfer and 1 at Heath & Reach on 16th by James Clark). There have now been six recorded this year with only three previous county records of this species before 2011 (2007, 2008 & 2010).

March 2011
Mid-March has been pretty warm this year so far so the Macro recorders have field trapped twice now with MV light and on the second occasion (21st in Chicksands Wood) caught a White-marked which was new for county amongst 302 moths of 28 species. This is a species that likes Sallow blossom and also seems to need Oaks as well and this fits as the trap it was in was right next to a big Sallow in flower. Matt & Lionel Burgess have also been out in Home Wood (another Forestry Commission site that is being surveyed this year). Garden lists are starting to build up now with the usual Orthosia spp. and it seems to be a very good year for Orange & Light Orange Underwing with Orange Underwing found at Cooper's Hill for the first time and Light Orange Underwing reported from Marston Thrift for the first time since 1976. Tony Smith caught the county's 4th Dotted Chestnut at Turvey on 25th and Roger Christopher also had one at Clophill on the same night. Amazingly three nights later on 28th Peter Almond caught a Blossom Underwing at Bromham - the first for the county! A V-Pug at Clophill on 30th was the earliest ever in the county.

February 2011
With February being quite warm at times it seems that many species are flying earlier than usual this year with Hebrew Character, Common Quaker and Small Brindled Beauty joining the more usual Spring Usher and Pale Brindled Beauty. On 24th At The Lodge, RSPB Sandy, The first Yellow Horned was seen and the earliest ever sighting in the county of an Orange Underwing sp. This was probably A parthenias as there is plenty of Birch at the site but no known Aspen.

January 2011
It was very cold in December with snow on the ground for several days and temperatures often hovering around zero daytime and on a couple of nights near -13ºC. This meant few nights trapping were possible but a few recorded Winter & Northern Winter Moths and December Moth.

Its time to put all your 2010 records in order and send them into the macro and micro recorders please asap so that we can get on with writing the 2010 moth reports.
The Bedfordshire Naturalist 2009, which contains the macro and micro moth reports for 2009 was published in December 2010 - see www.bnhs.org.uk  but the macro and micro moth reports 2009 are now available on this website - see the links on the left.

Also at the end of the year the macro moth status list was updated on this site as was the list of macro moths added to the Bedfordshire list since the publication of The Butterflies & Moths of Bedfordshire. Both available from links on the left hand side.

November 2010
With the low temperatures especially at the end of the month few moths have been caught this November. Andy has been making his way through the macro dissections sent in as has David with the micros. Leafmining has continued, even in the cold occasionally with Andy finding Ectoedemia quinquella mines in Oak at The Lodge, RSPB Sandy, on 28th.
Now is the time please to collate your record and send all the macros to Andy & Melissa and micros to David so that we can begin the report writing.
The Bedfordshire Naturalist 2009, which contains the macro and micro moth reports for 2009 will be out shortly but the macro and micro moth reports 2009 are now available on this website - see the links on the left.

October 2010
The big news this month was Peter Almond catching the first county record of Clancy's Rustic. This was not a species expected to turn up in the county as it is a migrant from the Mediterranean area, especially south-east Europe though it has, in recent years, established itself along the south coast of England. Andy & Melissa found the leaf mines of Parornix carpinella on Hornbeam in Chicksands Wood on 2nd, this is also new to the county.
By the end of the month the total of new micro-moth species recorded in the county in 2010 was up to an amazing 17 and a revised version of David Manning's "New micro-moth species added to the Bedfordshire list since the publication of The Butterflies & Moths of Bedfordshire" is now on the site - HERE.
Also at the end of the month the macro moth status list was updated on this site as was the list of macro moths added to the Bedfordshire list since the publication of The Butterflies & Moths of Bedfordshire. Both available from links on the left hand side.

September 2010
With autumn mothing now upon us Centre-barred Sallow and Frosted Orange have appeared (though the former was already present from late August). With 98 species added to the county micro list since publication of "the book" in 1997 there is still time to add another two as leaf miners before the year's end - come along on 18th and find out how you can help us with recording micros in this way. The leaf-miners training day on 18th went well with 71 species being found - a very good haul. We are now up to 100 new micro species since "the book" with the additions of the leaf mines of Bucculatrix cidarella on Alder at Lower Alders and Bucculatrix demaryella at Rowney Warren on 15th by Andy & Melissa.

August 2010
Beautiful Yellow Underwing continues to be recorded at The Lodge, RSPB Sandy, with four the maximum count. The macro recorders searched Cooper's Hill Ampthill but failed to find one there. The first Square-spotted Clay of the season was caught at Southill on 5th by Paul Donald and since then it has turned up again in Paul's garden and at Sandy Smith NR near Shefford, Chicksands Wood and Biggleswade. At the field meeting at Sandy Smith NR near Shefford on 6th a single female Ectoedemia amani was caught. This was identified by dissection by David Manning at only its third site in the UK - new to Bedfordshire. The macro recorders trapped at Chicksands Wood on 8th catching over 60 species of macro including what look to be (before dissection!) several Triple-spotted Pugs. Best though on this night was a single Phyllocnistis saligna, new to Bedfordshire. On 6th August two Hummingbird Hawk-moth larvae were found at a site in the north of the county - the following day the macro recorders found three at the site and took photographs (in the rain!). At Heath & Reach on 8th Mandy Holloway recorded an Archer's Dart, the 10th county record and first for 5 years - the following night she had a Chalk Carpet a bizarre combination! The leafmining training day on Saturday 18th September will be in Maulden Wood, meeting in Maulden church carpark so please do come along and David Manning will go through how to tell one species from another by the characteristic mines - more details on the Field Trips Page. Martin Palmer caught a Gold Spot at Kempston on 10th. Larvae of Small Ranunculus have been found on Prickly Lettuce at Flitwick, Leighton Buzzard, Lower Stondon, Priory CP Bedford and Ravensden. A White-point was in the RIS trap at Cockayne Hatley on 16th  with a Gold spot on 21st and Matt Burgess caught another Gold Spot at Upper Caldecote on 24th. New leaf miners added to the county list in late August were Stigmella incognitella in Apple at Sharnbrook by David Manning and then at Lower Stondon and Maulden Wood by Andy & Melissa and Stigmella tiliae in Lime at Lower Stondon by Melissa and subsequently at Ampthill Park, The Lodge, RSPB Sandy, and Woburn Park. The last to be added in the month was Enteucha acetosae in Sheep's Sorrell at Ampthill Park by Melissa.

July 2010
The macro moth checklist for the county was updated to version 15 in late July. See the link on the left and if you want a copy as an excel spreadsheet then please contact the recorders. The micro moth checklist for the county is a new addition to the website, see the link on the left for this. The month has largely been warm and dry and with the increasing temperatures have come higher moth counts whilst trapping. Small Ranunculus has appeared at existing and new sites and Lionel Burgess has recorded 13 in his Biggleswade garden alone (17 by the months end!). Another Royal Mantle was caught, this time in Arlesey by Dan Trim, surprisingly the species did not come to light at Barton Hills for the field meeting there on 3rd but 125 other species did. The macro recorders ran three lights all night in Chicksands wood on 11th and recorded 180 species including 115 macros, over 1500 moths came to the lights in total! A Vestal came to Matt Burgess' Upper Caldecote garden on 17th, the first in the county since the good migrant summer of 2006.
The macro recorders found the micro moth leafminer Phylloporia bistrigella on birch at Ampthill Park on 19th, the first time it has been seen in the county since 1986. There are other interesting leafminers about at present that leave characteristic cutouts in the leaves including Heliozela sericiella on Oak, Antispila metallella on Dogwood and Heliozela resplendella on Alder. Please contact David Manning the micro moth recorder if you are interested in having a go looking for the leafmines. We have also planned a leafmine training day on Saturday 18th September - venue to be decided.
The Suspected came to MV light at Flitton Moor on 16th and also in an elm copse near Potton on 18th. Yet another Royal Mantle was caught on 19th, this time in Southill by Paul Donald and on the same night The Wormwood was caught at Broom by Steve Blain with a second one being caught by Lionel Burgess at Biggleswade on 21st. Triple-spotted Pug was caught by the macro recorders at Maulden Wood on 21st, this is the 2nd county record with the first being at the same site in 2003.
big surprise of the month was the find of a Beautiful Yellow Underwing on the old heath at The Lodge, RSPB Sandy, on 26th by Will George. This is the first record in the county since 1979. Colin Campbell caught a White-spotted Pinion in his Potton garden on 29th.

June 2010
The list of micro moth species new to VC30 since "the book" in 1997 has been updated by David Manning to include these recent additions.
The macro recorders were away trapping in North Wales in early June but things in the county are picking up with decent catches in the warm weather of the first few June days. Eight Small Eggar larval webs have been found in the north of the county across 3 sites. Surprisingly Andy Grimsey caught the second county record of Toadflax Brocade in his Luton garden on 16th June using the well-proven "Matt Burgess special" trap!
Other good moths in the latter part of June were Small Ranunculus in Lower Stondon (twice) and Biggleswade and a Royal Mantle also in Biggleswade. Quite a lot of The Lackey have been trapped this month though it is missing from some sites where it was formerly caught - this is one of the species that really suffers from hedges that are flailed. Four Obscure Wainscot were caught on the Beds Moth Group / BNHS trap night at Dunstable STW on 26th, the 2nd site in the county for this scarce species.
Clearwings have featured heavily in the recent hot sunny weather with pheromone lures used to record them in many new sites. Orange-tailed, Red-belted, Red-tipped and Six-belted were those recorded most often though the lures have been used mostly in the east of the county. We will have to target some recording work on the west of Bedfordshire.

May 2010
The month started cold with northerly winds. A new ID HELP page for "difficult" macro moths has been started. More species will be added as we go through the season. If you have issues with particular groups or species pairs please contact the macro moth recorders and we will add these species for you if possible/practical.
A Buff Ermine at Lower Stondon on 5th was the 3rd earliest ever in the county and a Bordered White at Upper Caldecote on the same night was the earliest ever by 17 days. Very cold for the next few nights and days up until about 12th. Peter Almond caught the first county record of Toadflax Brocade in his Bromham garden on 13th May. The leaf-mines of Eriocrania chrysolepidella in Hornbeam were new to the county list in Chicksands Wood on 14th with mines also being found in Hornbeam and Hazel in Maulden Wood on 16th.
Still cool for the time of year for the rest of the month, in Chicksands Wood on National moth Night (15th) 37 species were recorded including 2 leaf-mines, poor for mid-May in good habitat. Charles Baker caught a Chamomile Shark at Studham on 21st. At Stockgrove CP on 28th, Incurvaria oehlmanniella was new to the county list with 3 caught and another was found in the daytime in Maulden Wood on 30th along with the first county record of Incurvaria pectinea (as leaf-mines in Hazel).

April 2010
A number of interesting catches so far this month with the best being two Tawny Pinions caught by Matt Burgess in Upper Caldecote on 13th and 16th. Lead-coloured Drab seems to have had a good season with several being caught. The first Beds Moth Group field trip of 2010 was at Flitwick Moor on 16th where 18 species were caught despite the cold, clear night. Best were 42 Frosted Green and 3 Lunar Marbled Brown. Two nights later (18th) in Maulden Wood the same two species were present amongst the 23 caught which also included 12 Water Carpet and a single Oak Nycteoline. Also on 18th Tony Lawrence at Eaton Ford caught a Sallow Kitten, the earliest ever in the county by 5 days. Other early moths this month have been Least Black Arches at The Lodge, RSPB Sandy and Lime Hawk-moths in Cranfield and Clifton though there are earlier dates for these two species. A Scarce Tissue was caught at Eaton Ford on 27th by Tony Lawrence.
The field trip on 30th April to Coopers Hill had rather a slow start species wise but the final total of macros was over 20 species with niceties of Scarce Prominent, which was new for the site, and a female Emperor. Overall in April a good number of species have been seen but numbers are low.

March 2010
The first half of March has been cold and cloudy with a chilly east wind much like the latter part of February. A little trapping in gardens has been done but two traps left in Maulden Wood on 3rd only resulted in two moths - a Satellite and a Dotted Border plus frost and ice on both traps! most of the planned Field Trips for 2010 are now on the website. Overnight actinic traps in Maulden Wood on 17th caught 63 moths of 12 species including Small Brindled Beauty, Shoulder-stripe and Engrailed. An overnight actinic trap in Chicksands Wood on 21st caught a Lead-coloured Drab amongst other species. Recent sightings at The Lodge, RSPB Sandy, include several Orange Underwing along the Ridge Walk and many Yellow Horned on the walls.

February 2010
The first Beds Moth Group indoor meeting was held in Stondon Baptist Church Hall at 7.45pm on Wednesday 3rd February 2010. There were 15 attendees plus the county recorders and an enjoyable evening was had. Presentations were "Macro-moth highlights of 2009" by Melissa Banthorpe, "Micro-moths on the move - climate change?" by David Manning and "Difficult moths" by Andy Banthorpe. Photos were also shown by Tom & Ace Yates and Matt & Lionel Burgess.
A few highlights from the 2009 season illustrated with photographs are on a new "highlights of 2009" page
Two actinic Skinner traps were run in Maulden Wood overnight on 6th February resulting in a catch of 1 Early Moth, 4 Pale Brindled Beauty, and 30 Spring Usher.

January 2010
The year started cold and snowy with many frosty nights. However, at the end of the month a few moths were turning up in garden traps and on the walls at RSPB The Lodge, Sandy. These included Mottled Umber, Spring Usher, Early moth, Winter Moth, Chestnut and Dark Chestnut.

December 2009
The last field trapping of the season was two actinic Skinner traps left in Maulden Wood overnight on 9th December just before the cold weather set in. The most abundant species were Winter Moth and an array of all colour forms of Mottled Umber along with a few Northern Winter Moths. Within a day or two the overnight temperatures were below zero and then snow arrived overnight on 17th/18th which put paid to any more trapping in Maulden Wood in 2009. In 2010 we hope that Chicksands Wood will be our new survey venue.

November 2009
The weather has continued to be windy and warm with very few cold nights apart from one spell at the beginning of the month. Moths are still turning up occasionally in garden traps but most moths do stay in woodland at this time of the year. Checking for leaf miners has resulted in some good records with Ectoedemia turbidella that feeds on Grey Poplar being rediscovered near Stotfold (first record since 1986) and Ectoedemia hannoverella that feeds on Black Poplar being found for the first time in the county near Arlesey. It is intended to have a couple of field sessions in autumn 2010 for leaf mines led by David Manning. Leaving two Actinic Skinner traps in Maulden Wood overnight on 19th November resulted in many Feathered Thorn being caught along with several Scarce Umber and the first Winter Moth of the season.

October 2009
With September having been mostly warm and dry October started the same so most people have been getting reasonable numbers for the time of year in garden traps. Two actinic traps left in Maulden Wood overnight from 5th however only caught 11 moths of 8 species though three were new for the year at the site. The best catch was a second generation Clay Triple-lines - this is one of the species in which the second generation is different to the first. The first ground frost on the night of 8th tells us that autumn is now here!
This seems to have been a good autumn for Merveille du Jour with many catching this species in their garden traps, though not the recorders trap :-(
James Clark caught two Pine Carpet in his Heath & Reach garden on 9th - a scarce species in the county.
Two actinics were left overnight in Maulden Wood on 27th resulting in a catch of 70 moths of 14 species. The most abundant were Sprawler, Feathered Thorn and the November Moth group. All of the males of the latter were dissected with the results as follows:-
November Moth 8, Pale November Moth 5 and Autumnal Moth 1. A single Juniper Carpet was a surprise and new for the wood - there have been several records of this species in the county this autumn.

September 2009
The month started well with a Convolvulus Hawk-moth in a Sandy house on 6th and a Large Thorn in a NW Beds wood on 7th - the first in the county away from the Sandy / Potton / Cockayne Hatley area. Another Large Thorn was found on a building wall at The Lodge (RSPB Sandy) on 11th - this is a traditional site for the species.
National Moth Night was held over two nights this year so we field trapped twice - at Maulden Wood on 18th where we caught 37 species and at Flitwick Moor on 19th where we caught 44. Best was 2 Pinion-streaked Snouts at Maulden Wood on 18th.
Tony Lawrence caught Dusky-lemon Sallow at Eaton Ford on 23rd and Peter McMullen also caught one on 25th.

August 2009
Some good moths have turned up in traps this month with the big surprise of a Goat moth in north Bedfordshire on 7th, the first adult caught in the county since 1956 and the first record since 1983. Other goodies have been White-spotted Pinion in three places in east Beds - the known site and two garden traps, one close-by and another a bit further away.
A new moth was added to the county list on 8th when a Jersey Tiger turned up on the outside of a garden trap in Biggleswade. Unfortunately it flew when approached but settled on a neighbours wall allowing a photograph to be taken for confirmation. This could be a wanderer from the establishing south London population or maybe a breeding release.
On Sunday 9th Simon Knight caught Dark Spinach in his Haynes garden, it is new to TL04 and only the 6th in VC30 since 1999. On the same night Tony Lawrence in Eaton Ford caught a White Point in his garden trap, this is the 6th for county and new to TL16. Two Dark Sword-grass have also been caught.
On 7th Tony Smith caught a stunning Gold Spot at one of his field trapping sites in the NW of the county and on the same night Simon Knight caught a Twin-spotted Wainscot at Haynes - interesting as the recorders caught one at Stockgrove CP on 7th.
On 19th a completely unexpected White-spotted Pinion turned up in a garden trap 6km SW of the known population - hopefully this may mean we have a new site to search for in 2010.
Two more Gold Spot turned up in traps on 22nd with Tony Lawrence catching one at Eaton Ford and Peter McMullen at Biggleswade. A Webb's Wainscot was in the recorders' Lower Stondon trap on 23rd, the third year running at this location.

July 2009
July started hot but unfortunately by the middle of the month it was rather cool with many clear windy nights. The heat never came back as by the 3rd week of the month runs of heavy showers were the norm. In Maulden Wood on 2nd July the macro-recorders had over 160 species to light on an excellent sultry night - this must be one of the best one night species counts ever recorded in Beds. Highlights from this were Grey Arches, Blackneck and at least 30 Clay Triple-lines. Three nights later another good night at Flitwick Moor netted several Small Seraphim and 3 Scallop Shell. Several lights were run in the old walled garden at Luton Hoo on 9th but the temperature plummeted and things were not helped by the full moon and strong breeze. However the target for those attending was Peppered moth ad one came to a Skinner trap just as we cleared up. A selection of live moths were used as part of the Bedfordshire Natural History society display at the Beds County Show on 11th/12th . Along with a prominent display board these prompted much discussion and several casual hawk-moth sightings from gardens in the county. At least 4 Ruddy Carpets have now been recorded in the county this summer. Clearwings have featured prominently in this summers recording and Raspberry clearwing has now been added to the county list as Charles Baker's larva emerged on 18th July, just pipped for the first adult record by one to lure in Alan Outen's Clifton garden on 14th.
The field meeting at Harrold-Odell Cp on 25th yielded quite a good list despite a clear night. Highlights were a Chevron and The Olive.

June 2009
The month started warm but then the rain and cool weather set in. A surprise for Ian Woiwod though on 10th June was finding the county's second Red-necked Footman in the daytime in Potton wood - the first record for 189 years and most likely an immigrant. Photos on the Beds Fauna & Flora blog. June continues to throw up surprises with Graham Buss catching the first county record of Obscure Wainscot at Chalton STW on 13th. Clearwing moths have been recorded to lure with Orange-tailed, Yellow-legged, Red-belted and Red-tipped all being seen on 15th or 16th. The recorders ran 3 lights in Maulden Wood from 10pm to 2am on 16th/17th and recorded 85 species of macro moth with 30+ micros. A good night was had at Ampthill Park on 26th but the following nights trapping at Wadelows NR the following evening was cancelled due to a thunderstorm and downpour.

May 2009
The month started well with success on the first advertised field trip of the year, to Stockgrove CP. Both target species of Great Prominent and Early Tooth-striped put in an appearance as did Orange Footman and Chocolate-tip amongst the 39 species trapped. Three days later the macro recorders ran 3 lights at Maulden wood and caught 25 species despite a windy and chilly night. Many species seem to be about two weeks early this spring, corresponding with the warmer than usual weather. A page on Day flying moths has been added to this site to encourage casual records of these species. Now, writing further on 21st May the weather has been rather windy and cool over the last two weeks and correspondingly moth numbers have been down. The field trip to Marston Vale CP on 30th May went well - 5 species of Hawk-moth and 6 Prominents in a total of 67 species. A surprise end to the month was the first VC30 record of Rannoch Looper in Tony Lawrence's Eaton Ford garden - part of an influx to south-eastern England.