Caithness Moth - Magpie

[Pterodroma]

As it is so common, particularly on moorland, Magpie tends to be dismissed but it is a beautiful moth in its own right and worthy of closer inspection. It is just starting to emerge having over wintered as a small larva and will be with us into August. It can be disturbed during the day in hundreds on heather moorland.

[nemosia]

As it is so common, particularly on moorland, Magpie tends to be dismissed but it is a beautiful moth in its own right and worthy of closer inspection. It is just starting to emerge having over wintered as a small larva and will be with us into August. It can be disturbed during the day in hundreds on heather moorland.

Couldn't agree more. Here's mine from last Monday.

[spurtle]

As it is so common, particularly on moorland, Magpie tends to be dismissed but it is a beautiful moth in its own right and worthy of closer inspection. It is just starting to emerge having over wintered as a small larva and will be with us into August. It can be disturbed during the day in hundreds on heather moorland.

It has been present here in plague proportions for a few years now, and can have a very detrimental effect on heather.
I have planted hedge loads of currant to try to entice them away, but they seem to prefer the heather - Souths mention that they feed on heather in the Western Isles. Is it a new phenomenon here?

[dafi]

On this side their numbers have boomed over recent years. Warm winters and cold winters seem to make no disernable difference on their numbers. Large areas of heather are being affected and there is some serious and extremly noticable die back. In places the heather is not recovering fast enough and other more invasive species like wood rush are becoming established in the heathers place. If this little moths success continues unabated then it may well have a significant effect on the landscape here over the next twenty or thirty years.

[spurtle]

On this side their numbers have boomed over recent years. Warm winters and cold winters seem to make no disernable difference on their numbers. Large areas of heather are being affected and there is some serious and extremly noticable die back. In places the heather is not recovering fast enough and other more invasive species like wood rush are becoming established in the heathers place. If this little moths success continues unabated then it may well have a significant effect on the landscape here over the next twenty or thirty years.

The heather moorlands in Caithness are under terrible pressure not just from magpie moth, but also heather beetle - another large hatch this year. The advice seems to be to continue normal management - mainly controlled burning. However, this practice is not as widespread as it could be, and we also find the beetle affecting young heather as badly as the older stuff.
Any ideas out there?