Muir of Dinnet - 22&23/09/2019
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Muir of Dinnet is a wet wooded heathland / moorland nature reserve at 200m in Deeside, Aberdeenshire. I had arranged to do 3 nights moth-trapping here. I spent the night of 21st in the car and on a cold clear moonfull night I caught a miserable 16 moths of 10 species in 4 traps. The next two nights I booked into the Huntly Arms hotel in Aboyne - a cheap rundown establishment that I would not recommend - but I was able to recharge my batteries (literally rather than metaphorically) and it was close enough to the reserve. (Loch Kinnord Hotel is much closer but is £100 pn more expensive). The night of 22nd was much warmer and overcast, 125 moths of 45 species were obtained - but still none of my target species. The night of 23rd I had a generator failure so that was a dead loss. The days were pleasant enough spent relaxing after the strenuous exercise of the previous few days and wandering around the reserve. There were numerous Black Darter and Emperor Dragonfly in the wetlands and a great view of Aspen doing their trembling, no birds or mammals worth mentioning though.