I’ve put the moth trap out a few times this winter but with no luck, but last night I caught our first moth of the year near to the porch light.
A Spring Usher (Agriopis leucophaeria). Not a bad looking moth and hopefully one that is ushering in the spring, although, we’ve woken up to yet more snow on the ground this morning. I’m sure I’m going to be busy identifying moths soon.
Spring Usher
The Ceredigion Moth Group is up and running and we seem to be making some progress.
I’ve set up a mailing list so that we can all keep in touch with each other and we have been sending our records from 2009 to the new County Recorder. I only had a fairly small number of records from 2009 as I didn’t start moth trapping until late in the year, but I had an e-mail back from the County Recorder saying:
Your data have now been verified without amendment, and incorporated into the VC46 County list – many thanks.
It looks as though the records I kept were worthwhile and will go towards a greater understanding of the moths that are present in the area.
So far the County Recorder has received records from 2009 that amount to more than 9000 recordings. Not all are verified/processed yet, but they have been used to make a start on a County list which is being sent to ‘Butterfly Conservation‘ to be included in the forthcoming Butterfly Conservation Atlas.
We have a meeting / workshop planned for March 27th and there is a Moth Count Event in Conwy on 13th march that I may well go to. I’m getting quite ‘into’ my moths! If only there were some to trap here at the moment.
Ceredigion Moth Group
I attended the formative meeting of the Ceredigion Moth Group last night.
Unfortunately there hasn’t been an active moth group in the county for quite some time and there hasn’t really been any structured recording of the species that we get. All other counties in England and Wales seem to have active moth groups and more importantly a ‘County Recorder’ who collates, verifies and shares the data with nationwide schemes. As in many things, Ceredigion (or Cardiganshire as Vice County no. 46 is known) shows up as a white area on any moth count maps due to the paucity of data from the region.
Hopefully, with the creation of a new Ceredigion Moth Group and the appointment of a County Recorder that is set to change.
As usual with such meetings where a committee of people each with different agendas is involved, the discussions did become a little convoluted and in many instances it seemed as though we were making things more difficult than they needed to be. But we all got on well, we all agreed to the need for a Ceredigion Moth Group and we were all fairly enthusiastic and willing to work on making it a success.
It is my opinion that we should start off small and keep things as simple as possible, especially while people are finding their feet. There was certainly a great deal of knowledge and expertise in the room, and a few enthusiastic beginners such as myself, which I think is a good combination from the start.
All in all the meeting went well and we have another meeting - that will also involve some actual moth trapping - planned for March 27th. In the meantime I’m going to set up a mailing list so that we can all communicate with each other and we’re going to organise a structured and consistent format for recording our own moth records which should make the County Recorders job eaiser. No doubt as a website designer my list of tasks will include the buidling of a website for the group at some point.
As an owner of several geocaches, it is my duty to maintain them every now and then, so yesterday I went out in the rain to visit a few of my boxes dotted around the local countryside.
The first was along the Afon Clettwr, where I had a nice, peaceful walk along the riverbank in the pouring rain.
Afon Clettwr
I’d forgotten to take my GPSr with me so had to remember where I’d hidden the box, but after a bit of searching soon found it. The box was a bit smashed, but the contents were in good condition. I did remember to take a spare box with me though so replaced the container, re-hid it and then headed back off to Borth.
The next stop was a geocache overlooking the little bay of Aberwennol. This involves a little walk along the Ceredigion Coast Path from Borth up to the war memorial. This of course provides some nice views of Borth, despite the miserable weather.
Borth in the Rain
Grey Skies over Borth
The geocache here was actualy in really good condition, despite the fact that someone had reported that it was wet.
I then headed to Clarach and along the Ceredigion Cost Path for a little way. There has been quite a bit of erosion along here and the path has been diverted in a few places. Unfortunately I didn’t quite have time to get to the geocache along here as I had to turn back before too long so that I could do the school run so maintenance on this ‘Sarn Cynfelyn’ and ‘Seascape’ will have to wait for a another day.
Once again though it just goes to show that it doesn’t matter what the weather is doing, it’s nice out there anyway.
The end of a busy weekend with no time for blogging, so here’s my first blog entry about what we got up to.
It was National Moth Night on Sept 18th-19th. National Moth Night (NMN) is Britain’s celebration of moths and moth recording and started in 1999.
As well as producing information about moths, an important aim of the event is to raise the profile of these insects, to highlight how attractive they are, and to raise awareness of the declines in moth populations that have taken place. Public events take place around the country, which can be a great introduction to the world of moths and stimulate some people to take up a fascinating new interest.
Aberdyfi by Night
The Warden at Ynyslas Nature Reserve had organised an event so we popped along to see what was going on. I took a few photos of Aberdyfi by night and then we met a few other people in the dunes by the visitor centre and found Mike (Senior Reserves Manager, Dyfi NNR) who had set up a moth trap in the dunes and also one on the bog.
I didn’t (and still don’t) know much about moths and moth trapping, but we all huddled around the light of the moth trap whilst Mike gave us some stats and information on how it all works. He also told us a few stories of rare moth finds and sightings in the area as the moths started to appear. Unfortunately we didn’t get to see quite as many as had been hoped for, but some of them were still pretty impressive.
We went back in the morning to see what had been caught in the other traps and saw a few more species. I was surprised by how well behaved they were in the morning and the fact that they should be relatively easy to photograph, so it probably won’t be long before I set up a moth trap of my own and start photographing and identifying them.
Looking at the moths
Canary Shouldered Thorn (Ennomos alniaria)
Light Emerald ( Campaea margaritata)
As far as identification goes, the book recommended was ‘A Field Guide to the Moths of Great Britain and Ireland‘. It isn’t the cheapest book but it is pretty comprehensive, looked good and came highly recommended as ‘The ‘ book to get. Yep, I’ve already ordered a copy from Amazon! The 2nd edition came out earlier this year so if you’re buying make sure you get the new edition.
Next job is to build a moth trap and put it in the garden to see just how many species I can identify. Of course, if I’m going to start photographing them too then I may need a new macro lens and other bits and pieces to improve on the macro capabilities of my camera… Toys, toys, toys!
Mike was really helpful and seemed keen to get someone else in the area ‘into moths’ so I’m sure he’ll help out with identification of the various species if I need it.
