Hi there,
Here at the RSPB headquarters in
Bedfordshire, the ‘B’ stands for much more than just ‘Birds’. It’s bats, bees, beetles,
butterflies... but they don’t all begin with a ‘b’ – we’re into moths too! We’re
an enthusiastic bunch of moth-ers and run a fairly regular MV Robinson trap in The
Lodge gardens. The nature reserve encircling the gardens is a mix of dry
heathland, acid grassland and mixed woodland so there’s quite a good range of
different habitat around. Moth traps have been run on and off over the years,
but this year we have a newly fledged moth group so there will be more of a
concerted effort to check out the moths that we have here.
It’s been a fairly slow start so
far, with our count on 19. Highlights have included Oak Beauty, Purple Thorn,
Yellow Horned, Nut-tree Tussock and Lunar Marbled Brown. We’re hoping to add
some butterflies to the list soon too.
We’re looking forward to being
part of this challenge, which is a really fun idea! Here’s to a decent summer
to make up for the late spring.
Happy mothing!
The Lodge Moths
Welcome to the challenge, I am really looking forward to hearing what you guys record :-)
ReplyDeleteI'm really worried that your stately home gardens and surrounding nature reserves are going to blow all the rest of us out of the water with moths!
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't worry, Richard, we're by no means top of the list (yet!) and who's to say that being surrounded by a nature reserve will give us an added advantage. I'm sure even in an urban environment there is just as good a selection of host plants! It will be interesting to see though how our numbers compare to those of the back garden trappers - it does slightly feel like we are cheating, but technically our trapping conforms to the rules of this challenge :)
ReplyDelete