Oxford Festival of Nature: Cutteslowe Park

Hi All,

BBOWT are holding a bioblitz style event called the Oxford Festival of Nature at Cutteslowe Park this weekend. I mentioned this a while back and a few people expressed interest so thought I'd give more details on the moth side of it. I will be setting up with Chris Bottrell at 20:30pm this evening (Chris is bringing his fantastic screen trap for us to sit around). The itinerary for this evening is as follows:

18:00-19:30: Hedgehog talk (Oxford mammal group)
20:30-22:00: Bat talk/walk  (Oxford mammal group)
22:00-00:00: Moth trapping (me and Chris).

Because it doesn't get dark until late I suspect most people won't bother coming this evening, but will come in the morning when the moth trap opening will be held at 10:00 am ( I will go round first thing in the morning and record everything and close up the traps). However, I have looked at the weather forecast and tomorrow morning it is supposed to rain, with thunder storms expected. Tonight, at least before 01:00am, it is supposed to be fairly cloudy and reasonably warm and so we might actually see some moths, whereas in the morning it might be a bit of a washout, although hopefully we'll have some of tent to go through the traps under. I don't know how good it has been recently as I have just got back from Spain, but I put my traps on in the garden last night to try and catch some specimens to show people this evening and I caught only 5 moths of which none were worth keeping to bring along (worn Treble Lines, Common Swift, Setaceous Hebrew Character, Green Carpet and Mottled Rustic). I'm crossing my fingers that tonight will be better :).

Anyway, that is the schedule, so perhaps see some of you there. Best wishes, Marc Botham