Here in the garden the actinic light has brought in just a single moth for each of the last two nights, a Winter Moth on Friday night and a Mottled Umber last night. Now that December is here the first "nil return" of the season must be looming because we are due a long run of cold days and nights now - apart perhaps from a temporary respite next weekend - so the next thing to look forward to is starting everything all over again in the New Year (a far more exciting prospect than elections or Christmas!). Now is the time to start collecting together your records for 2019 in order to pass them on to your County Moth Recorder.
I hope many of you will already have seen Butterfly Conservation's long-awaited "Atlas of Britain & Ireland's Larger Moths" which was finally published a week or two ago (if not, put it on your Christmas list!). This hefty tome is proof of just how vitally important your records are. It could not have been compiled and published without data from amateur recorders just like you. For any of you unsure about how to pass on your records, select the "Your Records" tab at the top of this page and everything is explained there.
Dave Wilton
Westcott, Bucks
I've had quite a few no shows over the last 6 weeks so I'll probably not be trapping much more this year. On to 2020!
ReplyDeleteDon't give up just yet! I've had a double-digit count of moths in the garden already this evening and we haven't even got to the "slightly warmer" nights of Thursday through Sunday yet. I'll bet your Oak Rustic is still out there waiting for you...
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