Upper Thames Moth Atlas

We're very pleased to announce that the Atlas is now "live" and available to view at the link here.  Our grateful thanks go to Jim Wheeler for all the work involved in setting up the site, to BC Upper Thames Branch for funding the initial costs, to Les Evans-Hill of the NMRS at BC for cleaning up the data and, of course, to all our local recorders past and present who have provided the underlying records which generate the maps.     

This is still very much a work in progress, covering macro-moths only until the micro data has been tidied-up, but the basics of the site are now in place so we thought it was time to go public.  What we would like to happen now is for you to sign up to the "Golden Cinnabar" membership (suggested donation of around £10, or more if you are feeling generous!) which will give you access to the detailed county maps and record data down to the 1km square level.  The funds generated will hopefully cover the annual running costs of the website.

We also need more photos.  There are about 40 species which at present don't have an image to accompany the species account and these are a particular priority.  We would also like to add to (and in a few cases replace) the images already present.  While we don't want to be inundated with Brimstone pictures, if you do have good, clear photos of any of the described species which you think adds to what is already available, perhaps by showing different views or variation in markings, please upload them for consideration.  When going through the process you'll see that there is a box for "Brief Comments" where we'd like you to add where/when the image was taken.  The pictures go into a waiting room to be checked by one of the Admins and those selected will appear on the site with due credit.  While we'd particularly like images taken in our three counties, we recognize that this isn't always possible and will in fact welcome pictures from absolutely anywhere so long as they're good enough.  Contributions are very welcome from anyone who uses the site, whether an Upper Thames recorder or not.  Please keep to macro-moth photos for now and we'll let you know when we want to start thinking about the micros.

Martin Harvey (CMR for VC22 Berkshire) 

Martin Townsend (CMR for VC23 Oxfordshire)

Martin Albertini (CMR for VC24 Buckinghamshire)

Dave Wilton