Sunday 15 June 2014

Busy few days

Sunday 15 June 2014

Wednesday saw the Benson Rainbows visiting the Watercress beds where they did some stream dipping and worm charming with mixed results; one group "charmed" 10 worms but the other only 1. All the usual were netted in the stream with 10 spine stickleback and several Bullhead being the highlights especially when viewed under the USB microscope. True to form several girls managed to fill there wellies with cold stream water.

On Thursday we entertained the Benson Brownies doing much the same as the day before but with the addition of a nature ramble round some of the paths round the meadow.

Friday evening saw me setting up moth traps down at Millbrook mead for the "Moth Breakfast" on the Saturday morning. It looked quite promising, even though there were a few drops of rain, with 2 Scarlet Tigers near the trap when I left.

Unfortunately we had an horrendous storm in the night and I had all but resolved to go down in the morning and retrieve the equipment and then ring various people to explain that it was canceled. To my surprise both lamps were still glowing on my arrival at 0530 in spite of 30 mm of rain overnight and the traps appeared to have plenty of interest.

I still await the final list from our "expert" Marc Botham but we probably caught close to 100 species and as a bonus there were 3 Large Skippers on show.

here are some of my favourite moths from the traps:

Beatuful Hook-tip
Buff Arches


Figure of 80

Small Elephant Hawkmoth

Small Yellow Wave

Swallow Prominant





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