Underwater moth trapping...in Witch country

 The Safari has been trying to do some moth trapping both at Base Camp and further afield.

Our first attempt was for the Royal Society of Biologists at a nearby Country Park. Good pal CP did a fantastic warm up act for us with a great talk on bats that had one of the attendees in stitches laughing at the thought of Bat Ladders. Then outside as dusk drew darker the bats came out to play and put on a great show for us sending our bat detectors into a heated frenzy of sound...a superb start to the evening. 

We were supposed to put the moth trap up on the green by the gardens once the bat excitement was over. Then everyone could sit round the sheets armed with a pot with which to catch the moths for us to identify as they came to the light. Well that never happened cos down came the rain by the bucketful. So 'indoor' moth trapping it was. The centre has a covered outdoor classroom at the back so it was in there that we set up out of the rain. The trouble with heavy rain is the moths don't like it and won't venture out - and who would blame them? A small number of hardy indivuals did appear, mostly Large Yellow Underwings and a few mico-moths. But we were trapping close to an Apple Tree which had attracted a goood number of Common Wasps. Fortunately we were using the sheet and light technique so could easily see them - it might have been a case of watch where you put your hands had we been coming to empty a box full of cold sleepy ones in the morning.

A few evenings later, after the rains had finished, we set the trap up at Base Camp and caught the grand total of ZERO moths - that's not in the rule books! The following night we tied again, rain wasn't forecast but we heard it lashing it down during the night - not a good omen -- just 6 soggy moths were in the trap come the morning. Things have got to get better, it's July for crying out loud!

For our next event we'd been invited by DSW, Community Engagement Officer for the Forest of Bowland AoNB Connecting People and Nature Project to lead a moth trapping and other wildlify bits n bobs event for one of her community groups...no way we could say no to that so with a car loaded up with all kinds of kit n kiboodle we headed off for the furthest reaches of East Lancashire aand the famous Witch country round the back of Pendle Hill.

We were taken to Clarion House, a community centre up in hills above the tiny village of Roughlee. To be honest the Safari has been to Australia more often than this part of east Lancashire so it's not surprising we'd never heard of the place until now. But what a lovely place and what a gorgous setting up on the hill overlooking the town of Colne down across the valley...that's if we could see that far, it was a grim old day.

Ever the optomists DSW and us set about putting up the moth trap. We decided the most sheltered area behind the building and under a substantial Birch tree was going to be the best option. Heavy rain and strong winds were forecast for overnight so we took the extra precaution of erecting a gazebo over the trap and tying that to the tree to stop it flying off over the hills towards Cheshire.

Back at Base Camp we were woken in the small hours by torrential rain lashing against the window driven by a howling gale. We spent the rest of the night worrying about the electrics-water and hot bulb-cold raindrops combos. Luckily we needn't have worried as in the end all was fine when we arrived back on site in the morning. And now with the group eager to see what had been happening overnight it was time to empty the trap. But before that we had a look on the laptop to see if the trail camera we'd set up overnight had caught anything.

We'd placed it along a track beside a woodland shelterbelt and close to a compost heap, something was bound to wander by, hopefully a deer, a Fox, a Badger, or maybe a Hedgehog or even a Rabbit? Nothing! Our fingers were well and truly crossed there wouldn't be a re-run of our zero moths escapade at Base Camp a few nights earlier given the weather was much worse this time. Thankfully there were moths and we got off to a flying (pun intended) start with a few on the sheet outside the trap.

Scalloped Oak

Lesser Swallow Prominent

The pick of the bunch for us was this Gold Spangle which never having mothed up hill before was a new species for us.

The final tally was a small but better than expected given the weather 21 moths of 14 species plus a few unidentified micro-moths and a couple of escapees.

We'd also taken our bat kit so had a little talk about bats, their biology especially their hunting echolocation and bat detectors and the fact they are predators of moths.

As well as the real live plastic bat we'd brought along a long dead real live dead Pipistrelle for them to hold and get a feel of how tiny they actually are.

This one was found dead trapped in a chimney many years ago.

When we were told that Clarion House had a pond there was nothing else to do but put a load of nets and trays in the car. Never one to waste an opportunity for some pond dipping are we?

 

We found waterboatmen, diving beetles and lots of what weassume from the location to be Palmate Newt efts (newtlets) still with their gills

The grounds of Clarion House have a mix of habitats, rough grass, well mown grass, wildflower meadow with Heath Spotted Orchids, wet meadow and a bit of Heather and Bilberry moorland as well as a small formal garden.

All this attracts a great variety of wildlife even on rainy days.

Heath Spotted Orchid

Heather

Red Admiral

Ringlet

Small Tortoiseshell

The bee we think could be Colletes succinctus, Heather Colletes by vitue of its presence in an upland habitat but we could be wrong. And we added the Greenbottle fly in to show that flies are very important pollinators but often overlooked or even disregarded in favour of bees and hoverflies. This week is Big Butterfly Count Week (that's probally why it's so cold wet n windy!) so we've put some butterfly pics in for you too.

To close here's a lovely arty shot that sums up the day very well.

A fantasic safari at a superb location we hope to visit again with a great bunch of people we hope to meet again soon. Huge thanks to DSWfor inviting us and providing some of the photos as we forgot our camera, although were too busy to take pics anyway, and to group member B for the use of her pics too - thank you very much.

Where to next? The Safari will be heading north into the wilds of South Cumbria.

In the meantime let us know who's underwater in your outback.

And off we go again

The Safari heard from Monika this morning asking what our final tally of birds was for last year. She'd not done quite as well as hoped but then again spent lots of time out on the water in her new boat getting absolutely awesome sightings and photos of her beloved Orcas - we'd trade several bird species from our list for a glimpse of an Orca off Patch 2 any day of the week!

So the competition sets off again with us slightly in the lead but that can all change at the drop of a hat with a trip here or a trip there depending on which one of us is tripping.

If anyone else would like to join in and has an expectation of getting about 200 species for the year mostly found in your local county but with a few trips further afield and a twitch or two. Get in touch with either or both of us if you fancy a bash at in. If in the British Isles make sure your regular Patch is registered on Patchwork Challenge and you upload your records to Birdtrack.

In other news our Extreme Photographer has had interweb problems and was hoping to have been able to send these pics of his New Year's Day newts in his garden - no, you're right newts should really be hibernating by the end of the year.

We had our first school group pond dipping today. Crikey it was cold and the little ones really felt it but they got the job done. Indeed they recorded the temperature of the water at 3.3C and the air 5.2C we wrongly assumed the water would have been warmer than the air - Rule 1 Never assume anything unless told to in a maths or physics exam!

Their nets brought up some surprises too, they couldn't avoid the 3-spined Sticklebacks but they also pulled out Front and Back Swimming Water Boatmen and a Pea Shell, not seen one of those come out for a long time! Our fingers, being wet, were too cold to get the phonecam out...brrrrrrr.

Where to next? Hopefully we'll be able to brave the weather on Patch 2 tomorrow.

In the meantime who's stayed up past their bedtime in your outback.

Brief then wet

The Safari is a tad soggy. Yesterday's sunshine was but an all too brief interlude in the succession of storms tazzing across the north Atlantic. It started raining as we were driving home from work yesterday evening and hasn't stopped since. Once this storm has passed there's another one due in two or three days. Already there is serious flooding all over the north of the country. They had a 1:1000 year flood in 2009, this one is bigger! It really is time to seriously rethink the land use in our uplands.
Late edit - if there have been two 1 in a 1000 floods in six years that should mean the next one won't be until the year 3010/11 give or take a few months, that should leave plenty of time to prepare. Somehow we feel the next one will be along well before that probably within  the next 10 years.
OK so there's not a lot that will stop water in today's quantities but we have to think about how to slow them down a bit.
The peat bogs must be undrained and allowed to rehydrate and start building up again, any drains above the in-bye should be stopped and then millions of trees have to be planted to slow the water through the ground and start building up organic soil again, a slow process but worth it in the end. There has to be adequate government/EU incentives for farmers/land owners to move away from sheep and into other more water-safe activities - maybe the insurance companies should start buying up land, be cheaper than paying out for losses and putting up premiums to almost affordable levels! Wonder if any of our glorious leaders at the climate Change summit in Paris are being briefed on the situation and contemplating doing anything about it? Thought not - it's all happening up north, needs for Oxfordshire and the Thames basin to be underwater every five years then they'd notice and be told to do summat about it!
As the world warms under the influence of increasing CO2 more moisture evaporates from the sea, water vapour is also a greenhouse gas so adding the the effect - then all that moist air meets a cold front from the Arctic and guess what cold air can't hold that amount of water so it all turns to rain - more rain than we've had before - - it can only get worse unfortunately.

We could barely see through the rain soaked windows to watch the feeders this morning. A male Chaffinch was first bird on and then we set a random time an hour or so hence to do our BTO Goldfinch Feeding Survey - hope you're all doing it too - but would a Goldfinch appear in the dire conditions, if they did would they be able to land on the feeder as it was swinging wildly inn the howling gale...the wind is dropping now but still gusting to 55mph (85-90kph)

The twig balancing sunny seed pecking female Blackbird arrived and stayed for many minutes then a Collared Dove came down and did the same. Minutes before the survey time was due a Goldfinch was there barely visible through the rain soaked glass, thankfully it stayed for the duration but it didn't have any friends...who cares it's another positive result...we have to say that negative results are equally important as well. 

From there the weather deteriorated even further and we gave up trying to see through the windows and went shopping with Wifey and so ended any further hope of safari-ing for the rest of the day - yes it was that bad!

We had a call from our Extreme Photographer down in south west Wales the other day. He's been keeping an eye on his Palmate Newts. They still haven't started to go in to hibernation and he was ringing to tell us he'd just had a record count in his garden of 32. Two of them were sat together on the top of the tallest plant stem on his small lawn. What are they doing? Did they climb up together like that or did one climb and then the other, but what's it all about?

Where to next? We're going to try to  venture out tomorrow got a cuple of possibilities that might just bring our 200th species of the year up.

In the meantime let us know who's out getting a soaking in your outback

It's newtiful down in west Wales

The Safari's Extreme Photographer has been out around his cottage in the evening counting the  Palmate Newts that are still active at this late stage in the year. He tells us there are at least 17 still to be found crawling around over the grass after dark.

One of them had come over all Mystic Meg and was carrying a crystal ball

He also says his bird feeders are extremely lively at the moment (the opposite of ours!) so there might be some pics of those in the future.