As moth recorders we visit some beautiful and very interesting locations for those with an inquiring, naturalists mind. Many types of woods, beaches, dunes, Limestone Pavement, Machair grassland, bogs, mountains, hills, marshlands, grasslands, etc. The list is a very long one when considering all the various habitats. And while we are there, it’s not just the moths that may hold our interest. It’s also the rest of non-Lepidoptera fauna and flora that amaze and delight. It might be the Red Squirrel or the Badger, the Goshawk or the Merlin, the Dragon Flies and Damsel Flies, the wild flowers and other plants. Often for me it’s the never seen before beetles, amazing jewel like looking flies and other insects. I am no Coleopterist and it’s hard to see how my Entomology interest could ever extend as far as all the other insects I see. I only have one life. I will stick with the moths!
Some of our sites may be considered by the general public to be damp, shaded, dark, windswept, barren, humid, cold or just plain boring! If I was to take most general members of the public to some sites I know they might enquire why I have brought them to such a dreary location? Especially those sites inhabited by healthy midge and tick populations! Hard to answer that question to anyone not interested in nature!
Some of the recording locations pictured here would be pleasing to general public eyes but many would be considered as unappealing, boring locations. How wrong they are! To me they are beautiful too. Mature, ancient wet Birch Woodland, extensive Sand Dunes with ‘prickly’ Marram Grass and Creeping Willow, Blanket Bog etc. and all getting rarer these days. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder! We are lucky. We know the secret beauty these places hold.
Guys, send in images of your own favourite trapping sites/locations and any other interesting info on these sites if you wish to and we can blog them. Countryside or gardens. It’s all interesting to me and no doubt many others.
