Common Micro-moths of Berkshire – a review

I’ve decided in 2015 to try and learn a different taxon group. I may even put birds on the back burner (in a non-professional sense) to concentrate on something else. A bit drastic I know but I don’t really want to be a one trick pony (who lets face it can’t always get the trick right!) and would love to broaden my naturalist horizon. Fungi appealed to me towards the end of last year and is a group I’ll take more interest in for sure. How about molluscs? More specifically slugs and snails, it’s niche and I’ve got two excellent books on them but they don’t really get me going if I’m honest. Now I’ve had a moth trap for coming up to five years which I’ve used most weeks in the summer months. Bingo! Moths it is, I’ve got the gear, I’ve some field guides, the local county recorder lives in my town, and the moths can come to you, not the other way around!

My local county recorder is Steve Hind (more specifically, the micro-moth recorder) and I paid him a visit before Christmas. He is a font of knowledge and provided great help, put me in contact with a local forum, and recommended me a load of books and journals. One of which was the ‘Common Micro-moths of Berkshire.’ This is slightly odd as I live in Cheshire, but I was assured only 6 of the moths in the book don’t occur in Cheshire at the moment. I had a quick flick through it and thought it looked great, so a month and £10 later I bought it.

Now micro-moths haven’t had a dedicated field-guide to them for one very good reason, there are literally thousands of them! And most of them don’t have an English name, instead most have scientific two part names. So they haven’t been all that accessible to the budding moth enthusiast (should they be called mothers perhaps? Maybe not.). This was rectified a couple of years ago with the publication of a dedicated field guide by Stirling and Parsons. But still the sheer number of them can be overwhelming; which is where ‘Common Micro-moths of Berkshire’ comes in.

I have to say the book is excellent, it covers 103 species of moth which are the most commonly recorded in Berkshire. There is an easy access thumbnail selection to quickly narrow down a potential moth at the start of the book and then a full page description of each moth, along with hinting at other moths your selection may be similar to. For example one of my favourite micro-moths is Emmelina monodactyla or ‘Common Plume,’ which I think looks like one of these:

Common Plume

Fiesler Storch

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a brief description of the habitat of the Common Plume which is stated as a ‘variety of different habitats’ and whose status is ‘Common’ and then gives a detailed description of what it looks like highlighting important features to look out for, hopefully leading to an easy ID. If not than my potential Common Plume could, according to the similar species given, be a Stenopyilia bipunctidactyla or a S. pterodactyla. There is also a handy graph giving the flight seasons (when are you likely to see an adult flying moth?) although this is less helpful in more northern Cheshire than it would be if I lived in Berkshire. The guide does this pretty well for every moth, most of which are far less distinctive than the Common Plume. Because it is limited to common micro-moths which are you are more likely to catch in a light trap or whilst on a walk it doesn’t overwhelm you with hundreds of options to choose from. I definitely think you can use it in conjunction with the comprehensive Stirling and Parsons guide though, especially as not every description gives clues as to whether the moths are attracted to light or sugar, or are day-flying for instance.

The other thing to remark upon is that the production values of the book are superb. The book looks like it could have come from a major publishing house. It hasn’t. It comes from a local enthusiast group, the Berkshire Moth Group. It is incredibly professional looking, well laid out, glossy pages, a good index, and an appendix which goes into more detail with more alternative species similar to ones found in the main body of the book. There are a few errors which are highlighted in an Errata print-out loosely included at the beginning of the book, including a few mislabelled photographs which would unfortunately confuse IDs. But on the whole these shouldn’t distract from this fantastic book which I would recommend to any naturalist.

So I think I’ve got it. Moths it is for the year (OK maybe I can begin to look at slugs and snails too, and perhaps fungi, and maybe lichen. Perhaps also bryophytes, or perhaps beetles, or hoverflies, spiders even? Possibly.)

Book available from http://www.nhbs.com for £9.99.

Both photos from Wikicommons.

2014, the year it finally happened! (part 3)

Hen Harriers Circus cyaneus have had a lot of publicity in 2014. In 2013 there were no reported successfully breeding pairs in England at all. Nada, nowt, diddely squat. I won’t go into the reasons for the failures but they mostly involve shotguns and vested interests. But 2014 was a different matter there were 3 reported pairs who successfully bred which was a vast improvement. It was a great surprise therefore when not long after I finished my Ring Ouzel contract I was asked if I wanted to assist in protecting a breeding pair of Hen Harriers in the Peak District. Half of me thought it was a wind-up as it was August and the breeding season was over; especially as I got the phone call when I was at a friend’s wedding, but no it was true. So a day later I found myself on a hill in the Dark Peak area with a National Trust staff member watching England’s 4th breeding pair of Hen Harriers! An incredibly late breeding pair whose nest was discovered on the 1st of August.

It was my job simply to watch the nest and record every movement of both adult birds and eventually the youngsters once they fledged. I also had to record any potential human disturbance or interference. The watch over the nest was conducted with absolute secrecy with no knowledge of it outside conservation organisations and the shooting tenant.

Male Hen Harrier from Peak District pair 2014. Photo: Alex Cropper

One of my outstanding memories of my watches would be on August 10th 2014. The day in question was Hen Harrier Day, a protest about illegal raptor persecution on driven grouse moors that took place at Ladybower Reservoir. The event was attended by 100s of people and organised by Mark Avery and the Birders Against Wildlife Crime (BAWC). But what was I doing that day? I was a mile away up a hill watching my pair of Harriers which no one could know about. Yes on Hen Harrier Day I was watching Hen Harriers almost within sight of the gathering! A pretty decent claim to fame to be honest. (To tell the truth the weather was horrible, and I saw them briefly just after dawn in a brief window of good weather before the heavens opened – and remained open for the rest of the day). I may have missed the opportunity though to show unity with my fellow conservationists and wildlife lovers, but I think I had a pretty decent excuse!

Male Hen Harrier from Peak District pair. Photo: Alex Cropper

The pair successfully fledged 5 chicks but unfortunately 3 perished not long after fledging leaving two, a male and a female, left. This was a pretty normal tally for breeding birds of prey, but frustrating when there are so few so every fatality hurts the national population.

The job was great, I was surrounded by great countryside watching magnificent birds. Besides the Hen Harriers there were Short-eared Owls, Peregrines, Buzzards, Merlins, Kestrels, a Hobby, Tawny Owls, Marsh Harriers, Ravens, and I even saw my old friend the Ring Ouzel again.

Alas all good things come to an end and after a month my contract was up and I’ve been looking for more paid work ever since. So I’m back as a volunteer now! It does go to show though if you put in enough time and effort as a volunteer though you will get a paid job in this wonderful job sector working with some wonderful wildlife.

2014, the year it finally happened! (part 2)

Top of Great Crowden Valley. Photo: Alex Cropper

So this is it. After 4 years of volunteering, after cutting back on work hours to concentrate on a conservation career, and after eventually quitting my bar job altogether to focus on achieving my goal, I finally did it! I got a paid job in wildlife conservation!

My first paid conservation job was as a Research Assistant for the RSPB’s Conservation Science department. My task was to survey a bird called a Ring Ouzel Turdus torquatus (basically a migratory blackbird-esque thrush with a white collar) and their habitat at my old stomping ground of Dove Stone in Saddleworth, UK. A bit different from eradicating rats definitely!

The task was very simple; to compare two valleys at the vast RSPB Dove Stone reserve. One, Great Crowden Valley, has a long term stable breeding population, the other, Dove Stone Edges/Chew Valley, has had a population crash in the last 25 years. It was my job to gather data to determine any differences between the two valleys. This involved me surveying each valley once a week for the birds themselves, and surveying the valleys once a month for their habitat (basically comparing vegetation types and density of said vegetation). It was such a brilliant job, I had two scenic valleys that I called my office for 4 months, I saw them change subtly over the months. A dank, foggy, wintry scene in April to a balmy red hot perfect summer’s day in July. I was surrounded by fantastic wildlife, chuckling grouse, croaky Ravens, enigmatic Peregrines, Stonechats, Whinchats, Dippers, Common Lizards,  Mountain Hares, Green Hairstreak butterflies and loads more.

Final Ring Ouzel tally (from the top of my head, I may be wrong here!) : Great Crowden: 8 breeding pairs from 10 territories. Dove Stone Edges/Chew Valley: 2 breeding pairs.

Lizard in Great Crowden Valley. Photo: Alex Cropper

Vegetation surveying! Photo: Hayley Percival

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was difficult at times however, I came from working with a great close-knit team on St. Agnes to working literally by myself for weeks on end, sometimes not seeing a soul all day. I did eventually get myself a mad as a box of frogs volunteer to help which was amazing and a tad surreal (I went from volunteer myself to recruiter of volunteer within a few months!). I’d definitely do this job again no question!

After 4 months the contract came to an end and I found myself out of work, for all of a week! Then I had my most privileged job ever (not sure it can be beaten!)….