2015 – A moth summary

First blog for a bit. Been pretty busy in a pretty inhospitable part of the country (more on that hopefully soon..).

As it is New Year’s Eve as I write this I thought I’d share some wildlife highlights and statistics. Pretty dry I suppose but I kinda like it!

OK, so you remember at the start of the year I decided to get more into moths than I had in previous years? Well I did, I had my garden moth trap out pretty much once or twice (or more) a week from January all the way through to September when work took me travelling. I also bought the MapMate software (which is an impressive database which can be linked to other databases thus creating a huge one!) This has allowed me to share my moth records with the county moth recorder and I can see all the other millions of moth records for Cheshire. Anyway, using this software I’ve been able to see what the most common moths in my garden are this year. So here’s my top 10 (Which I’ve ranked by record not by individuals – some moths are more gregarious than others in the trap).

1. Large Yellow Underwing (pictured above)

2.Heart and Dart (No photo)

3. Riband Wave

 

 

 

 

 

 

4. Dark Arches (No photo)

5. Willow Beauty

6. Light Brown Apple Moth (pictured above)

7. Bee Moth (No photo)

8. Lesser Yellow Underwing (no photo)

 

9. Double Square-spot

10. Common Marbled Carpet (pictured above)

 

All photos by me the author.

 

On to my favourite moths for the year – just a few a ‘top’ 5 but not in any order (and with no photos – WordPress is making it really difficult for me to lay out photos neatly and/or vaguely professionally + I don’t have any)

1. Chimney Sweeper.This is a black moth (hence the name) which looks a lot like a butterfly and also flies during the day like a butterfly. One turned up in my trap; which is remarkable as they shouldn’t turn up in moth traps due to their daytime habits (and therefore not attracted to light).
2. Wood Tiger Moth. A brightly coloured yellow black and white moth which also flies during the day. I found one in Crowden, where I was coming back from Ring Ouzel surveying. I found out via MapMate that this moth hasn’t been recorded there before now.
3. Black Rustic. One of those creatures when you flick through field guides that really stands out and that you wish you can see in the real world. It’s velvety jet black in colour and is just gorgeous and one turned up on the trap this September.
4. Oak Eggar.  Another day flying moth. This one reminds me of working in the uplands on my Ring Ouzel surveys. These moths were everywhere this summer but my stand out memory was of one in a Ring Ouzel’s beak as it was about to turn into fledgling food.
5. Streamer. By far and away the best looking moth that I found in the garden this year, this was newly emerged and was white pink and lilac in colour.

 

Streamer (photo: Author)

I’ll leave my bird highlights until tomorrow, don’t want to give an information overload here.

But the relevance to the blog title (I’m trying to keep a vague theme here!) is that all these moth records have been submitted to my local county recorder and can be potentially used (along with all the others) as a resource in the future. So if anyone is reading this and has a load of moth records (or any other records) please submit them to your local recorder!

Rouzels

So, it’s been a while then… Massive case of writers block/lack of time/willing so not written anything since June. Apologies, anyhow.

I think I’ll take the opportunity to travel back in time a few weeks to the end of my latest conservation position and summarise what I was doing and how it worked out in the end.

As I’ve written previously,  I’ve been under contract as a Research Assistant for the RSPB on a project looking at the behaviour and habitats of Ring Ouzels Turdus torquatus. This year has been unbelievably frustrating birds-wise and has been a stark contract to last year, in one valley at least. To recap, I was comparing one ‘control’ valley – in this case Great Crowden Valley whose population of breeding Ring Ouzels has remained stable since 1990 , with a ‘treatment’ valley – at the RSPB’s Dove Stone nature reserve whose population has crashed since 1990. The word treatment implies that a course of productive management techniques may stem from the study.

Only one problem this year – the population of breeding Ouzels crashed in the control valley. Last year I had 8 or 9 confirmed breeding pairs in the valley, figures that correspond to well to post-1990 figures. This year I have had 2 confirmed breeding pairs, and probably not at the same time either (Ring Ouzels have 2 broods and probably 3 breeding attempts, but if the 2nd brood fails they won’t try again, unlike for the 1st brood). I must admit I’m struggling to understand why. The weather may be an obvious answer, April was unseasonably warm and May was very cold and wet, and there were quite a few birds seen in the valley but only a very small handful of these bred. However Ring Ouzels are hardy birds so I’m not sure weather is the answer. Predation also maybe an answer, I anecdotally saw a lot more stoats and weasels in Crowden than last year. But besides, there is an elephant in the room.

My ‘treatment’ valley at Dove Stone was stable with 2 breeding pairs both breeding twice; an improvement on last year when I had two pairs probably breeding once each, these birds had the exact same weather conditions to contend with; again I was also seeing more stoats and weasels. So it’s a mystery so far and a good reason to keep studying these fantastic birds.

Male Ring Ouzel at Dove Stone – July ’15

Male Ring Ouzel and fledgling at Dove Stone

It was pretty difficult at times this year when I was faced with walking up an down the control valley knowing in all likelihood I won’t see any of the birds I’m supposed to see, it was frustrating even with the phrase ‘no data is as good as lots of data’ ringing in my ears.

Even so it was still enjoyable, I saw my first English Red Kite Milvus milvus flying low over the valley. I was surrounded by Green Hairstreak Callophrys rubi butterflies  for a large period of spring which were joined by Emperor Saturnia pavonia moths and then later on by Oak Egger Lasiocampa quercus moths (one of which was in the bill of a Ring Ouzel at Dove Stone!). Overall, a gratifying summer which had so much more potential.

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!)….