Tonight I attended a moth trapping event at Bishop's Hill Nature Reserve in Warwickshire, led by David Brown, the Warwickshire County Recorder for Lepidoptera.
I first met Dave last year while working on HS2 in Birmingham and have since attended several of his monthly events. He is always welcoming, happy to share his knowledge and willing to help with identifying even the trickiest species. It was great to see him again and have a good catch-up.
Dave began running a moth trap in his parents' garden on 28 March 1968 and has continued recording there ever since. Nearly 60 years later, he is still trapping in the same garden, making it one of the longest continuous private garden moth recording projects in the British Isles. During that time, he has recorded an impressive 483 species of macro-moth, a record for a Warwickshire garden.
As well as being the county recorder, Dave is the author of The Larger Moths of Warwickshire. I was pleased to purchase a copy of the newly updated edition during the evening, with all proceeds from sales being donated to Butterfly Conservation.
Me and Dave
Bishop's Hill Nature Reserve lies just north of Bishop's Itchington and has a fascinating industrial past. The site was once part of the former Harbury Cement Works, which closed in 1970. The hill itself was created from waste lime produced by the quarry and cement works that operated there from 1852.
Today, the old industrial landscape has been transformed into an important wildlife site. The lime-rich soils support a diverse range of plants and insects, including notable butterflies such as the Small Blue and Grizzled Skipper. Areas of grassland, scrub, woodland and the Blue Pool combine to create a rich mosaic of habitats for wildlife.
The four-hour moth-trapping session produced a good selection of species and provided plenty of opportunities to study them up close. Best of all, I managed to add three new macro-moths to my life list:
Cream Wave
The Shears
Broad-barred white
It was an enjoyable evening in excellent company and another chance to learn from one of Warwickshire's most experienced moth recorders. I am already looking forward to the next event.