The conservation work party volunteers got some strange looks from visitors on Tuesday during rather unusual habitat creation work for a rare red-listed moth called the Olive Crescent. This moth lays its eggs in July on withered oak leaves. Since this is well before autumn it needs oak branches that have broken or fallen and it has suffered from the tendency to tidy up our woodlands. So the volunteers were tasked with cutting some small branches from oaks at Broadwater and hanging them up in trees on the southern border of the reserve near Sussex Wildlife Trust's Eridge Rocks reserve where the moth has been recorded. SWT's volunteers will do the same later this week. In September we'll check the branches for the distinctive orange caterpillar. So if you were one of those who saw what looked like some weird woodland ritual, rest assured that it was just part of the campaign to Give Nature a Home.
Wealden Reserves Office Manager