I went to my second moth night at Middleton lakes on the 3rd July 2014 and what a blast I had. There were three of us who are really new to this, Marion, Tony and myself. We met up with Linda, Derek and Bob. They were so extremely helpful and very patient with us. So many thanks Guys.We got to tRSPB Middleton for 8.00pm and went for a walk first, andsaw a lovely family of Black-headed gulls, with the juveniles demanding food. Flying around was a Little Tern, sadly he was too fast for me to take a good photo. The Canada Geese put in an apperance and so did the Little Egret.
The sun started to go down and we were treated to a lovely sunset before we headed back to the main wood.
We met up with the moth trio at 9.30pm in the woods, and here you can see the equipment that is being used. Here you can see Linda loading up the wooden container with cardboard egg boxes to provide shelter inside the trap.
Before we knew it, it was dark and the moth light was switched on.
The light is very bright and you do need to protect your eyes, as demonstarted here by Marion.
This one is a light and a white cloth, the moth will land on the white cloth and they will be collected in a little jar so it can be ID
It was very dark and we had no idea what we would see. I hasten to add we were not disappointed. The following pictures are the ones I took.
So many questions we could ask, but the fascination of watching these moths appear stopped us in our tracks. One question that was on our minds was: what is the difference between Moths and Butterfly. Linda, very kindly gave us this great explanation, basically if you look at the antennae on a butterfly it has rounded clubs on the end. Whereas on a moth the antennae is thin or often feathery.
Thank you Linda, Bob and Derek for a a brilliant night, and we are looking forward to coming back.