On Friday 11thSeptember the Warden set the moth trap for our moth event, which linked up with ‘National Moth Night’. The following morning was a bit breezy, so we decided to bring the trap inside the Visitor Centre before opening it. An assembly of eager faces had got up early and were gathered round in anticipation.
Now, apparently the collective noun for a number of moths is a ‘whisper of moths’. By all accounts, I reckon we had more like a ‘bellow of moths!’ Let’s just say when we opened the trap, there was a LOT of moths. Although the majority were very well behaved, waiting patiently in the trap for our Warden to reveal their splendour, we did also have a minor cloud of Lepidoptera upon opening. This kept our volunteers busy collecting them and putting them in pots for the Warden to identify and record.
Meanwhile, the event continued and the Warden patiently recorded each species and how many as he passed them round. We had an impressive 51 different species, including bloodvein, which sport a thin red line across their backs, beautiful large emerald, dusky thorn, common wainscot, setaceous Hebrew, red and yellow underwings, Chinese character and burnished brass, which glinted green when the light caught their wings.
Bloodvien
Large emerald with brimstone (yellow with closed wings)
Dusky thorn (just released)
It wasn’t until the Warden was inspecting the last couple of egg cartons however, that the real star of the show unveiled itself… a monster of a moth… a convolvulus hawkmoth. This enormous moth is the largest moth to grace our shores and shows up at this time of year as a migrant species. What a fantastic way to start the day!
Convolvulus hawkmoth
A couple of weeks later I joined the Friends of Pagham Harbour for their beach clean, which also coincided on a national level, with the Marine Conservation Society’s ‘Big British Beach Clean’. Made up of volunteers, Friends, Manhood Wildlife and Heritage Group, wildfowlers and simply people that didn’t like rubbish, we set about ‘wombling’ along the beach and within a couple of hours had collected 14 sacks of litter, rope, a pallet and other assorted rubbish. Although it was very successful, it was also quite sobering thinking, having collected that amount off one small stretch of beach, what state are our oceans really in. Count me in for the next one Francis.
Septembers demise means the end of our summer events programme and a new autumn events listing. We’re starting it off with a bang (or should that be big bang?), with our first ‘Astronomy night’. I’m very excited about this and we have two very experienced astronomers leading the event. Ian Sharp is one of the UK’s foremost amateur astronomers (check out his website astro-sharp.com), and you may recognise Pete Lawrence from the BBC’s The Sky at Night. Between them they will be teaching us to recognise autumn constellations, helping us to understand the cosmos and how we fit, and getting us to view some deep space objects! Places are limited, so if you fancy a bit of stargazing, be sure to book by calling the Visitor Centre or emailing me at pagham.harbour@rspb.org.uk