Category Archives: Uncategorized

Time to celebrate 30 years of the National Dormouse Monitoring Programme: https://ptes.org/campaigns/dormice/surveying-and-monitoring-hazel-dormice/national-dormouse-monitoring-programme-ndmp/ Time to take a walk and go nut-hunting for hazel nuts opened by dormice. And please record them here: https://ptes.org/campaigns/dormice/surveying-and-monitoring-hazel-dormice/national-dormouse-database-ndd/ And time to consider and think about the fact that numbers of the hazel dormice have declined by 52% since 1995. We still have them […]

MOTHS TO LOOK OUT FOR IN SEPTEMBER 2020. Large Yellow Underwing More experienced ‘moth-ers’ will wonder why I have put in this most abundant and ubiquitous moth. But I find it’s one of the most frequently asked questions about wild-life. Such as “I got quite a jump. I was weeding and this big brown thing […]

MAGPIE MOTH  This is a very distinctive moth with black and a few yellow spots on a white background. It has a single generation in the summer and will come to light or can be seen resting flat on foliage during the day. It’s about the size of a Gatekeeper. Its larval foodplants are many […]

Irene sent photos (taken by Helen) of some they saw this week on private land near Trebullett. These are the female beetles which do not fly. It may be a good year for them as it has been for so many beetles.  

Nightjarring Perhaps it was my new hearing aids, or were the nightjars particularly vocal the other evening? Last Thursday was a suitable evening and we met a friend who had never heard them; a few LAPWG members also turned up. We kept an acceptable distance apart as we strolled up the track at the local […]

The website has changed slightly this year and it is hosted by Butterfly Conservation at: https://bigbutterflycount.butterfly-conservation.org/about It’s an important survey for us to carry out because it demonstrates changes in numbers within butterfly species from year to year. Weather data is collected later to see if there is any correlation with ‘good’ years and ‘bad’ years. […]

No pictures but in our sheltered valley today, we had our first Humming-bird Hawk moth, plus Golden-ringed dragonfly; a Hawker perhaps Southern; Beautiful Demoiselles and quite a decent number of butterflies including: meadow Brown, Ringlet, Comma, Large White, Red Admiral, large Skippers and a Silver-washed Fritillary. And the Long-tailed Tits are back!

This is from Gill & Kate who took the photos. There were dozens of butterflies, including loads of Commas which Kate was photographing when Gill noticed a small grey thing flitting up under the oaks and wondered if this was a Purple Hairstreak. A little further on, Kate found this and knew it was different. […]

Sent in by Jenny Heskett, this is a new version of the code for the present situation. Download to view and save to print. Useful for local noticeboards.The Countryside Code

From Mary Atkinson, ‘Moths in July’ to download. Moths in July