The weather for this event turned out, in the event, to be rather too good! Moth spotters prefer grey skies and drizzle, as this keeps the moths flying low, and therefore easier to attract to the traps. Six traps were deployed in the craft area clearing and along the bridle path.

It is perhaps rather easy, as a complete novice to the gentle art of moth trapping, so assume that the traps will be immediately full of large and spectacular specimens. In fact this does not happen.

The light attracts all manner of flying things, notably midges and craneflies, and also, if your luck is out, hornets. So standing over a moth trap is an itchy business. Moreover, the vast majority of moths are small - less than half an inch in length - and are identified by numbers rather than names. Nevertheless, the variety of species observed before the volunteers decamped to the pub was impressive. Around thirty had been identified by 11pm, and this, we were told, is not even getting-up time for a lot of moths.

The moth spotters are a dedicated band, and were planning to stay well into the small hours of the morning. The Pepper Wood volunteers, philistines to the end, fled to more comfortable premises.

The moth spotters were quite pleased with the results of their survey: A total of 68 species were collected and indentified. Top of the table, in joint first place with 189 specimens each, come the Common Yellow Underwing and Blastobasis adustella. The former is a large moth with a wing span of about an inch and a half. Blastobasis is tiny, and probably would not be recognised as a moth by the casual observer.

The yellow underwing ( and possible other large moths ) is locallly known  as a bobowler. The group would welcome any explanations of this term.

We will publish the full results separately. They make for somewhat arduous reading for the non-specialist, but will probably surprise most readers for the sheer number of different species of moths found in the UK - over 2000!

We are hoping to make this survey a regular event, and more on this will be published when we have agreed with the moth spotters how this is to be done.