COPSE teamed-up with Surrey Wildlife Trust Wilder Communities Team, Surrey Hills Society, Haslemere Natural History Society, Haslemere Biodiversity Project and Transition Haslemere, to conduct a moth trapping night in Haslemere, with four traps set around town. About 43 species (27 macro's and 16 micro's) were recorded at the Museum Garden, 64 species in total from two traps on Collards Lane Allotment (34 and 46 species respectively) and about 25 moths recorded by Surrey Wildlife Trust who organised a moth training session in Swan Barn Orchard as part of the event.
During this session, participants received training on how to set up and operate a moth trap together with the fundamental principles of moth identification. Subsequently, attendees examined specimens trapped collected from the Swan Barn Orchard trap, using various identification guides and benefiting from the expertise of Kate Bannister (Surrey Hills Society) and Christa Emmett (SWT).
Two of the traps were hired from the fantastic Godalming and Guildford ‘Library of Things' run by Zero Carbon Guildford and WhatNext? Community Groups. Members from all the groups gathered on a thankfully sunny early morning to empty the traps and identify and record the species. Following this fascinating morning, there are hopes that this may become a regular event.
Philippa Guest, Chair of Haslemere Biodiversity, commented ‘ This was a well-organised, informative, and engaging event. Huge thanks to Christa and Kate - we all look forward to the next one!’
Claire Matthes, Project Coordinator at COPSE and Philippa Guest, Chair of Haslemere Biodiversity
