Moth Moring

Cloughey Moth Morning - Sat 18th June at Kirkistown Castle
Most people never notice moths except when they hit teh windscreen. They fly mainly at night and there are many more varieties of moth than butterfly in Northern Ireland - only 31 types of butterfly but over 500 types of Moth.

Moths provide an important fpart of the eco-system as a food source for birds, bats and also help to pollinate many plant species.

Moths are trapped using boxes with special lights producing a range of light that goes beyond what the human eye can see but is attractive to moths. The moths fly towards the light and fall down into the box lined with egg cartons where they rest until released the next morning, after being couted and identified.

Regular Cloughey moth-trapper Abigail Dunn, used 2 traps for this event. Eric Rainey of CDCA borrowed another 5 traps from the NI Environment Agency and these were placed over a wide area including woodland in Greyabbey and gardens in Portaferry and the Quarter.

The weather was cool and wet, but a reasonable nubmer of moths and a remarkable number of different species were revealed when the traps were opened one by one on Saturday morning at Kirkistown Castle.

Moth expert, Ted Rolston, was on hand to assist with the identification and to explain the importance to around 30 people, mostly children, who had made the effort to get up early and come along to the event.

Everyone got to see the moths close up and to assist with their release onto bushes beside the Castle. Several of the children had an Elephant Hawk Moth on their hands - these moths are very large adn have special pads on their feet that make them feel 'sticky'.

CDCA members, Sheila Rainey and Vicky Adair provided the refreshments - tea and toast which was very welcome as many of us had skipped breakfast to get there on time.

This was a very successful and enjoyable event which enlightened quite a few people to the interesting world of moths.