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It is Big Butterfly Count time again, which is all the excuse needed to spend a bit of time just looking at your garden (if it ever warms up/stops raining). Less well known is Butterfly Conservation’s campaign against light pollution. This excellent booklet explains all about it clearly and concisely.
https://butterfly-conservation.org/free-light-pollution-guideI particularly like the line –
“Light pollution threatens whole ecosystems”.While we are talking about the wildlife in our neighbourhoods, Stars of the Night is another useful publication.
https://www.bats.org.uk/resources/publications-and-leaflets/leaflets-and-posters/our-leafletsThe charity Buglife has launched a new campaign called Don’t Neglect the Night. Members might be interested in supporting this.
This recent article in Environmental Pollution Journal on the effects of ALAN on bird gene expression is one more example of similar research findings elsewhere. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0269749125009121
There are a lot of bird watchers in the BAA – what are bird charities such as the RSPB saying about the topic?The rise in car headlight intensity, coupled with LED glare, and the increased traffic flow in recent years have contributed to my decision to no longer attend the evening meetings of my local astronomy societies. This research suggests that my inability to cope is not solely due to my ageing.
https://zenodo.org/records/15565958
Has anyone else suffered from this change?It is good to read that on this list of things to do to help insects cutting personal light pollution is in number one place.
Devon Moth Group set up some moth traps last night at Norman Lockyer Observatory. 175 different species were caught including a rare Maple Prominent (normally found in east of UK). Other favourites were the Privet Hawk Moth and the Elephant Hawk Moth, both very large creatures. Climate change suggests European species are now migrating northwards. A survey carried out two years ago caught 180 species, so numbers seem to be holding up here.
DavidBack when I was a teenager we saw an Elephant Hawk Moth caterpillar walking along the garden path. It was the size and shape of a perambulatory chipolata.
As it was clearly close to pupation we kept it safe until it hatched and then released it.
That was in Derbyshire. Privet Hawk Moths were relatively common on the Oxon/Bucks border. No idea whether they still are.
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