3rd moth trap of the year and exploring my forest school.

We put the moth trap out last night, 3rd time this year and in recent weeks. It was completely empty - no sign of life proving it's still too cold. I am hoping for little more warmth and luck this week.
I thought I would take this opportunity to show you my moth trap ;

 

Bought in 2004, mercury vapour moth trap with electrics bought from http://www.pwbelg.clara.net/mercury/ 

I recently bought another one from here to use at our coastal static caravan. But that's another blog post another day. Excellent service, knowledge and really helpful guy is Paul.

 

The trap is made from a basic storage box and adapted accordingly for the electrics. When moth trapping we line the inside with egg cartons/boxes and this where the moths fly onto and rest during the night and early hours.

 

Here is my essential moth kit - a variety of sized specimen tubes, which can be bought from http://www.angleps.com/, a fine, dry paintbrush to coax the moths out of the egg cartons and into a tube, and a pyrex dish to cover the bulb in rain.

The different sized specimen tubes are for different sized moths. We have to get up early when trapping in order to 'plug' the funnel of the trap, which is underneath the bulb where the moths fly into, to prevent them from escaping before identifying. I use an old flannel/face cloth to plug the funnel. 

So, as spring progresses and turns into summer we will be inundated with moths. On a hot summer night the trap will be literally crawling with moths.  A very exciting time. Keep following my blog to see what turns up.

In work this afternoon I was in my Forest School. Forest School is a fairly new initiative being taken on by schools nationwide and worldwide, in recent decades. There is specific training to be completed to become a FS Leader or Assistant. It's aim is a child led approach to build confidence, self-esteem and emotional intelligence and learn new skills through activities and safely take risks, with limited resources, natural or otherwise,  in a natural setting. I love it and love teaching the children about the environment and nature. I am particularly observant on our site as I record species seen throughout the year and teach the children about them. 

Today as we were looking for and discussing signs of spring....

 

leaves and flower buds on the Elder bush...

 

Primroses in full flower...

 

and young pine cones growing on the Pine tree.

I won't bombard you with Forest School items but if I see something amazing I will post it. Should you wish to find out more about Forest School, there are number of websites to look at including :-

http://www.forestschoolwales.org.uk/ 

http://www.forestschoolassociation.org/