Dave Appleton

There’s a brief account of Norfolk’s first (July 2023) by @bodminking.bsky.social in the @norfolkmoths.bsky.social Spring 2024 newsletter www.norfolkmoths.co.uk/NMS/newslett.... Since Laura’s, AFAIK only Jim W has caught it in Norfolk (twice), but not for lack of trying by several others of us.

Always a good read and this one is no exception…

I’m not sure many conservationists are attacking it because it’s a human intervention, rather because it’s the wrong human intervention. We love to see people getting excited by nature - I just wish they’d get excited by the nature we still have, not just a few “flagship” species we don’t have.

And to even get on the list then we need to understand why it went extinct (we don’t), we need to ensure those reasons no longer apply (we haven’t) and we need have first restored much more extensive areas of suitable habitat right across the region.

Honestly I have no idea how you reached that conclusion. We have a duty to restore our environment and especially to prevent or minimise further degradation to it. Reintroducing species that haven’t bred here since at least the Iron Age comes a very VERY long way down the list of ways to do that.

So much uncertainty with Iron Age or earlier… it’s ludicrous to even consider reintroducing them when we know so little about their history here.

Juvenile bones apparently, but do we know what that actually means? Presumably it doesn’t necessarily correspond to juvenile plumage. I suppose if it means not fully-grown then that would be an indication of breeding, but not so if, say, they still have juvenile bones well into their first winter.

A photo of Graeme Lyon’s newly-published book Pan-Species Listing - How to Become a Super-Naturalist (published by @pelagicpublishing). The front cover shows a diversity of species from different groups, the artwork by Rachel Hudson (@rachelhillustrates).

This fabulous book arrived yesterday and I’ve already read it pretty much from cover to cover. I normally prefer audio books and can’t think of another physical book I’ve read so comprehensively for literally decades. Congrats @graemelyons.bsky.social: a fantastic achievement.

That looks really useful, thanks!

Ah thanks Kieran - that might be worth a try 👍

Yes, I think that could work in theory, though could be quite fiddly in practice. The challenge is finding small enough tubes - the smallest tubes I’ve managed to find are about 0.75mm diameter.

Ah ok 👍. I’m finding that I can only push the sac out so far and then on some specimens I can carefully pull it out to finish it off but in others it’s really reluctant to open out fully, so really needing some pressure from inside to force it out.

Even if it doesn’t help with what I’m looking for here, that could well be useful for other entomological problems!

Thanks Andy. The problem here is turning the internal sac of the aedeagus inside out, which is helpful for a small number of moth species. You can sometimes push/pull it through but not reliably. I think it should be possible to effectively blow it out if you can insert a tube into the base…?

The finest-tipped pipette I can find, at least for an affordable price. But the outside diameter of the tip is 0.8mm which is too big to fit inside a moth’s aedeagus.

Does anyone on here have a good technique for everting a moth’s aedeagus? I have had success pushing/pulling it through but that doesn’t always work. I can’t source an affordable pipette that’s fine-tipped enough (one in photo has outside diameter of 0.8mm - needs to be nearer 0.25mm). #TeamMoth

Good investments in my opinion, perhaps especially the micro one which is much more comprehensive (assuming you’re talking about the Bloomsbury guides).

I just use a sheet on the ground either with a moth trap on it or LED lights laid directly on it. I used to hand an MV bulb from a tripod over the sheet but haven’t done that for a while.

Female Chrysoperla carnea (probably) or Chrsyoperla pallida (possibly, but very much less likely). These are green lacewings that turn brown in winter. This one isn’t fully brief but the green colour is dull and there are brown patches on the tergites (along the top of the abdomen).

My first #lacewing of the year, and an excuse to try out the camera on my new phone. It’s either Chrysoperla carnea or Chrysoperla pallida. Females of these two species can’t be told apart but based on my records of males here it’s several hundred times more likely to be carnea.

A Woodcock alula feather inserted between a pair of lollipop sticks, incredibly useful for cleaning macerated moth genitalia for identification purposes.

Your DIY skills are infinitely greater than mine but I’ve found it effective enough to insert it into blu-tack between a pair of lollipop sticks tightly bound together with sellotape. I used to just use the feathers but kept losing them and it’s increasingly hard to get hold of new feathers.

How can the past inform reintroductions? - British Ornithologists' Union A history of the Dalmatian Pelican in Britain and what we can learn for the future of the species

The full paper is behind a paywall but this seems a good summary of our knowledge of the ancient historic presence of Dalmatian Pelican in UK: bou.org.uk/blog-crees-d....

I struggle to see how you can read this and think, heh, British wetlands are again suitable for bringing these pelicans back.

Which is why we need to be wise about how we use what there is, not wasting those 100s of 1000s (which add up up 10s of mils). There’s some great comms talent, energy and networks in the reintroductionist lobby - if only that was put to effective conservation of what’s disappearing before our eyes.

It’s much more realistic and impactful to focus on action that helps to prevent the future extinction of the many declining species that we still have. In doing so we will inevitably see the return of some species that were have lost.

If we restored habitats here, supported our European partners to restore habitats between here & SE Europe, understood and dealt with any other barriers to them thriving across their former range, then we wouldn’t need to reintroduce them. And if we don’t do all of that first, it won’t work anyway.

Surely you can see that practical conservation must have priorities? Resources must be used where the impact is greatest. Reintroducing species that haven’t existed here for centuries (if ever) when we haven’t addressed the causes of their demise (if we’ve even worked out what they are) isn’t it.

That’s absurd - it’s not my argument at all!

Again and again I ask people what the conservation benefits are and the answers just don’t stack up. Reintroduction is a perfectly valid conservation tool in a few robustly-evidenced situations but has been hijacked to become the end not the means.

Scant details in the Bulletin of the BOC report (vol 32): “Two identified, Tunbridge Wells (Kent), February 3rd and 4th.” Usually says “shot” when shot so presumably a field observation. Don’t know if there are more details in the Kent archives? They were commoner then, but misID surely possible.

Well worth getting this superb book by Alex and James. Jam-packed with original thought and a huge amount of information.

From the excellent book on vagrancy (2021). 5-10 years ago we had a moment of clarity - but it didn’t stick.

It discusses birding’s carbon emissions & the need to reduce them. It sees a positive future - one that has since faded.

We just aren’t ready to change🤷‍♂️🙄
#lowcarbonbirding
#ukbirding

If we have to resort to throwing out carefully considered and widely accepted IUCN guidelines and conjure up ever-increasingly absurd candidates for reintroductions to inspire people about nature recovery then we really are in a bad place. The world of conservation can and must do better.

In all my debates on reintroductions, with the possible exception of 2-3 mammals that might provide lost ecosystem services (Beaver, Boar etc), the only “conservation benefit” that stands up to any scrutiny at all boils down to them being attractions to inspire people, like a safari park.

Nobody’s arguing against wildlife conservation or restoration, not are we happy with a diminishing natural world. But we do recognise that the former isn’t achieved by an insatiable appetite for reintroducing the sort of animals one might find in a zoo as if that will somehow fix everything.