New Housing development in Buckle's Wood

James brought the pallets up to the wood last weekend and arranged them in this inspirational way, so that when the children from years 3 and 4 arrived with their collection of natural building materials, they were keen to get started!

They pushed hay, straw and crunched up egg trays into the middle and then began to make interesting holes and routes into our construction, to make easy access for the future residents.

With a roof on top, and lots of different gaps and spaces, I think everyone has done a jolly good job. Let's hope the mini beasts think so too!

These people helped us with this project. Hilary Furlong found the pallets, which were given to us by Andy Barnes. Parents gave us the internal fitments. Badgers, guided by Mrs Burdiss, completed the building with gusto! Thank you .

The magic of moths

After a day of heavy showers, the sky cleared and the moths arrived as it grew dark. Not as many as usual, as the temperature was a tad cool, but our knowledgeable expert Tony Prichard was able to capture and identified about 15 different moths.
The Privet and Lime Hawk-moths were magnificent. Taking photos was tricky and the images don't reflect their true beauty.

The Lime Hawk-moth (above) was a female with an bulging abdomen full of eggs.

The evening was summed up in an email from John, a member of the group
"Just a note to say thank you for organising last night’s moth hunt. It was a most enjoyable evening and the hot dogs and soup were delicious! The sight of the privet hawk moth will stay with us a long while!
We would like to thank Tony for giving us a splendid evening.
There are over 2,000 species of British moths and Tony Prichard has photos of many of them on his website. It's well worth a look!
As promised, Tony has sent a list of the moths that we looked at during the evening.

0014 Hepialus humuli ~Ghost Moth. 00 17 Hepialus lupulinus~ Common Swift. 1011 Pseudargyrotoza conwagana. 1082 Hedya pruniana~Plum Tortrix. 1333 Scoparia pyralella. 1376 Eurrhypara hortulata Small Magpie. 1727 Xanthorhoe montanata ~Silver-ground Carpet. 1782 Horisme tersata ~Fern. 1825 Eupitheciacentaureata~Lime speck Pug. 1906 Opisthograptis luteolata ~Brimstone Moth. 1976 Sphinx ligustri ~Privet Hawk-moth. 1979 Mimas tiliae ~Lime Hawk-moth. 2089 Agrotis exclamationis ~Heart & Dart 2107 Noctua pronuba ~Large Yellow Underwing. 2126 Xestia c-nigrum ~Setaceous Hebrew Character. 2128 Xestia triangulum ~Double Square-spot. 2194 Mythimna albipuncta ~White-point .2337 Oligia strigilis~ Marbled Minor. 2339 Oligia latruncula ~Tawny Marbled Minor. 2387 Caradrina morpheus ~Mottled Rustic. 2477 Hypena proboscidalis ~Snout