Campbell's Cottage

Campbell’s Cottage – home to the most northerly Double Line

People holiday here for many reasons: trains, beaches, walking, relaxing, etc. but Darren came for the moths. It looked a bit like a sacrificial altar on the cottage lawn with candle shaped UV lamps on a white-topped table in front of a white backcloth.

A cable was run up to the platform, one up the garden, and another past the vegetable patch into the nature reserve. Connected to these were moth traps that glowed brightly through the night and must have been clear to see across the valley.

We didn’t see much of Darren, his body clock was more in tune with the moths.

By the end of the week he’d recorded 180 different species and provided us with a long list together with some photos. Notable finds were Weavers Wave and Ashworths Rustic which are found nowhere else in Britain, only in parts of Snowdonia.

But it was the Double Line which stole the show because the one found in the cottage garden is the first ever recorded in north Wales and the most northerly recording in the whole of Britain. A sure sign that things are warming up at Campbell’s Cottage.

Thanks Darren from all of us including the warden of the nature reserve and the Meirionnydd moth recorder.

Huw

6^th July 2010