Write a commentFamilies across the Ring of Gullion area joined the Ring of Gullion AONB project and Butterfly Conservation Northern Ireland for their first Creatures of the Night Picnic. The picnic took place in Slieve Gullion Forest Park on Thursday 3rd July and provided information on moths and bats in the area. This event was part of a range of events happening across Northern Ireland, this weekend as part of National Moth Night 2014.
Therese Hamill, Ring of Gullion officer said, “Summer moths are bold and beautiful, and Catherine brought this subject to life with her passion and enthusiasm during the night.” She added, “It was great to have the event in the Slieve Gullion Forest Park, this enabled us to look out for bats and moths in the trees surrounding the play park. We hope this event will encourage more people to get involved in surveying for these creatures in the area.”
Thanks to funding for Northern Ireland Environment Agency(NIEA) and Newry and Mourne District Council three families were able to take moth traps home with them to see what moths were present in their gardens, helping scientists monitor what moths are in the Ring of Gullion. Catherine met with the families again on Friday morning to identify and release all those caught moths.
Catherine Bertrand Senior Regional Officer for Butterfly Conservation NI said, “It's been a pleasure to celebrate Moth Night 2014 in the Ring of Gullion. It’s a great start to National Moth Night with 40 odd species across 3 'adopted' moth traps identified last night.”
Moth night is the annual celebration of moth recording throughout Britain and Ireland by enthusiasts with local events aimed at raising awareness of moths among the general public. Every year Moth Night has a theme, this year’s theme is to raise awareness of how important our woodlands are for moths. Woodlands are constantly in the news with respect to the recent introduction of fungal diseases like Chalara or ash dieback caused by Chalara fraxinea or the Larch disease Phytophthora ramorum. These diseases along with other issues increase the pressure on our already threatened woodland moths.
The Ring of Gullion AONB project is looking for volunteers to take part in the All Ireland Daubenton’s Bat Waterway Survey. If you interested in surveying your local waterway for Daubenton’s bat on 2 nights during the month of August, contact the Ring of Gullion office for more information. This survey is part a monitoring scheme recording the activity of the Daubenton’s bat. Your help is needed to increase coverage for the county.
For further information on events, please visit www.ringofgullion.org and click on What’s on or call 028 308 68900. For more information on activities in the Ring of Gullion area, search for Ring of Gullion on Facebook and Twitter.
