The Court is very sad to announce the death of Mike Large on 7th June 2022.
Mike was appointed as a Freeman of the Hundred and Borough of Cricklade in 2000. This was in recognition of his outstanding voluntary work in the Town. Amongst many of his achievements, he founded Cricklade Youth Football Club in 1974 following the foundation of the Cirencester and District League. He was also a keen bowler and remained a member of the Club for many years holding a variety positions within the Club.
The thoughts and prayers of the Officers and Jurors of the Court are with all the family at this sad time.
We were delighted to welcome back David Brown to run our 2 day moth and butterfly course last weekend. The course started with the inspection of moth traps run during Friday night. The taps where placed in 7 locations around Cricklade including on North Meadow.
Poplar Hawkmoth
Elephant Hawkmoth
Spectacle
Burnished Brass
Treble Brown Spot
Buff Tip
Small Seraphim
Our inspection revealed a total of 64 moth species. This included two of the largest moths the Poplar Hawkmoth and Elephant Hawkmoth. Many of the moths are stunningly colourful and beautifully marked such as the Burnished Brass and the Spectacle. Others resemble butterflies such as the Treble Brown Spot or hide by looking like a twig such as the Buff Tip.
Field Trip to North Meadow
Small Eggar Larva Web
After lunch we headed to North Meadow to look for butterflies. We were pleased to find 7 species and watched a mating display of Small Tortoiseshell over some nettles.
Most were familiar farmland butterflies. The meadow was looking amazing in the warm sunny weather. A highlight was the discovery of a larva web of the rare Small Eggar moth.
Inspecting Sunday Morning Moth Traps
On Sunday we started the morning by inspecting 3 moth traps from Saturday night. We found a further 12 species raising our total to 76 moth species. They included a Privet Hawkmoth, a Small Elephant Hawkmoth and a rare Small Seraphim.
Field Trip to Edge Common
Small Blue
We climbed aboard the minibus and headed to Edge Common for lunch overlooking Stroud valley. During our walk around edge we added Small Blue and Small Heath to our butterfly species list, Five Spot Burnet moth , Six Spot Burnet moth Larva and Rivulet were added to our day flying moth total.
Field Trip to Daneway Banks
Daneway Banks
On to the Gloucester Wildlife Trust Reserve and location of a Large Blue re- introduction after this butterfly went extinct in the UK in the 1970s. After much searching one of our members had a brief sighting of two Large Blues. Small Copper and Marbled White were added to our butterfly total.
Marbled White
We must thank our tutor David for his vast knowledge and boundless enthusiasm for making our weekend so enjoyable. We found a total of 80 moth species and 12 butterfly species.
Feedback
We had some lovely comments on our feedback forms here are a couple of examples:
“Thank you for all of the organisation that has gone into making this such an enjoyable and valuable event. It is hugely appreciated and has contributed enormously to my learning”
“Just a big thank you to David, Anita and John for such a wonderful event. It was GREAT!!”
Lovely group size, organisation super, opportunity to ask questions and learn. Thank you, I will be looking to see what other courses I can register for”
