Guernsey was to be our first trip outside of the UK and, unlike me, not really planned or researched.
Our friends had bit the bullet and decided to sell up, pack their bags and retire to Portugal but suggested that beforehand it might be a good idea to have a small reunion with former colleagues in Guernsey which we had visited through work on a few occasions, at least in my case.
The idea to trap while we were there was my friends who said, ‘Why not, I’m driving, the car has a battery, so you’re sorted!’
I must admit Wisteria cottage which was to be our billet sounded, now that I was a little more than a fledgling mother, rather interesting.
The cottage proved to be more than we expected regarding our hobby in that there was a garden which might produce some good records, but we had to consider the reason we were there and not spend all our time in recording and identifications.
When we arrived, we were greeted by a lovely hostess whose aim was to make our stay as perfect as she could, even asking if we had any special requirements.
Now do I tell her, the one thing I had not considered before leaving, that I was to set a moth trap each evening of our stay.
I personally was really bowled over by her response which went along the lines of ‘I didn’t realise you were a scientist, but I can put you in contact with the people who can help you during your visit.’
Oh dear! – I am not a scientist and I was really a rookie at this time at moth recording so decided just to mutter the right words and accept that I could put my trap anywhere I chose.
Now was the time to take a low profile and just put the trap under the window of the cottage and hope that nobody except our friends in the next room noticed.
I wish in a way I had been bolder but when our landlady turned up with a list of eminent Lepidopterists on the island I kind of bottled and resumed my low profile.
Anyway, this was a reunion and I was pulling my horns in for everyone’s benefit.
We did manage, with our disguised moth trap hidden in the corner of the Wisteria in front or the window, a couple of new species in the form of Agapeta zoegana and Trachea atriplicis.
Then in life the effort you put in gleans results, which in our case was in the form of a Jersey Tiger who had decided to take a break to the next island to visit, hopefully, friends.
When I started this blog, the intention was and is to do things in a categorical order so as not to jump from one level of expertise to another but this morning, with the number of moths trapped, the new techniques employed has become rather time consuming but hopefully when I catch up things will become easier and a bit more controlled.