Events that opened Amazing Windows of Wonder

Our sincere thanks to Michael Bell of Nature Learn for another extraordinary Biodiversity Morning on the Cloonlarge Loop.  This was our third and final event for 2022.  We had the privilege of seeing and identifying amazing  creatures for the first time.  There is no doubt these events opened Windows of Wonder for us. 

We have collated all our data  now and we know that during our three walks with Michael we identified 40 different species of Macro Moths.  We were particularly pleased to learn that three of these moths had not been recorded in Co. Roscommon before.  If we include the moths we identified during  our Heritage Week event in August, we have now identified 48 different species on the Cloonlarge Loop. 

We enjoyed getting up close and  photographing the moths . We  learned how to handle them with care and how to observe them and how release them safely back into the wild.

See the beautiful Pebble prominant moth photo above and  Black Rustic ,Canary -shouldered thorn and Gold Spot photos below . And that's just four of our 48  finds.

We  also learned about the Nicrophorous investigator Beetle  (photo below). What an amazing story. We saw  butterflies,caddisflies and micromoths and discussed trees, shrubs and flora.

All our species were recorded and records were submitted to the National Biodiversity Data Base or Moths Ireland.

We also participated in Marsh Fritillary Larval Web Monitoring.  Thanks to Michael we learned how to look and where to look.  Our thanks to Laura Connolly and Chris Peppiatt, of the National Parks and Wildlife Service for their preparatory research for today.

A BIG thank you also to Barney and Imelda Donlon for all their support during the three walks.

Kilteevan Tidy Towns has been committed to Citizen Science for many years. These walks with Michael Bell  together wiith our new moth trap and swatches means we can contribute more to protect biodiversity . We are also pleased to have  young members of the community now interested in recording for nature.   Michael encouraged us to continue to submit our records to the National Biodiversity Data Centre or to Moths Ireland.   Kilteevan Tidy Towns will now coninue to record moths in Kilteevan.   We look forward to working with young people in the Spring when we will put our Biodiversity swatches to work.

In May 2019 the Dáil voted upon and declared both a National Climate and Biodiversity Emergency, Roscommon Co Council followed with a similar declaration. It is vitally important that we ALL work to preserve ALL biodiversity.

We would like to acknowledge the support of the National Parks and Wildlife Service with this innovative and exciting  project.