Resources

Recorders Spreadsheet

Your butterfly sightings are important to us and the data are used nationally to inform Government policies and nature conservation work. To submit your butterfly sightings to the County Recorder for Cheshire and The Wirral (VC58) please use the attached spreadsheet (below). The Recorder receives over 30,000 records a year to check, validate and enter into the database. For this reason we're afraid that from 2020 we will no longer be able to take handwritten/paper records. 

Instructions on how to use the spreadsheet, and where to send it to when completed, can be found on the first sheet.

Cheshire Moths

The Cheshire Moths Facebook Group and RECORD LERC Moths Forum are both useful places to gain help with moth identification, share sightings and receive general tips and advice relating to moth recording.

A free download of 'The Cheshire Moth Atlas 1808 -2017' by Steve Hind, Steve Holmes and Gary Hedges can be downloaded from the North West Invertebrates website here.

Cheshire Butterflies

Join our Facebook group, Cheshire Butterflies; sightings, sites, help with ID and tips on submitting records

Equipment - Moth Trap Schemes

Battery-powered Moth-recording Kits

“Owners or managers of sites around Cheshire raise requests for moth surveys for a variety of reasons”, writes David Maddy, County Moth Recorder. Now, leaders of moth surveys can book battery-powered moth traps to help with field-work. Recent examples of surveys range from an overnight survey at a small hill-farm, through recording in a mid-Cheshire woodland, to an extensive series of light trapping sessions in an area earmarked for development. The purposes of the surveys can be: to establish a baseline before committing to a course of conservation actions; educational, to demonstrate the diversity of moth species; or, simply to fill a gap in land-owners’ knowledge of the flora and fauna at their site. Such sites rarely have access to mains power, but often require several traps for adequate coverage. In response, the Cheshire & Wirral branch of Butterfly Conservation have provided the funding for two battery-powered moth traps.

If you are planning to lead a moth survey and would like to borrow the traps, please e-mail requests to book the kit to [email protected].