Mothing at Limekiln Wood

An intrepid group of our select band spent an evening and very very early morning trapping, identifying and releasing safely a second set of moths in Limekiln Wood.

Led by local expert Edwards Mills – to most of us a moth is just a moth – they trapped and identified the following magnificent list.

I have attached some photographs of the evening below for your enjoyment.

The pretty chalk carpet is lovely to get a second time.  In Cumbria, it only lives on the limestone between Grange and Witherslack, so not many people have recorded them!

Ours have Heads as well

Maintaining and improving a much neglected woodland is not just about trees and undergrowth.
The beauty of the Lakes is the use of ancient skills to enhance the environment with traditional walls made from the local stone. Surrounding Lime Kiln Wood we are blessed with such edifices but we need to keep them in good condition. Our dedicated working parties can be seen plying their skills , normally in pouring rain, as we try to keep up with the ravages of time.
Here is the latest example of a good job well done and a thanks to Jack, Jennie, Mike and Colin (behind the lens) for their efforts.

Having managed to avoid the worst of the winter weather our first working party for a while happened over the weekend of 28th-29th January.
As always at least one day was going to be raining (it is the Lake District after all) so a wet Saturday and a dry Sunday was about average. The main activities were to tidy the main path at the far side of the wood from the road and to take out as much of the overhanging trees and bushes that threaten the stability of the dry-stone wall on the eastern boundary adjacent to the Industrial Unit.
As anyone visiting will now see there has been a major success in clearing the guilty parties and our thanks go to the land owner over the wall who has allowed us to stack the brash ready for burning when the weather allows. Great effort by the team and I can vouch for the aches and pains we all felt at the end of two hard days.
Welcome also to Jack Ellerby who has taken a share of the wood and who showed his walling skills in no small measure. Hopefully he can lead us all to better skills in that area and over the years improve the longevity of the remaining boundary walls.
There will be more work to be done in the autumn and we are looking to continue our efforts to diversify the habitat and improve the biodiversity. We have made great strides in five years already and the increase in bird life and plant variety has been very noticeable.
Woodpeckers have highlighted my lack of skills with bird boxes but hopefully we can improve the design with some more protection in the shape of metal plates over the entrance holes on the unprotected boxes.
Keep enjoying the wood and please do not hesitate to comment or update us on anything of interest.

LimeKiln Wood is delighted to be able to invite all who wish to join us for an evening of Bat Identification and to check the progress of the Violets.
We are particularly pleased to have invited the Grange Woodlanders group to the event and local expert Dave Marshall will check on the residents of our newly installed Bat roost boxes.

7pm in the Alnat layby…