Well, I see April’s just around the bend and my 2024 BC leps list is depressingly sparse – a mere 24 species so far. But that’ll be changing soon. It’s been an odd year. Erratic weather, crises at home and never a spare moment. All in all there’s been very little time for mothing or even this blog. But no matter! There are some exciting prospects on the horizon…

Luuuuures

This is something I’ve wanted to experiment with for years, but never acquired any. Well last week I finally ordered some moth pheromone lures from Solida which should be arriving any day. I’ll need to sit down with a map, calendar and iNaturalist to figure out exactly which species to hunt for, but I fully expect to add some clearwing moths to my list this year.

Pinning

Over Christmas I spent some time learning how to pin moths and was enjoying it enormously. I flatter myself in saying that a handful of them weren’t completely butchered. However, the available specimen supply had waned somewhat and I was down to a lot of micros, which made things tougher, plus I needed to replenish my equipment. So a couple of weeks ago I’ve put in a big order to Atelier for my own cabinets, draws and more equipment. My grand plan is to revamp the spare room in my house so I can work and store the collection there. We’ll see how much time I have. And in terms of finding specimens to pin, I plan on hustling my fellow moth-ers and offering trades for rare oddities that I’ll collect individually. You gotta do what you gotta do.

Research permit

Last year Metro Vancouver purchased a ~100 hectare section of land on the west side of Bowen Island with the intention of creating a new regional park. This has been an endless fount of drama for the islanders given the plan to put in 100 (!) new campsites, but for me I was particularly worried that it had robbed me of a location to set up my nets. I’ve been setting up nets over there for a few years now, but figured it was now off-limits. However, last year someone from Metro Vancouver reached out to me about my observations and this week I got a research permit all finalized so I’ll be able to set up traps this summer. Great stuff.

Trips: Osoyoos, Prince George + Creston

I have three trips planned in the coming weeks. Osoyoos will be a weekend; Prince George a week and Creston a full month. Really quite stoked. Beyond that, not sure… I’m hovering around the 2500 mark for my bird count, so also need to plan a trip or two to reach that target. But at this stage it’s all pretty fluid. Hope this’ll be a fun year.