Red-headed Stepchild

Posted by Graeme Lyons , Wednesday, 9 November 2011 23:44

This is a Red-headed Chestnut and it's a really rare migrant moth. Caught several days ago in Bracklesham Bay, this moth was shown tonight in the exhibits section of the Sussex Moth Group meeting. I love seeing new species but I refuse to add a species in a pot to my list. If we start counting species behind plastic on our pan-species lists, then why not go to a zoo and start ticking off tigers and monkeys? Where do you draw the line? I think if you are on the same survey as someone and they put a specimen in a container to show you to stop it flying off, then that is OK. I won't be ticking this moth but I thought it made an interesting story. Where do other listers stand on this?

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4 Response to "Red-headed Stepchild"

Gibster Says:

Agreed, moths in pots are non-ticks. But we all tick moths in traps. What about birds in the hand? I had Eastern Oli Warbler brought to me from an out-of-sight net. Saw it down to 18". Then it was released nearby. I gave it an hour, went looking, refound it (along with other birders!) and then ticked it. Funny old game innit...

10 November 2011 at 07:45
Gibster Says:

More recently I was part of a BioBlitz at a friend's college. I went on an organised fungus foray and several tricky specimens were brought back indoors for ID. I added quite a few species to my fungi list. I later realised that several extra specimens were added to the collection by somebody else - I never saw these extra ones growing in the wild, only lying in a tray on a table top. So should I add them to my list, or leave them off??? Phew, tough choices LOL.

10 November 2011 at 07:53
Martin Harvey Says:

Generally I only record things I've found myself, e.g. if I'm running a moth trap with a group of others also running traps I'll only record the moths that come to my trap. But it's difficult to be entirely consistent, e.g. if there beetles or flies in someone else's trap and they don't record those groups then I will do so, and when doing collaborative fieldwork with one or two other people it can be difficult to define who is responsible for what. But on the whole, if I didn't play any find in finding the species then I don't count it.

Somebody showed my an Edible Dormouse recently, a species I'd not seen in the wild before. It was great to see it, but I know I wouldn't be able to record it as 'mine' until I'd spent some time tracking down another individual nearby.

This is of course absolutely daft behaviour on my part, but fortunately none of this really matters, the only rule of wildlife-watching club is to enjoy seeing wildlife!

10 November 2011 at 12:27
Steve Gale Says:

Hi Graham, I've just posted on this subject, prompted by yourself (full credit given!!!)

10 November 2011 at 20:16

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