Newtown, Langport

A male Oak Beauty in the trap last night - the earliest I have ever taken.

Whitefield, Wiveliscombe

A Pale Brindled Beauty and an Early Moth both my earliest records here.  Also another Hebrew Character which Mapmate tells me to check as it is an early record !

early moth,pale brindled beauty,hebrew character,common quaker.

Whitefield, Wiveliscombe

Last night I had a single Hebrew Character in my garden trap - my first moth for 2008 apart from hibernators.

I have just update the Locate page so this now shows grid-squares at their given precision.  It was difficult to see when, for example, giving a six-figure reference exactly what area this enclosed.

Having done this it is apparent that Google Maps are not like 'normal' OS maps with a rectangular 'metres on the ground' view - they are a more conventional map projection.  Consequently the grid-squares are not actually 'square'!

To see this in action go to ST and this will show the 100km square 'ST'.  Once on the map enter SS (in the search box and click locate).  This is our other 100km square.  It seems that the further east you go (like Norfolk / Suffolk) then the more marked this effect it.

Anyhow, we can now see exactly what area is defined by our grid-references at any precision and I hope this is helpful.

Also worth mentioning is that you can provide a link to any location in the posts here simply by writing [[locate:position]].  For example [[locate:Montacute]] will show as Montacute or [[locate:ST477171]] will show as ST477171.  The 'position' can be any grid-reference or any locatable position.  See the help link at the bottom of the Locate page for more details.

If you notice any strange behaviours with this - or have any ideas for enhancements please let me know (Contacts).

Whitefield, Wiveliscombe

Last night I had my first moth for 2008 in the garden trap - a Dark Chestnut. Also yesterday, flying in the garden, was a rather worn Small Tortoiseshell

Just received a letter from Pat Ownen near Minehead telling me she had her first moth of the year, a Winter Moth, on 1st January!

One Common Quaker and two Dark Chestnuts last night

No migrants in the trap last night but on Hebrew Character and one Pale Brindled Beauty.

Hi everyone

Les Hill of the Migrant Recorders Network has just posted an alert for a favourable Saharan dust forecast from midweek - see http://forecast.uoa.gr/dustindx.html 
Time to get the moth traps running?

found a caterpillar of Large yellow underwing in a cauliflower from tesco last week.It pupated and emerged in three days.

Committee has agreed to publicise SANHS events and in return they will publicise ours. I will update the SANHS page as I receive information from them; if any SMG member is organising an event which they would like SANHS to publicise, please let me know as I am the 'official' link as SMG secretary.

SANHS details can be found on Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society events

Like Peter I think that the new development on the website is excellent. It's incredibly easy to use and really informative. I too think that we should restrict the facility to members.
A Winter moth in the house on Sunday night - but it was caught and eaten by a spider before I saw it!

After days and nights of wind and rain I found my first moth of 2008 last night on my car windscreen.  It was a Winter Moth.

I find the developments on the web site excellent and I would restrict access to SMG members. Restricting the list of records to one per site per year makes it easy to use and I very much enjoy being able to switch to an excellent aerial photo of the site in question.

Just to let you know that you can now (if logged on) click the dots on any distribution map to see where the records come from.

A list showing Location, Position, Recorder, Stage, Year and Owner is given.

Note: This is only available for SMG members whilst logged on at the website.

Records are 'grouped' by year - so if a number of records are present in a particular year only one entry is given.

You can click the 'Location' link to go directly to the aerial photography of the site.  For low precision grid-references (say 1km or less precise) remember that the map position shows the lower left corner of the grid-square at the recorded precision.

The 'Stage' indicates either 'Adult' or 'Immature' stages.

The 'Owner' is the MapMate CUK who provided the original data.

If you click a dot it will show the 1990-present data, if you click a filled-in square it will show pre-1990 data.

I'd be interested in any member views on this and also on the detail of records that could, possibly, be provided in a similar way to non-members or the general public.

Click any link on Species index (Macro species) to try this out.

My first moth of 2008 - a male Mottled Umber on a wall at Yeovil Junction station this morning at 0700.

No trapping so far (but if the wind dies down a bit I'll give it a whirl tonight).

First moth of the year this evening, a Winter Moth attracted to car lights south of Wellow, ST745579.

First, a Happy New Year to all.

I have recently added two new pages to the website:

Species Index (Macro species), and
Species Index (Micro species)

These give links to distribution maps for all species currently on the 'Somerset List'.  Data is now 'right up to date' so as soon as I receive your records and they are entered (or synchronised using MapMate) they will appear on the website maps.  If you think any of your records are missing off the maps then please let me know (Contacts).

Also, if you have not already seen it, the Locate page is very useful for browsing any area on a map, particularly if you use the 'Satellite' mode which shows aerial photography.  At the bottom is a readout of the grid-reference (to 1m or 10 figures) so you can accurately place (or confirm) locations anywhere in the county.  Click the link at the bottom of the Locate page for instructions and more information.