Travelling in time at Flanders Moss

Plastic dam put in place to retain water and help re-wet the moss

To bring in New Year 2013, I took a journey back in time – following in the footsteps of a 10-year-old explorer back to Flanders Moss. It’s uncomfortable to think it’s been 36 years since my last visit to the Stirlingshire lowland raised bog. Life cannot be so short.

I remember my childhood expedition as a day full of discoveries – a sodden trek on a blistering hot June day that left me with sunburn and a stomach bug. So parched were my companions and I that we took to drinking out of a stream that we later realised was the stripling River Forth.

My childhood notebook records some of the discoveries that, in retrospect, made the discomfort worthwhile. We walked through a huge colony of Lesser Black-backed Gulls – many with eggs or small chicks – while it seemed that Common Adder were on station at every grassy tussock. We also recorded Black Grouse and a single female Western Capercaillie – my first and to-date only sighting.

These memories flooded back on my return to Flanders Moss at the start of 2013 to gather some information for a college assignment. There was certainly no need for sun cream on the mild but overcast January morning, nor was there a long trek in over fields from the Thornton road. As a National Nature Reserve, declared in 1982, the moss has become explorer-friendly. A car park leads to a boardwalk which elevates pedestrians a few centimetres from the peat and mire. No wet trousers and ruined boots.

Mixed Sphagnum moss and Cladonia lichens at Flanders Moss NNR

A total of 550ha of active raised bog remain, characterised by a heath field layer and ground layer of Sphagnum mosses. A further 250ha is degraded raised bog that has been subject to past drainage and tree planting. Fourteen species of Sphagnum have been identified at Flanders Moss – an indicator of the excellent condition of the bog habitat. Yet the gull colony and the grouse have become extinct at Flanders Moss in the past three decades – even as management starts to restore the bog.

But masses of Pink-footed Geese flew overhead and I also saw Roe Deer, Common Buzzard, Brambling, Common Snipe and Great-spotted Woodpecker. I look forward to returning on a hot June day – but I won’t allow so much time to elapse before my next expedition to Flanders Moss.

Early arrival of a winter-flying moth

My first moth species of 2013 – the appropriately-named Early Moth Theria primaria. The mild start to the year brought this winter-flying species out in force on Jan 03 – my earliest ever date by just over a week. At least 31 of these males were present perched on a mixed hedgerow at Gleddoch, near Langbank, Renfrewshire.

These winter-flying moths look pretty dull but they fascinate me – in lepidopteran terms, they are the very antithesis of finding a nice fritillary on a warm, sunny May afternoon.

My sightings of this species in 2010 were the first Renfrewshire Vice County records, but I've found them to be fairly abundant in the right habitat (hawthorn and blackthorn hedgerows). Look for these wee moths on the very tips of hawthorn/blackthorn stems on January nights. They sit with their wings closed, exposing the pale undersides so they readily reflect light from a torch, making them easy to spot. I've found that a well-managed hedge is better than one that's grown wild.

I took hours of searching before I found my first female, however ...

Like many of these winter moths, the female is flightless – retaining only the stubs of wings. These are really tiny, just a few millimetres. This was a lucky spot last winter but I'm told the best way to find them is to look for congregations of males – who use their feathered antennae to pick up her pheromones.