In June 2003 I launched my personal website www.simplybirdsandmoths.co.uk. as a place to show-case my wildlife photography. I also wanted to start and create a central data base for Derbyshire Moths, which was another avid interest of mine; this was something that didn’t exist at the time.
Over the years my personal website has grown tremendously, and so too had the Derbyshire Moths part of it. I was able to start creation of a Derbyshire Moths Image Gallery, covering the macros and the micros, and showcase almost a 1,000 images; a considerable number of which were kindly donated by many of Derbyshire’s prominent “moth-ers”. More importantly however, I was able to create checklists and for the first time, this would now show the state of Derbyshire’s moths in a public-available document.
At the end of 2023 Steve Thorpe and I put a framework together to try and put Derbyshire Moths back on the map. We created the Derbyshire Moths Recording Team which comprises of ten experienced and enthusiastic Derbyshire moth-ers. The team has actively been involved in verifying thousands of Derbyshire’s moth records, and currently the numbers of data being received from the county’s moth recorders is increasing month by month. There is now a reliable and well managed system in place that is working far beyond our expectations.
During early 2024 I felt the time was right to look at the possibility of a stand-alone Derbyshire Moth Website. This would provide a much better alternative than having the county’s moths consolidated within my personal website. A stand-alone system could be made much more interactive than my personal site, however, I soon discovered that this was not going to be easy. First, there was a huge cost involved, from an outside web designer, and secondly there didn’t seem to be much in the way of any support from local organisations. I very quickly lost my enthusiasm for such a project, and I resorted to the fact that this wouldn’t happen and that my website would be the best place for Derbyshire Moths for the foreseeable future.
Then, www.derbyshiremoths.org was created during August 2024. After several conversations and throwing around of ideas, Richard Pittam kindly, and I suspect, much to his better judgement, agreed to help me and put together the new website. We initially tried to section out the Derbyshire Moth data and create a separate link within SBAM, but this wasn’t practical, and so the only alternative was to create a stand-alone site. So, here we are, one month in, and after a huge amount of work by Richard, I’m indebted to him for getting this off the ground.
The website has been designed to be as interactive as possible. We want you to use it and be a part of it. It offers you the chance to share in a project that can help build up a database of catalogued moth images, with data and some science, to back them up; which potentially offers an extension of what is currently provided by the DMFG – which provides easy opportunities to showcase a collection of images, provide ID opportunities and has a lively chat forum – all utilising the simplicity of the Facebook platform. The website takes this a step further, by consolidating this array of moth imagery, moth facts, moth details and moth news, to try and provide a ‘place-to-go’ if you’re looking to discover where your new-found moth sits within the overall current state of our Derbyshire Moths, and also gives you the chance to help build that picture further. I think the DMFG and the new Moths website, can work effectively side-by-side, and hopefully compliment each other.”
There is a facility to submit your images directly to the site via a password (DMoths2024). There are a few rules in place, but these are there only to ensure the site is correctly maintained. The images can be featured on the species pages, which will help to build up any missing images, improve current images, help with ID information, and help to keep latest dates and other statistics up to date. Moth Blogs can be submitted and posted on the site. We want to showcase your significant moth records, such as county firsts, rarities, and scarce species. Any moth news, meeting dates, moth trap events etc. can be sent in and highlighted on the Moth Calendar. There is also a mobile phone & IPAD version.
General information:
WEBSITE & ADMIN –
Tony Davison – contact via the website contact details.
COUNTY MOTH RECORDERS –
Tony Davison – email: tony.davison@btinternet.com
Steve Thorpe – email: ornithom@hotmail.com
DERBYSHIRE MOTHS RECORDING TEAM –
Tony Davison – verifier – JCR
Tim Dray ( BC Representative) – verifier
Dave Evans – specialising – Micro-moths / Leaf Miners – verifier
Christian Heintzen – verifier
Jane Hewitt – verifier
Emily Milnes – verifier
Russell Nevin – verifier
Steve Orridge – verifier
Will Soar – specialising – Micro-moths – verifier
Steve Thorpe – verifier – JCR
DERBYSHIRE MOTHS FACEBOOK GROUP (DMFG) –
Admin – Steve Thorpe.
SPONSORSHIP SUPPORT FOR THE WEBSITE –
DaNES – (Derbyshire & Nottinghamshire Entomological Society)
Many thanks for reading and hopefully for taking part in supporting Derbyshiremoths.org.
Tony Davison.
