Part two of our Nature Watch “Moth & Mice” event started early on a bright misty Saturday morning. Like a small child, the first thing I did when I arrived on the reserve was to check one of the small mammal traps. Well… the door’s closed, so we must have a visitor!One of the 30 Longworth small mammal traps placed around the Reserve the night before - and the door is closed! Our nature reserve in Corfe Mullen is not what you would call big. In fact it consists of one small hedged field with a small stream running down one edge and a few mature oaks. So why’s it so special? well, in the Spring it’s full of green winged orchids followed by southern marsh orchids and a host of other wild flowers.Springtime and Green-winged orchids in the MeadowBut today it was empty. The hay’s been cut, the bales have gone and it’s just like any other field. Or is it?A misty morning in the MeadowBy 9am people had started to gather. Another 30 people (some who hadn’t been at the bat event the night before) so a good turnout. We started by looking at the moth trap.Now Friday night was not good weather for moths! It was perfectly clear, a big moon and cold. In fact we had watched shooting stars and satellites as we wandered round looking for bats the previous night. So we weren’t expecting many moths. Luckily we had another expert on hand today who really knows his moths, Mike Jeffes. A great bloke who is really down to earth and obviously loves his subject.Mike talks about one of the moths found in the trapWe had the grand total of four different moths in our trap. I was actually quite pleased, as I honestly wasn’t expecting ANY! The four (who I will be paying later) were Lunar Underwing, Brindle Gree, Common Marbled Carpet and Square Spot Rustic. Luckily Mike also brought along some that he’d had in his trap, including this beautiful Merveille du Jour (I think that’s what it’s called… put me right if I’m wrong...