Today at St Mary’s we had moth expert Mark Spencer come and join us. 39 – yes you read that correctly – 39 different species of moth were identified in the churchyard. This is really exciting as the churchyard team have worked really hard to develop bio-diversity and support the local environment and eco-system. A big well done to the churchyard team for all their hard work.
Just incase you’re worried, no moths were harmed during the trapping. It’s marvellous to see wildlife flourishing in the St Mary’s churchyard, or should that be – it’s moth-ellous!
P.S. a prize of personal glory for the first person to guess correctly the type of moth in the photo in the comment section below. 🙂
New Forest Edge Churches 
While members of our sister church, St. Mary’s were busy moth hunting, we at St.Michael’s had a different type of busy day. After the morning service there was a baptism of two dear little twins, a boy and a girl. A large congregation of family and friends were dressed in their finery to join the celebrations on this special day for Charles and Arabella.
In the evening Sandleheath Band returned for a 5th visit to entertain over sixty people with a wide selection of tunes, some to ‘sing along to’ some nostalgic and many bright and stirring. Tom Durham linked the melodies with carefully selected poems all delivered from memory. How does he do it?
A busy day with a full church- St. Michael’s is alive and thriving!
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Hi Shirley that is great to hear.
All three of our churches are currently experiencing a lot of Christenings, and of course holding lots of different activities and events – which is great for our benefice!
In future, if you want to communicate a report on event that has taken place, email me a brief write-up so I can publish it to be as read as an article.
Regards
James
Moth in the picture is amazing! Not a clue how to identify. I’ve heard that we have thousands of moths in England. I do like the leaf antenae, the eyes on the wings and the furry back!
Hi Ali, it is a beautiful and colourful moth. It is a Emperor moth,