MOTHS are a mystery to many people for a variety of reasons and this can even lead to being a little afraid of them. To start with most of them fly at night so we do not normally see them.

They may be fluttering around an outside light or be attracted to a window but generally we just accept they are there without knowing very much about them.

There are so very many species of moths compared with butterflies and even their identification is often difficult.

As for mysteries - last night, what was a moth doing flying around a light at our back door being closely watched by one of the dachshunds?

Interestingly these are, aptly, called the winter moth, small and insignificant, and they will be in flight from October through to January.

As if this is not enough to be flying at this inhospitable time of the year, the females of the winter moth are wingless!

She spends all her time sitting around waiting for the male to be attracted and then she lays the cluster of eggs on tree trunks.

Another mystery is that some moths fly at night whilst others fly by day. A good example is the silver Y moth which not only has this interesting habit but is also a migrant that comes over each year from the continent.

Then there is the rare humming bird hawk moth which gets its name from the fact that it will hover near a blossom of a nectar source just in the same way as a humming bird does.

This fascinating moth flies by day and can be seen with its body perfectly still with its wings whirring so fast they are often not visible. The tongue can be seen moving in and out of the flower as it sips the nectar.

In contrast some moths look huge and perhaps even frightening. The convolvulus hawk-moth that is the largest of any British insects. It is five inches across the wings and its tongue is also the longest, at three and half inches, which is twice as long as its body.

Quite impressive, but rarely seen as it flies at dusk and visits wild flowers such as honeysuckle.

In gardens it will feed on clematis, geraniums and tobacco plants. The latter are often planted by moth enthusiasts just to attract this spectacular hawk-moth.

In recent years moths have been the subject of a great deal of attention in the Highlands from recorders.

One of the reasons is that we know so little about them despite the fact that in many ways they are indicative of the conservation problems of insects even more than butterflies.

There is no doubt that moths have seriously declined in the last two decades, or even much earlier, yet we do not have the records to show the extent or seriousness of such a decline.

Fortunately there are now recorders covering every part of the Highlands and the organisation "Butterfly Conservation" has been at the forefront of such advances in their recording.

As far as I am concerned I have not been in on the recording of moths for some years although that is about to change.

When I was asked what I wanted for Christmas, and my birthday which falls in late December I replied "a moth trap".

Now, that may not be the usual response from people at this time of the year, but I am keen to get back recording moths again. So the "Skinner Moth Trap" arrived yesterday and it brought back many memories.

The essence is that the moths come to no harm as some of them wait in the bottom of the trap until I move them in the morning.

Watch this space.

Owl is a little mystery

The record of the week was, very unusually, of two little owls!

One was found in Morayshire with an injured wing, possibly by air gun pellets and the other at Daviot.

The injured Moray bird is now being kept in a bird sanctuary at Croy.

Unfortunately, the bird found at Daviot died.

My immediate thought was both these birds were released or escaped from somewhere becaus there are no other records for the Highlands, ever, and only a few from elsewhere in Scotland. However, the people who handled the birds say they behaved as wild birds.

Little owls were first introduced into England in Northamptonshire in the 19th Century. This tiny owl is only about the size of a starling, so is almost minute compared with the other native owls such as the barn and tawny.

Little owls used to breed on the first nature reserve I ever worked on in Northamptonshire.

One summer all the RSPB wardens in the country came for a visit and amongst them was the legendary Bobby Tulloch of Shetland fame. He quietly asked me if I could show him a little owl, a new species for him.

As for these two new records for the Highlands, if anyone can shed any light on where they have come from please get in touch with me.

Fishing for - and finding! - the ferox

BENEATH THE BLACK WATER by Jon Berry. Pub. The History Press. 2011 ISBN 978-0-7524-5837-3. 190pp. £14.99

THE subtitle of this book, as stated on the front cover, is "The Search for an Ancient Fish", which just about sums up the fascination of the legendary "ferox" trout.

The bug to catch these sometimes huge fish took me many years ago on the larger lochs I knew well in the north-west Highlands.

I can vouch for the attraction of these fish that obviously became an obsession with the author for a number of years.

He learnt the hard way, starting with his coarse fishing but then responding to the call of such famous lochs as Loch Shin.

The very readable text is complemented by a series of photographs including some of the ferox he caught.

There are also views of lochs that seem to sum up the moods of these large areas of water.

Like me, it took the author some time to master the finding of the big fish although they still keep their secrets.

The book is in three parts and Part I: 1997 has six sections with evocative titles such as "The Last Frontier" and " To the West Coast". Part II: 1998 includes "Predator and Prey", "The Big Fellow" and "Fishing for Ferox". Part III: 1999-2010 contains "Northern Soul", "The Trout of loch Shin" and "A Week on the Corrib".

The latter is about the author's exploits in Ireland. At the house where he stayed there, there was a stuffed ferox of 10lbs "glowering from a bow-fronted case on the wall". Enough to fill any angler's mind with dreams.

In the section entitled "Gathering of the Clan" he quotes from one of my favourite poets, Norman MacCaig, who wrote of the north-west Highland landscape.

What I particularly liked about the book is the background to the fishing and the feelings of the author and the people he fished with whatever the quarry and where ever they were to be found.

The author had caught big fish before, but soon realised that he had "An obsession with ferox trout".

This is not unusual with those that seek these fish "beneath the dark water".

A fascinating book even if you have not fished for ferox.

But the book is a lot more than the author's urge to meet up with ferox trout as he epitomises the feeling of the large open waters of the lochs wherever they may be.