An avid moth photographer is sharing info about his unusual hobby that has caught on.
At the upcoming monthly meeting for Sound Water Stewards of Island County, Coupeville resident Jay Adams will give a presentation about the nocturnal moths he’s seen and photographed around his neighborhood. The presentation, which is open to the public via Zoom, begins at 10:30 a.m. on Oct. 10.
Titled “The Moths of Lindsay Street,” the presentation details the 250 moth species Adams has encountered and documented over the past 15 months.
“My major objective was to canvas the neighborhood over a period of years and see what kind of moths are out there just in this one locale,” he said.
A New England native, Adams grew accustomed to watching butterflies on the East Coast.
“When I got here eight years ago, I discovered that as wonderful as Whidbey is, there are very few butterflies,” he said.
A year and a half ago, he took a picture of a tiny moth near his home. He began paying more attention to moths, eventually hanging up a white sheet on the side of his house and attracting the fluttery critters with UV light during the early morning hours.
“To my amazement, in that roughly year and a half, there have been something like 270 moth species showing up just on the back deck here,” he said.
He’s been trying his best to identify the species on his own, but admits he probably doesn’t always get it correct. Unlike birdwatching, which has tons of resources, he hasn’t found one real resource for moths in the western United States. To his knowledge, there aren’t any local records for Island County, either.
He’s put together a sampler of what’s out there and how many families of moths he believes he’s seen. His next goal is to learn more about the moths and their life cycles.
The purpose of his presentation on Oct. 10 is to share with listeners the amount of moths out there, and how diverse they are in size, shape, appearance and food source.
“Some of the moths are truly lovely and they’re all interesting in their own way,” he said.
To access the Zoom link for the presentation, visit soundwaterstewards.org/event/sws-monthly-meeting-oct-2022/.
Photo by Jay Adams A Comstock sallow moth, photographed in Coupeville.
