Moth recording ?

Submitted by robstubbs@aol.com on

I’m curious how moth records get onto iRecord.  My previous VC has almost no records here and the county recorder collates them using a spreadsheet.  Are these records not accessible on this platform and hence are the moth records on iRecord just an incomplete snapshot, depending on the county moth recorders personal preferences ?

Submitted by Gustav Clark on Tue, 17/05/2022 - 21:07

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The definitive site of UK records is the NBN Atlas.  The recording societies collect records from many sources, including iRecord, and submit them to NBN Atlas.  Groups like birds and moths that generate thousands of records in turn rely on county recorders to collate lists for their county.  It is up to them to pick and choose what sources they use.  iRecord is relatively hard work for a verifier , especially compared to just copying is a spreadsheet.  People learn this and stop posting.  It has been the case for years that spiders would never get checked, so there are very few spider records - I think this is changing.

There is a downside to NBN Atlas.  For minor groups there may be a long delay in getting records submitted, so I would always look at iRecord to check recent arrivals or to look at recording activity in an area 

 

Submitted by robstubbs@aol.com on Thu, 19/05/2022 - 15:11

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Thanks for the tip, but either the atlas is way too slow or it’s having IT problems.  I draw a blank or error looking for any records in my locality, 5 or 10 miles, and looking in my VC is no better.  I’m in a relatively unpopulated location so it shouldn’t be being swamped by vast numbers of records…🤔. Maybe I need to find an information source describing how I should best use NBN..?

Submitted by vc33moths on Sat, 25/06/2022 - 19:32

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Relatively few moth records from East Gloucestershire (VC33) are in iRecord, as most recorders send their material directly to me. I imagine this is the situation in many other vice counties. Consequently, iRecord maps give only a partial impression of distribution. The NBN Atlas maps aren’t a lot better, and much of the material mapped is historical rather than current.

By contrast, there are many VC scale maps, and in some cases, groups of adjacent VCs, available from web sites and in Scotland there are national scale maps available. 
 

R Homan, East Gloucestershire recorder