Pittsfield — “We have a carpet. We definitely have a carpet.” “Ooh, tiny little white shiny thing right there, did we get that?” “A new one.
Is that what I think it is?” A dozen or so people huddled around a lighted sheet in the darkness, engaged in the increasingly popular activity known as mothing. “It’s a gray,” explains Matthew Rymkiewicz, who was leading the moth lightsheeting demo, part of the 15th annual Berkshire BioBlitz, a biodiversity day where scientists and participants count as many species of everything in a 24-hour period as they can. “So there’s a group of moths known as grays that have really intricate patterns that, unfortunately, are all different shades of gray.
” “They’re exquisite, but really tough to get to the bottom of,” he says. The self-described moth enthusiasts tallied a grass moth, a large yellow underwing, a leafhopper, a mint-loving pyrausta. At the same time, Rene Wendell of the Hoffman Bird Club was leading an Owl Prowl around the campus of Berkshire Community College, where the BioBlitz was held this year.
The event, organized by Berkshire Environmental Action Team (BEAT) and Nature Academy of the Berkshires, rotates locations. “They pick different sites for the potential for biodiversity,” said BCC Professor Tom Tyning, who led the reptile and amphibian walk on Saturday. Why hold a BioBlitz? “To celebrate the breadth and beauty of biodiversity in the Berkshires,” says Brittany Ebeling of BEAT, “and to instill a sense of stewardship and appreciation for the magic and mystery of nature.
” In doing that, they also “confront challenges to biodiversity and draw attention to the crisis of biodiversity alongside the crisis of climate change.” “Documenting all the species in sort of a microcosm of our landscape is a wonderful opportunity to gather once a year,” says Ebeling. The event started with a tour of the campus at noon on Friday, September 13, and continued through noon on September 14.
“We’ve had more people than I was expecting,” said Chelsey Simmons, BEAT’s programs director. They estimated at least 100 people attended the event, which included talks on insects, lichens, aquatic insect collecting, and native plants. New people kept showing up at different times for different topics, said Tyning on Friday evening.
They were really interested and asked good questions. “There’s a lot of students still here, which is really the best part. They’re pretty fired up about it.
” He was especially impressed by Kay Hurley, who has studied lichen for 20 years and written the book “Lichenpedia.” He wished her presentation had just kept on going. BEAT Executive Director Jane Winn agreed that Hurley’s talk was incredible and would love to bring her back to do a lichen walk for BEAT.
“I thought I knew something about lichens,” said Winn, “but she was really good!” Before the lightsheeting demo, Carla Rhodes, ventriloquist-comedian turned conservation photographer who has presented at several Berkshire BioBlitzes, gave a talk sharing her enthusiasm over moths. “Some moths are so badass they can jam bats’ sonar,” she told the crowd. Moths are a key food source for bats and birds, with almost all songbird species feeding their young insects, comprised mostly of caterpillars.
A recent study by the University of Sussex showed that moths might be more important pollinators than bees. “There are only like two species of moth that eat sweaters,” said Rhodes. Moths are environmental sentinels, whose loss would have a cascading effect given how many animals rely on them.
She shared her colorful, stunning photos: rosy maple moth, primrose moth, angel moth that feeds only on the doomed ash trees (and also lilacs). “I’ve only ever seen one,” she said. Rhodes urged the audience to cultivate moth-friendly habitats, as many moth species require certain species of host plant in their caterpillar stages.
Vibernums, joe pye weed, and oak trees are good bets. “I find something new in my yard every day,” she said. At the end of the 24 hours, the BioBlitz tally stood at 320 species, though some lists were still coming in.
Participants found 84 species of vascular plants, 21 species of spiders, and 10 species of butterflies, including an American snout, a rare find in the Berkshires. They counted 30 species of mushrooms, 52 algae and other microorganisms, and six mammals (but “missed the bear who went through right before it started”). There were 25 species of lichen, five snake species, four frog species, two salamander species, and eight species of aquatic insects.
As for birds, many enjoyed a bird-banding demonstration Saturday morning. Ben Nickley of Berkshire Bird Observatory caught 41 birds over the course of the morning, including a Lincoln’s Sparrow. Half of them were gray catbirds.
Rene Wendell also led a bird walk around the campus that morning with Jonathan Pierce. In all, 71 species of birds were tallied, including three Philadelphia vireos and a yellow-bellied flycatcher. Two birders who started in the darkness, before the crack of dawn Saturday morning, found even rarer species for the Berkshires.
As reported on eBird, J. Kyron Hanson and Stefan Townsend recorded the flight call of a gray-cheeked thrush migrating overhead, and then, at 6 a.m.
, they briefly heard the distinctive call of a whippoorwill at the edge of the field near some pine woods. The official species totals will be posted on Berkshire BioBlitz’s website ..
