No moths in this post though the trap is out tonight, the lamp lit and the weather kindly, so we should see normal service resume tomorrow. No, this is about another sort of wild life spotted thanks to a visit from one of my cousins who appears - in part - with Penny in the picture to the left. What on Earth are they doing? You may well ask. The answer is: monitoring a large crayfish in the weeds below the wonky old suspension bridge above the river Cherwell at Hampton Gay.
Here it is, above and below. I apologise for the quality of the pictures but it isn't easy taking a picture of a submerged crustacean from ten feet above on a sunny day.
The discovery, our first crayfish sighting since we moved to near Oxford, sent me to Google and the consequent discovery that the American (originally) Signal Crayfish which was imported for pet stores but inevitably escaped or was released by bored owners, is a major pest on the Cherwell and elsewhere. You can get a permit to trap them from the Environment Agency and this I intend to do. Crayfish harvesting - my next retirement hobby. Stand by with the Marie-Rose sauce...
2 comments:
We hooked a dead one out of the Cherwell this summer while punting. Middle son threw it into the cousins' boat, where the youngest cousin accidentally sat on it. :o)
Certainly worth the effort to catch. Brilliant on the barbeque. Make sure you leave them in cold water for a couple of days or so changing it to make sure they are gut clean !.
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