When we gush about all that Rosemoor has to offer we tend to talk about the beauty of our nature reserve, the proximity of our beautiful coastline, the activities you can do, the castles you can see and, of course, the comfort of our cottages and our premises. What we do not often do is actually talk about our guests, many of whom are extremely talented, knowledgeable, and nice to boot. We are always glad to see them return, often time and time again.

Today, I thought it time to put one of them in the limelight. Bob has been coming to Rosemoor for so many years, I cannot remember when was the first time. He used to come with Gill, his wife, who sadly passed away a few years ago. Now he comes on his own, or sometimes with a friend or his son and grandsons. Bob is a lepidopterist which my dictionary defines as 'a person who studies or collects moths and butterflies'. Every time he stays at Rosemoor, he brings his moth trap and classifies and records his nightly catch, after which the moths are released, unharmed. Sometimes the moth trap is positioned in our nature reserve, at other times somewhere on our premises. He passes his recordings on to the county recorder for moths and butterflies for Pembrokeshire.

A few weeks ago, when he stayed with us, Bob told us his catches this year were really good. One night in our garden he caught over 140 specimens of more than 40 species – a big catch for his small, portable, Heath light-trap. Bob is not only very knowledgeable about moths and butterflies but is also always prepared to share his knowledge and enthusiasm. Last time he used the table tennis room to show other guests of ours, Iain and Sam, his moth trap and his catch of that night. They were well impressed, as were we.

There are too many moths for me to remember them all but one that stuck in my mind is the one that looks like a broken twig, really like a broken twig: the buff-tip moth. Amazing.

The other one he showed us was an enormous Privet Hawk Moth. Even Bob had not had one in his trap before so he was really chuffed. It is a big and beautiful moth, as the picture below clearly shows.

There are so many marvellous creatures in nature and most of us do not realise it. And the sad thing is that, because most people do not notice these creatures, people often do not love them enough to care to prevent them becoming extinct. It is thanks to marvellous guests like Bob that what is there gets recorded and hopefully enough people will then be educated as to their beauty, function and essence for all (human and natural) life on this planet.

Bob says that places like Rosemoor Nature Reserve are small but very valuable islands of biodiversity. Insects thrive there and this helps other creatures like birds, bats, hedgehogs and many others to survive. These insects also pollinate plants, helping wild plants to thrive and crop plants to provide much of our food.