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August
2nd August and I have made the background colour for August yellow to remind me of the long hot sunny days that we should anticipate throughout this month. Unfortunately although it is bright this morning the sky is grey but we can always hope. Last night produced a couple of new moths as well as many old favourites. I include photos of the two new ones and one of the more attractive favourites.
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Cochylis atricapitana |
Gold Triangle Hypsopygia costalis |
endotricha flammealis |
We spent the day at Hyde Hall and it
is quite pleasant to be able to share some pictures other than moths.
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A gatekeeper butterfly, pyronia tithonus. There seem to be more than usual of this species this year. |
Two varieties of hoverfly are seen on this plant. At the moment we are being besieged by them. It would appear that they are being swept over from France. |
A scabious with yet another variety of hoverfly |
common darter, |
August 3rd dawned bright then we had heavy rain, it is sunny once again and very warm and there is a forecast of storms.
August 11th and I have been very negligent, not having updated the diaries for a week. No excuses really just that I do not seem to have found the time and now that it is so long it is difficult to know where to begin. Perhaps it would be just as well to forget the missing days and look at what has happened in the last couple. Having put the moth trap out on the 9th hoping that the rain we had been having during the day was going to die out during the evening I discovered that I could not empty the trap until about 11 am on 10th when it stopped raining, and I do not mean a drizzle, when I had awoken at 5.30 am the rain was pouring down and continued until mid morning. However I was rewarded with a new species with which I was delighted. I include a photograph of this Catoptria falsella, this brings the number of species that I have seen and identified up to 215, nearly 10% of the British species.
Just to prove that I am not neglecting the other insect life in the garden I have also included a photograph of a little Orange ladybird, Halyzia sedecimguttata, and what I believe to be an emerald damselfly, lestes sponsa, that appeared to be laying eggs in the plants around our small pond this morning. All three pictures open up if clicked on.
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catriopia falsella |
orange ladybird, |
emerald damselfly, |
It is now 25th August, the reason for the gap in writing is a holiday in Ireland which was most enjoyable. There was a reasonable amount of moths although without a moth trap one had to be careful looking for them during the evening because of the midges that were also attracted to the light. The best place to find them in the morning without the accompanying midges was the outside of a bathroom window where the light had been left on all night for the children. Two examples of moths found here are
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flame carpet, Xanthorhoe designata |
the phoenix, Eulithis prunata |
One of the highlights of the holiday was on the first day when we found a
delightful 9th century celtic cross at Durrow. We had agreed to meet at what we
thought would be a tourist centre and found out that it was simply a tree-lined
pathway signposted from the road leading to this most amazing historical
Christian symbol.