|
  Sunday, 7th September, but first a couple of
photos from Saturday which I had no time to download. The first is one of the
white butterflies, very difficult to distinguish between these, so I will
just say white. I managed to capture this using the zoom facility on my
camera as if I get near them they are very quick to move away. However the
comma, polygonia c-album, was far more obliging, hence the photo which
is quite detailed if you click on it for the enlargement.
  Now for today - I was delighted at breakfast
time to see the return of the long-tailed tits which we have not seen since
February or March in our garden although neighbours inform me that they have
been in theirs throughout the year. The image is very poor quality and I hope
for better results later. Also took a picture of the magpie which often sits
on the uppermost branches of one of the fir trees in our next door neighbours
garden.
   Finally
I managed to get quite a good close up of the greenfinch and two of the great
tit. I think the colours of our native birds are beautifully subtle sometimes
as on the back of this delightful bird.
|
|
   Monday and there was certainly an autumnal
feel to the weather at 6.30 a.m.Yesterday afternoon and evening were also
cool and damp and so I was pleasantly surprised to discover a tiny moth on
one of the sedum (iceplants) in the garden at about 5.00 p.m. and a couple of
moths in the evening. The central picture is of a square-spot rustic, xestia
xanthographa. The far left picture, the moth found on the sedum, I think
may be a nettle-tap moth, Anthophila fabriciana, and have asked Ian
Kimber of UK moths to confirm or tell me otherwise. The one on the right, it
is the same as that found last Thursday and I believe it to be Agonopterix
arenella.
|
|
    I was delighted to see the return
of the hummingbird hawkmoth, macroglossum stellatarum, in sunshine so
that I was able to get this series of photos which show the way in which it
hovers, how it appears to use it's rear end to manoeuvre and in the third
picture how it can manipulate it's wings in the way the hummingbird after
which it is named uses them.
All the pictures open up.
|
|
  Two
more images from Monday are yet another of the hummingbird hawkmoth, later in
the day, and this starling which chose to arrive on the bird table. We are
definitely getting more variety as the autumn draws on.
 Today's picture is of an
Orange ladybird, Halyzia sedecimguttata . I happened to notice it
landing on the buddlia as I was looking to see if the hawkmoth was there,
which of course it wasn't, having said which as I look out of my study window
I can see it flying around at the top of the buddlia now.
|
|
  Wednesday, 10th September, and
at long last we have had a reasonable amount of rain, the garden is desperate
for it! The rain was promised for yesterday evening but had not materialised
before I went to bed. Because it had been forecast and after 2 evenings when
no moths were attracted to the outside light I had very little anticipation
of any so was pleasantly surprised to have a new visitor, the chinese
character moth, cilix glaucata, the picture on the left. It is easy to
understadn why this can be mistaken for a bird dropping in the right setting.
We actually saw 2 of these last night along with a brimstone, opisthograptis
leuteolata, and 2 snout moths, hypena proboscidalis. The brimstone
was on the patio windows and so I was able to take a photo of it's underside,
which I have placed here having put a picture of it
on the site previously. Also the snout appears
earlier.
|
|
  As promised a better photo of the nuthatch.
Friday 10.00 a.m. seems to be the time it appears.
  Last
night's crop of moths was an Emmelina monodactyla, far right, and
the Setaceous Hebrew Character, Xestia c-nigrum.
|
|
   Discovered another brimstone
moth last night and obtained probably the clearest photo yet of it. Also in
the afternoon as I began ironing a little moth flew out from it. This proved
to be the Twenty-plume Moth, Alucita hexadactyla. In spite of it's
size, less than 20 mm, I think this probably rates as one of the most
attractive although it is not highly coloured the fan shape and the structure
of the wings makes it enchanting for me.Click on the images to see the detail.
 The final moth of the evening was discovered
feeding on one of the sedum in the garden. I hope that it will not be
difficult to identify because of it's way of resting which for a moth is
unusual but so far have only come up with the possibility that it may be a
Dingy Shell, Euchoeca nebulata, though according to the information
that I have the time of the year for it to fly is not quite right.
|