Waxwing

Waxwing
"To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour."

From "Auguries of Innocence"

by William Blake

Wednesday 28 July 2010

"Beauties", Antlers and Sherbert Fruits

I ran the moth trap again on Sunday evening and managed a good selection of moths including lots of worn lbj's again! The Antler moth was a first for the garden and beautifully marked - please see photo below. Willow and Marbled Beauty were new moth species for this year.

Willow Beauty - quite worn so I hope I have the identification correct - as always please feel free to correct any misidentifications.



Here is this week's mystery moth - I really haven't a clue.



Marbled Beauty - a great example of a moth with protective camouflage as it hides by day on stone walls and rocks - if these were lichen encrusted I don't think many predators would spot it!



Poplar Grey and Knot Grass look very similar (to me anyway) but I think this is Knot Grass



Two photos of the Antler Moth next which show the white "Antler" markings which I assume give the moth its common name.





Summary of Moths trapped Sunday, 25th July
in Actinic skinner 15w trap
Minimum temperature 16.1 degrees centigrade

1 x Willow Beauty New for Year
2 x Large Yellow Underwing
5 x Shuttle-shaped Dart
3 x Riband Wave
4 x Dark Arches
1 x Heart and Dart
2 x Dun-bar
2 x Mottled Rustic
2 x Marbled Beauty New for Year
2 x Antler New for Garden
1 x Flame Shoulder
2 x Rustic
1 x Knot Grass?

Total number of species seen in garden = 85
Total number of species seen in 2010 63
Total number of moths trapped in 2010 315

Garden Update

We are still getting plenty of juvenile blue and great tits plus goldfinches and green finches on the feeders. The robin must have started moulting its feathers as it has gone into its annual skulk mode hiding in the shrubs and bushes and only venturing forth occasionally to grab some food from the feeders. Butterflies visiting in the last week include large, small and green veined whites plus speckled wood, comma, holly blue and gatekeeper. Have only seen one red admiral this year and no peacocks at all.

And a few photos of garden flowers to finish off with.

I love mesbyranthemums - they always remind me of those brightly coloured sherbert fruit sweets.




A photo of some of the patio pots - starting to bloom well now and attracting hoverflies, bumbles and butterflies.

4 comments:

The Quacks of Life said...

I was expecting deer pictures !

Ragged Robin said...

Oh dear! - sorry I couldn't resist that comment. Hope you weren' too disappointed, Pete :D

Tricia Ryder said...

I must admit that I thought of deer to RR :D I have enough difficulty identifying the variety of blue flutters let alone all your LBJ's of the moth world. There's some beauties there though.........

Ragged Robin said...

To be honest Tricia and Pete, if I had been reading someone's blog, I would have thought of deer too! Some of the moths are beautiful, Tricia - wish I had a camera lens to do them justice instead of heavily cropping photos. There is one advantage of identifying moths over butterflies in that I can chill them in the fridge for a few hours and (most but not all) become docile for a while (this doesn't hurt them by the way) and I can examine them closely with a magnifying glasss and hand lens. I love butterflies but identification of some of them can be difficult as they rarely stay still!! However, some of the lbj's are really really similar and I am sure I misidentify a lot! Some species you can only separate by dissection and I am afraid I am not into that.