Saturday 23 May 2020

A New Hawkmoth Season Begins

Like many moth enthusiasts, I am always thrilled when the first Hawkmoths of the season appear in the moth trap. So far this year, I have seen four Poplar Hawkmoths but earlier this week I was really thrilled to see a Privet Hawkmoth resting amongst the egg boxes.

 Not only is this early in its flight season but it is the first Privet Hawkmoth to appear at my garden light trap since 2008.



Privet Hawkmoth (Sphinx ligustri)






Poplar Hawkmoth (Laothoe populi)




Green Carpet (Colostygia pectinataria)



Alder Moth (Acronicta alni)

  




Thursday 14 May 2020

Nocturnal Visitors and Heavenly Bodies

During the last week, the moth-trap has continued to attract an ever increasing variety of species although the overall number of moths is still fairly low.

 One of my favourite moth families are the Prominents. They get their name from the protruding tufts on the trailing edge of their forewings which help break up their outline when they are at rest.



Lesser Swallow Prominent (Pheosia gnoma)




Coxcomb Prominent (Ptilodon capucina)



Buff-tip (Phalera bucephala)



Pale Tussock (Calliteara pudibunda) (male)



Treble Lines (Charanyca trigrammica)




One surprise visitor to the moth-trap last week was a male Palmate Newt (Lissotriton helveticus) which was resting in the grass next to the light. The male is distinguished from the female by a dark stripe through the eye and webbed hind feet during the breeding season.


Palmate Newt (Lissotriton helveticus) (male)






A few days ago, we had our first dragonfly of the year to visit the garden.


Broad-bodied Chaser (Libellula depressa) (immature male)




On the 26th April, I looked up into the night sky and noticed how brightly Venus was shining. It was quite near the Moon (as viewed from Earth) and both were just above the horns of the constellation of Taurus.

My mind is continually boggled by the dimensions of the Solar System (never mind trying to get my head around the dimensions of the Universe).

 I am one human who likes to know where the boundaries are!

Although Venus is about 40 million kilometres from Earth, I managed to get the following, rather abstract image of Venus by hand holding my bridge camera on full zoom.

As I say, mind boggling. 




Friday 8 May 2020

Pearl-bordered Fritillary

Earlier this week I took the short drive to one of my local Wealden woods for my daily exercise walk, happy that I was in compliance with government lockdown guidelines.

 I was keen to see Pearl-bordered Fritillaries (Boloria euphrosyne) patrolling the bluebell clearings and to hear a singing Nightingale at least once this year.

On this warm and breezy day, Blackcaps, Chiff-chaffs, Willow Warblers and Nightingales were singing and I was pleased to happen upon a mating pair of Pearl-bordered Fritillary clinging to a birch stem.



Pearl-bordered Fritillary (Boloria euphrosyne)

 (mating pair with female uppermost)