Moths Archives - Page 5 of 5

The best group. Obviously.

A number of new beasties

I gave myself the weekend off from blogging last weekend so there are two weeks to catch up on and it’s been a mixed lot! In the Lepidoptera world, I’ve caught some beautiful moths recently including a Powdered Quaker, Angle Shades and a Plume Moth.

Plume Moth, note the T-shaped wings

I took the Angle Shades into work (moths are usually fairly happy to be in a bug pot for the day) to convert more people to the moth cause. Well, convert them into appreciating moths. It’s a fantastic example of how amazing moths can be – the way it holds its wings, the pattern, the colouring and the edges of its wing. And everyone was very impressed with it, although I shall continue improving peoples’ perceptions of moths of course (and other wildlife).

Angle Shades Moth – very distinctive!

For the start of this week, my housemates and I did a lot of squealing as we found a slow worm in the garden!

Slow Worm

Despite its name, it isn’t a worm. And despite its appearance, it isn’t a snake. It’s actually a lizard, albeit without the legs. Like other lizards, it is able to lose its tail and regrow it again. This is a neat little trick because if a predator catches its tail, it can just drop it and slither off into cover, and thus survive. The one that I saw in the garden did look like it might have had this occur and new growth was going back. However, I’ve not come across slow worms much so I’m not entirely sure about that.

Thursday saw the volunteers of the Chesil Centre heading up to the wonderful Portland Bird Observatory where the warden (Martin Cade) and assistant warden (Joe Stockwell) showed us how they do bird ringing up there.

Joe Stockwell (assistant warden) does some alfresco ringing

Martin had also saved the moths from their moth traps (I believe they run four?!), which I was thrilled with – especially as two of them were new species to me, the Herald and the Red Sword-grass (the latter was caught over on the ‘mainland’ in Preston). I do believe that the volunteers are slowly being converted to appreciating moths, I’m sure my enthusiasm for them helps a lot.

Herald Moth – distinctive orange patches with white dots, and edges of wings

With the help of Sean Foote, I got two more Dorset species “ticked off” – a Little Ringed Plover and a Sanderling, both by the Chesil Centre with a larger group of Ringed Plover and Dunlin. The Little Ringed Plover does look a lot like a Ringed Plover (hence the name) but is quite a bit smaller (again, hence the name). It also has a distinctive yellow around its eye.

Little Ringed Plover, photo by Sean Foote.

My Saturday afternoon was filled with a hunt for otters – unfortunately I didn’t find any (though there may be one nearby) but I did have a nice time outside in the (mostly) sunshine. I did come across an interesting bee as well, who as identified as an Ashy Mining Bee by @Bex_Cartwright. Fun fact: there are around 250 species of bee in the UK, 24 of the 250 are bumblebee species, 1 is a honeybee species and the remaining are solitary bees (like the Ashy Mining Bee). Pretty amazing stuff – 250!!!!

Ashy Mining Bee

Apologies for the last couple of blog posts in terms of the quality of the photos – my camera is in for repair and I’m having to rely on my phone. Saying that though, they are pretty decent photos for a phone! Technology is pretty amazing!

April 27, 2014/1 Comment/by mgshersby

Adventures, Moths, S4F Traineeship

Wear Sunscreen

An interesting week full of different things – events, exploration and of course some moths. With a moth trap on loan from a friend, and permission to set it out in the garden, I’ve been hoping for some interesting moths. A plume moth was nearby but didn’t deign to enter the trap, but that was ok because there was a hedgehog in the garden! I haven’t seen in a hedgehog in so long, so I was super excited. The hedgehog was less impressed and buried its head in the grass in order to ignore me.

Hedgehog!

On Thursday came a real test for me, my first event at Chesil that I organized and led. It was a Wildlife Trackers day, with the children working out which animals had visited the centre and left clues behind. It was great fun, with everyone becoming detectives, considering the evidence and solving the mystery.

My creative-on-a-budget-side came up and I made an otter holt which I am incredibly proud of! Namely because my creative side normally hides away from me and I have to poke it out with a stick.

Otter clues – spraint and footprints, with a holt to peek into as well

Thursday also saw a bit of an exploration around Portland Bill as a friend was visiting. Whilst I already knew that Dorset / Portland is an amazing county, this little adventure reminded me of that. Look at these views!

Stunning!

Fab lighthouse

Later in the week, I joined in at a BioBlitz in Wareham. Now if you’ve not heard of a BioBlitz before, no worries, the premise is: IDENTIFY EVERYTHING! Luckily, the organisers enlist experts to cover most of, if not all of, the groups. This time round, the main experts were in plants which was useful for Sarah, another trainee, who is trying to improve her plant ID skills!

A confused Sarah

A Common Carder Bee (one of 20+ species of bumblebee!)

For me, the invertebrate expert arrived later, so I used social media and apps to help with the identification of caterpillars and ladybirds. It was actually really fun doing it this way and it helped me in learning how to use the apps for future reference.

We didn’t have a caterpillar book but Twitter saved the day! A Scarlet Tiger Moth caterpillar.

I caught a new moth on Saturday night, one that I’ve never come across before! A good learning opportunity. I browsed my moth ID book, but had trouble locating it there so crossed over to Twitter to browse the #teammoth to see if anyone had caught something similar. And sure enough, someone had! It was a male Shuttle-shaped Dart Moth. Quite a common species, so not extremely exciting, but good enough for a learner!

Shuttle-shaped Dart Moth

The week finished off in style – marshalling for the Walk For Wildlife Event, a fundraising event for Dorset Wildlife Trust. It was a truely difficult day that I had to fight my way through. Imagine this, sitting in the sunshine all day, at a local pub! How I managed it I do not know.

All kidding aside, there was a bad side to this – I’d forgotten my suntan lotion and got a horribly red face. Complete with a white eye mask due to my sunglasses. Such a great look (she says as she hides indoors!).

I shall end with this nice photo of a hoverfly who chilled at my pub table for a while, and a reminder to wear sunscreen because (a) red is not a good look and (b) to go without is very unhealthy for the skin.

What a cutie

April 14, 2014/2 Comments/by mgshersby

Adventures, Moths, S4F Traineeship

Step by Step, Lep by Lep

The title is a little obscure perhaps, but it is reference to the constant learning process that I’m going through, particularly when it comes to the moths whose taxonomic group happens to be Lepidoptera (which also includes butterflies).

This week didn’t start off with moths though, it started off with another topic that I am trying to learn more about: marine species. Marc, the Chesil Beach Centre Officer, led a training session for the volunteers at the centre. We headed out along the shore of the Fleet in time for the low tide and had a good rummage around amongst the rocks and the seaweeds, and wow we found some interesting beasties.

Common (spiny) spider crab

Yup, that’s a crab. This species has neat way of camouflaging itself, it actually has seaweeds and sponges attached to its carapace (shell)! I don’t think that anyone can deny that it’s not effective … though then again, a keen-eyed volunteer did spot this individual.

Shore crab

Ah, now that’s a crab that we’re more used to seeing. A common species in rockpools, this is the shore crab, distinguishable by the five wavy bits on the front bit of its carapace (shell). Apparently.

Marc in action

In the photo above, Marc is holding up something that is very commonly found on our shores, known as a mermaid’s purse. These purses are super cool because they’re actually the eggcases of some species of sharks, rays and skates! So similar to how a bird’s chick develops within an egg, as do the sharks, rays and skates. I do believe that the one he is holding there belongs to a small-spotted catshark (also known as the lesser spotted dogfish).

That night saw my first moth trapping on Portland, although only for a few evening hours. Despite the limited time, I still caught a decent number. Just a couple of moths is a good amount for a beginner to be identifying. I did manage a few of them, but struggled with a couple – the Pug (a group that are notoriously difficult, though mine was an easier one) and the micro-moth (since I don’t have an ID book for micros, yet).

Moths trapped: x1 Early Thorn, x1 Early Grey, x1 Double-Striped Pug, x2 Light Brown Apple Moth (a micro).

Early Thorn Moth

Later in the week, I delved further into the moth nerdiness, when I attended a 2 ½ hour long ID workshop. It was far more interesting than it sounds, and I learnt so much. Hopefully some of it will actually remain in my head, but it should help with if I do catch any of the species we covered.

I think one of my favourites covered was the Waved Umber, just look at that patterning!

Waved Umber

Another example one that was intriguing was the Satellite moth, with its rich red-brown colouration and spots. In the ID book, the three spots are either all white or all red-orange. However I noticed that the example we were looking at had two white spots and one red-orange. Yet another mystery in the world of moths.

Satellite Moth

Further Lepidoptera (moths/butterflies) fun occurred on Sunday when I travelled across to Southampton for the International Butterfly Symposium. This conference was actually three days long, but unfortunately could only afford Sunday’s half day session. Money may not make someone happy usually, but it could definitely make me more learned and educated. In my world this equates to greater happiness as it means books, symposia and training courses.

Anyway, back to the symposia. There’s some really interesting research being done, plenty of field-based conservation and laboratory observations. One that definitely caught my attention was the work of a Canadian researcher, Raynald H. Lemelin, who is studying human perceptions of insects. I was so engrossed that I even asked a question (albeit with a shaky voice as I realised that almost everyone was looking at me)!

A good example of an insect that people often have opinions on! However, this isn’t actually a bee or wasp, it’s a hoverfly! ID by Sean Foote.

With my role in community engagement (and previous experience with the Field Studies Council), I view at least part of my job as (1) increasing awareness of different creatures and (2) improving peoples’ perceptions of animals that they might otherwise be indifferent to or even dislike.

The best bit of this is that the animals involved are pretty damn amazing, even the simplest or most common is just splendid. The ecology of worms, the behaviour of moths, or the complexity of bird anatomy … each of these is an example of how remarkable nature can be, without us even noticing much of the time!

Even in this blog post, I’ve only touched on a couple of species but each one has a fascinating life cycle, anatomy and behaviour. What do you think?

If you’re very interested in the moths that I’ve been seeing, I have made a Dorset Moths List page of all the moths I’ve encountered since I moved to Dorset.

April 6, 2014/2,315 Comments/by admin

Adventures, Moths, S4F Traineeship

The bumblebee goes on flying anyway

This blog post focuses less on the traineeship and more on what I’ve been doing in my own time, and as with most of my learning so far, the majority has been on birds and moths. First, there was a revisit back to this gorgeous gull – the Iceland Gull. It’s been spending a lot of time on the Fleet recently, though at the time of writing I haven’t seen it in the last couple of days. It was actually pretty chilled about my presence, I got quite close and took some lovely photos, if only it had been a sunny day!

Iceland Gull

20 bags!

Last weekend was a blustery one, which was difficult for those taking part in the beach clean! But the volunteers were determined and 20 bags of litter were collected which I am thrilled with. Unfortunately, it’s a never-ending battle with marine litter on Chesil Beach – a reflection of just how much rubbish we throw away. There’s going to be another beach clean at the end of April (Sunday 27^th if you’re free) which will be a good opportunity to really hit out and get as much off the beach as possible.

A couple of days later saw me doing something that’s almost unthinkable for me – getting up for 4.30am! For my first ever twitch! Ok, I wasn’t travelling that far (just to the ‘mainland’) and it wasn’t a very rare bird (but locally rare!), and I wasn’t even going to see the bird (just to hear it!), but I’m counting it as a twitch! So what was I getting up this early for?! A booming bittern! And what an interesting sound it was! Rather like the noise of blowing across a bottle, it was a really odd noise for a bird to make! For the non-birders, I had to get up this early as the bittern actually stops booming just after dawn!

Ready for the dawn chorus

Despite the awful hour, it was a lovely time. Helpfully, a fellow naturalist, Sean Foote, was with me and he was able to point out the different bird calls and songs that I’d not learnt yet. I’ve got my chiffchaffs, blackbirds, great tits and coots down, but had never heard a Cetti’s warbler before! You can hear the dawn chorus at Sean’s blog.

Back to the daylight world and a day off! Well, it was a day off from work but not from enthusiasm! I headed up to the Portland Bird Observatory to eye up the moths they’ve been catching – Common Quaker, Early Grey, Clouded Drab and Hebrew Character.

Early Grey (centre) and x2 Hebrew Characters (bottom)

As well as to check up on the status of the spawn in the pond – now tadpoles! Though I believe they are toad tadpoles if I remember the shape of the spawn correctly (toad spawn is laid in lines rather than clumped together like frogspawn).

Toad tadpoles … I think (it’s been a while since I’ve done amphibians!)

I was also slightly cheeky and tagged along for the checking of the bird mist nets, i.e. large nets which birds fly into. These birds are then ringed and then their movements can be studied. Whilst the exciting period occurred earlier during the day, I still saw a new bird get caught (male House Sparrow) and the recatch of a Chiffchaff. Plus, there were the usual suspects flying around – goldfinches, greenfinches, stonechats and my first linnet!

The recaught Chiffchaff

Linnet

Extra bonuses – a bumblebee and shieldbug caught in the mist nets! Obviously I set both of them free.

Poor bumblebee

Shieldbug

The fortnight ended splendidly with a Sandwich Tern on a buoy near Ferrybridge, having travelled all the way from Africa! This one wasn’t quite in its breeding plumage, but still a great sight.

Sandwich Tern, it wasn’t actually taking off, just having a stretch

Last but not least, I caught my first Dorset moth – a Bloxworth Snout (what a name!). Thought to be a hibernating adult, especially as it was found inside. A slightly blurry photo I’m afraid.

Bloxworth Snout

And just because I’ve been practicing my birds in flight photography, I’m going to include this photo as well.

Herring Gull in flight (guess at a 3rd winter but don’t have my notes to hand)

March 30, 2014/2,315 Comments/by admin

Adventures, Moths, S4F Traineeship

You have to teach yourself new things

I really like that phrase above, it’s part of a quote I came across this week, I believe by Ray Winstone (corrections welcome if I’m wrong): “… you should never stop trying to get better. You have to teach yourself new things …”. That’s really what the ethos of my traineeship is about, learning and practicing new things – whether it’s information such as identification of species or new topics (geomorphology for me at Chesil!), or learning new skills.

This week’s learning returns back to the theme of birds. With so many interesting birds on The Fleet or flying past, is it surprise? I also spent 24 hours on Brownsea Island, where I saw 5 new bird species and another that I’d only seen once before very briefly.

Two Avocets

Whilst this isn’t a great photo (so much zoom!), there is a real variety of birds – Godwit, Sandwich Tern, Shelduck, Black-headed Gull, Herring Gull and Wigeon

My first Goldcrest photo!

I was also attempting to improve my birds in flight photography, and I think that this was my favourite, although not both are in focus.

Black-headed Gulls

Oak Beauty Moth

However, it wasn’t all birds on Brownsea! I also persuaded the warden to set out the moth trap, as that is another area where I’m trying to learn a lot. Despite the chill, we caught 14 moths in total, from 6 species! Although I’m keen on moth trapping, I’m a real novice so it was brilliant to open up the traps with the DWT Brownsea staff as they knew the moths and could point out the particular features. Whilst puzzling over them myself would’ve been great practice, we were in a bit of a rush!

Oak Beauty: 6

Yellow-horned Moth

Clouded Drab: 2

Twenty-Plumed: 1

Grey Pine Carpet: 1

Yellow-Horned: 3

Common Quaker: 1

We also caught this female minotaur beetle.

But the highlight of my visit has got to a particularly famous and gorgeous mammal.

Red squirrel!!

Back at Chesil, interesting birds were also cropping up. Having seen Twitter reports of the Iceland Gull for the last week, I was keen to see it myself, and finally did! What a gorgeous bird.

Iceland Gull at the pools on the Fleet

I also saw a red-breasted merganser, a little egret, skylarks and meadow pipits (as well as the usual suspects).

Last but not least on the birding agenda, I joined two other trainees on a WeBS – aka a Wetland Bird Survey. Struggling across very boggy fields was quite hard, more so because I was trying to keep an eye out for birds rather than only watching where I was stepping. It’s harder than it sounds.But I saw a variety of birds, including snipe, little egrets, shelducks and mute swans. My favourite though was the chap below. At first I was really doubting myself for thinking “it looks like a sparrow, but it isn’t!” After consulting my bird book, I found out that it was a reed bunting! I was thrilled as I had heard one a couple of weeks past, but hadn’t seen it.

Reed Bunting

So referring back to the blog title, I do feel that I’ve learnt a lot this week – particularly with bird and moth ID. And although I’m happy that I’ve learnt so much, I will definitely try to get better.

March 16, 2014/2,315 Comments/by admin

Adventures, Moths, S4F Traineeship

When you have seen one bird, you have not seen them all

Crumbs, what a fortnight it has been! Incredibly busy and full of interesting places. Half term was certainly an eventful week, starting with the closure of the Portland Beach Road and the cancellation of Saturday’s event at the centre. But after a clearup, we were back on our feet and raring to go. I spent the majority of the week doing children’s activities – making butterfly or bird feeders. One afternoon, I even spent a while doing some colouring in as I was instructed to by one little girl.

The beginners birdwatching course also continued, this time at RSPB Radipole. We were fortunate to see a water rail and the diving behaviour of a cormorant. Whilst marsh harriers and bitterns are known to be seen there, we unfortunately didn’t find them this time, though we did hear a reed bunting, find some otter spraint and view some stonechats.

Stonechat in the distance

The bigger stuff happened in the second week, starting with a road trip to Devon and the Living Coasts centre. It was very interesting, and I absolutely loved the birds section as they’ve got a couple of curious female ducks who like to wander over to you and sit next to you. At one point I do believe I got trapped by the two of them against a fence, but I’m not complaining, as they were utterly adorable!

Yay duck friend!

The last session of the birdwatching course meant a trip to a new reserve for me – Lodmoor, where I saw a couple of firsts. Although I may have seen the species before and just not realised what it was (quite new to birds that aren’t garden ones!). These included: oystercatchers, spoonbills and bearded tits (on a quick flyby), as well as seeing other species such as greenfinch, goldfinch, dunnock, various gulls and ducks.

I love this photo of an oystercatcher – very cute!

A lovely photo from Lodmoor

This week also saw the big highlight for all the trainees – a trip to Brownsea Island! Recently voted as the nation’s favourite nature reserve, with a range of amazing habitats and species, and we were there all day. One species that it’s well known for is the sandwich tern who nests on the little islands on the lagoon. We were helping out this species by chucking on our waders or wellies and splashing out to these islands to weed them, add more gravel and fence them.

Taking gravel out to the islands. Apparently harder than it looks (no waders for me, so I got ferried across, felt rather posh I won’t lie)

All these jobs are very important for the terns whilst raising their chicks. Weeding is important because too much plant cover and the terns won’t want to nest there, although too little and the chicks won’t have as many places to hide form predators. The gravel is needed as this what the adult terns love to nest on (just like the little terns at Chesil loving the pebbles). And the fencing, whilst an annoyance for photographers, is needed to prevent predators (e.g. herons) from flying in and decimating the chick population.

Whilst I didn’t see any red squirrels, I did see a new species of deer for me – Sika deer, albeit that they were partially hidden. And I know I’ll be back on the island before too long, I mean, come on, I live in the same county as our favourite reserve, how could I not be?

Hiding away

Last but not least, my training at Chesil included another event, this time focussed on birds (there seems to be a theme to this fortnight does there not?). Marc Smith, the Chesil Beach Centre Officer, gave talks on the Spring Birds of the Fleet and who we can expect to depart / arrive on migrations. The accompanying dance moves made the talks particularly good. The talks coincided with the optics day, where an Opticron respresentative came down and people could try out the range. I had particular fun with one of the scopes, the zoom was amazing!

Outside of training, I’ve had the most amazing time. I went all the way over to Wareham for a talk on the moths of Dorset by Dr Phil Sterling, who is one of the famous names in the moth-ing world. He is also a fantastic speaker and I (along with everyone else in the room) was enthralled, and amazed by the moths found in Dorset. Naturally, I wrote plenty of notes, so much so that someone actually asked if I was a journalist! I also spoke to him about helping out, so I hopefully I’ll shall be doing some interesting moth work this year. Pun intended – I’m rather hoping he will take me under his wing.

From my first solo moth trapping, Elephant Hawkmoth – what a stunner!

My fortnight finished off with yet another first when a fellow naturalist offered to show me where the local barn owl roosts. I’ve dealt with many owl pellets and seen a number of rescue owls (even worked with one), but I’ve never seen a properly wild barn owl. So off we went … to the local prison! Well, not quite, but the roost is actually on the edge of its property. And guess what happened. I saw a barn owl! Not just that, I saw two! I was absolutely thrilled to bits! I can’t wait for the rain to pass and head back over to see them, maybe I’ll even get a photo this time.

Well, as you can see, I’ve had an eventful fortnight, and thus a rather long blog post, despite cutting out a number of less exciting but still pretty awesome things.

In case you’ve not had enough of my blogging, I have also badgered Steve Davis (the trainees’ manager) into letting me get started on the traineeship blog so that should be posting again soon. You’ll be able to read up on everyone’s exploits here.

To finish with, a distinctly non-bird photo.

One of the feral goats over at East Weares on Portland

NB on the title: I came across the full quote “When you have seen one ant, one bird, one tree, you have not seen them all.” during this week and felt it was rather appropriate for a bird-focussed blog post. The quote is from E.O.Wilson, a famous scientist whose main area of research has been on ants (who are more fascinating animals than people give them credit for).

March 2, 2014/2 Comments/by admin

Adventures, Moths

Curiosity may have killed the cat, but it saved the French wasp

I was lucky enough to spend two weeks in south-eastern France during early November (it’s nice having connections!). Although I spent much of the time working on ecology assignments or trying out new recipes, I still had the chance to see some wildlife.

The first species seen were a couple of small birds – blue tits, great tits, a dunnock. Although these are fairly common species at home, I was still happy enough to watch them on the bird feeder, flitting back and forth, with the occasional squabble against each other. What surprised me was another bird, similar size to the blue tit and certainly of the same family – a crested tit! Although fairly common across Europe, in the UK they are only resident in the pine forests of Scotland. This was my first time seeing a crested tit so I was fascinated. With an unusual facial pattern, and its black and white crest, it is a distinctive species.

Crested tit on the bird feeder

I’m lacking in equipment currently, so I don’t have a moth trap or sweep net, but I don’t let such things stop me from finding some invertebrates. A couple of butterflies were loving the warm sunshine (as was I, since London had been much colder!), such as the Painted lady below.

Painted Lady butterfly

On the calmer nights, the window was often besieged by moths drawn in by the light. I managed to identify some, such as the Crimson Speckled moth (U.pulchella). However, I couldn’t find all in my moth identification book. Upon conversing with someone in the know, I found out that whilst the UK and France do share many species, the total number of moth species present in France is about twice as many as are present in the UK. Crumbs! Therefore some of the moth species remain unidentified (only for now though, as I’m determined to find out whom they are!).

Crimson Speckled moth … caught in a wine glass! Well, naturally, I was in France!

Unknown moth species (again in a wine glass!), possibly Streak, C.legatella?

The moths weren’t the only nocturnal creatures about, there were also two animals in the courtyard who were rustling the fallen leaves and were very pleased when it rained later in my stay. These mystery rustlers were two rather large toads! And by large, I mean amongst the largest wild toads I’ve come across (thus not including exotic toads in zoos).

Not so impressed to see me

A number of other invertebrates were also found in and around the house, from small swarms of ladybirds loving the open window, an interesting red bug investigating my shoe and a rather odd looking red insect found in the sink! A noteworthy insect would be the wasp I found partway through my stay there. It had managed to get itself trapped in a small bottle, drawn in by the remaining sweet drink. You may have read a previous blog post where I mentioned that I have had a rather traumatic experience with wasps. However, curiousity about its identification overcame my fear and I rescued the wasp. I’m sure glad I did as I managed to capture this photo as the wasp recovered from its ordeal. If you were wondering, it is a common wasp apparently (V.vulgaris).

Wasp! Still makes me shudder

In conclusion, I had a lovely time in France and got to see some new species which is always nice. Below are a couple more creatures I came across. And in case you were wondering, I got the ecology assignments back – 80% and 90%, whoo!

Another unknown moth species. I reckon it is one of the Carpets, maybe a Mallow or Dark Marbled? But might be a non-English spp. And again, in a wine glass!

Ooh, pretty!

Everyone loves a blue tit

December 22, 2013/2,315 Comments/by admin

Moths, South Africa

Domestic wildlife – The South African version

Due to the recent increases in temperature, the middle of day is now quite hot and as a result, the mongoose flake out in the shade for a few hours and we head back to the house. During one of these midday breaks, I got a good view of the local troop of baboons as they cavorted on our back lawn. One of the larger males even came and sat himself on the stoep (patio-type area), no more than 5m from me – although I was inside and hiding behind my curtain. When I moved and took a photo he freaked out and ran off.

Not the big male, but a nice photo of one of the others

Not long after, I heard a noise from the other side of the house and moving to investigate, I found another part of the troop, including the cutest little youngster who was exploring various things by chewing them – twigs, grass, even his own foot at one point!

My favourite photo of the baboon family

A number of reptiles are present both in and around the house. Before I came out here, there were apparently some baby Mozambique Spitting Cobras in the grass outside my bedroom. Nyala and Kudu both have skinks in their room, whilst Kudu also found a tiny gecko. We recently found another gecko in the kitchen, which moved into my room a few hours later. Despite flicking through a reptiles book, we couldn’t identify it. If you know what it might be, we would be very interested to find out!

The unidentified gecko

Talking of things I’m interested in, I found a pretty awesome moth the other day. A Walker’s Owl Moth which can have a wingspan of 12cm! I put it in a box and into the fridge to reduce its activity (standard practice for restless moths), which the others were somewhat bemused by. But it worked, as I managed to get a decent photo of it for identification.

Huge Walker’s Owl Moth!

We’ve seen kudu and bushbuck down at the riverbank, vervet monkeys scrambling around the trees and across the lawn, and waterbuck grazing on the lawn. Hippo have also been heard on the lawn at night (slightly unnerving when you’re just dropping off to sleep). So even being at home can be exciting for wildlife … and it helps when that home is in South Africa!

September 29, 2013/0 Comments/by admin

Adventures, Moths, Species or Group Profile

Moth Solo – A new adventure, the battery strikes back and return of the ermine.

I was first introduced to moth trapping in 2012 during my placement year with the Field Studies Council at Margam Discovery Centre (South Wales) when one of the tutors fixed the moth trap there and set it out. The species that sticks most in my mind was the Drinker moth, I was particularly impressed by its antennae. This year I took a short course in invertebrates, as one of a number of extra-curricular ecology modules that I took alongside my third year at university. It was run by Dr. Phil Ward – an expert on invertebrates and a county recorder in Radnorshire. He introduced different types of moth traps, and over two nights we caught a variety of different moths – including a gorgeous Poplar Hawkmoth (L.populi).

A weekend in mid-June provided a good opportunity. I had the time, the need and the space. I was house-sitting for a family friend at their Bed and Breakfast / self-catered Farmhouse in mid Wales – Glanoer in Bettws, Llandrindod Wells, and they were keen for me to do some casual ecology surveys. I’d previously found otter spraint at the stream running through the smallholding, which surprised and amazed them. This time I wanted to do something that I’d been hoping to do for a long time: moth trapping.

I was keen to get going on some solo moth trapping, but was lacking something vital – some equipment. But the moth county recorders of Radnorshire came to the rescue and were kind enough to lend me two traps for the weekend, as well as discuss the best spots to place the traps. And so, I was ready to go.

The first night commenced, and I was doubtful. It was raining, windy and cold. Not a good start. I awoke bright and early, keen to check the traps but worried I hadn’t caught anything. My fears were unfounded. True, it was a low number, but I was thrilled! The two traps revealed 8 moths. Including three Hawkmoths! Two Poplars (L.populi) and a new one for me, the Elephant Hawkmoth (D.elpenor, photo below), which was absolutely stunning.

And so to the second night, the dreary weather was repeated though it was slightly less windy. However, only one trap this time. Although the light had been working on one I went to bed, the battery had evidently died not long after. Perhaps in retaliation for being stuck out in the rain all night?

Again, I was not disappointed. Another 6 moths! No Hawkmoths this time, but some gorgeous moths nonetheless. One thing that struck me was the White Ermine moth (S.lubricipeda, photo below). I’d caught one on both nights – not the same one, I’d kept the first one until after the second night to ensure that. What intrigued me was that the second individual was in exactly the same spot on the moth trap as the previous one. Was it that the spot was preferred by that species? Had the first individual left a mark there of some sort, perhaps a pheromone or scent? Very mysterious – if you know of a potential answer, I would be very interested to hear.

To finish off, before I end up rambling about moths for ages, my aunt was delighted to have identified moths to add to her smallholding species list, and was astonished by some of them – particularly the Hawkmoths and the White Ermine. The county recorders were pleased, this was the first moth recording in that area for at least thirty years, if not more. Although I’d not caught any species of special excitement, they were very glad to have recordings at all and are keen for me to do more trapping when I’m next visiting. Of course, I will happily oblige. Lastly, I’m satisfied that I’ve done my first solo moth trapping and can’t wait to do more!

NB: If you’re interested, the identification book that I used was The Concise Guide to Macro Moths of Great Britain and Ireland by Martin Townsend and Paul Waring, published by British Wildlife Publishing, and identifications were confirmed by the county recorders.

PS: I know it doesn’t fit exactly but I am rather proud of my post title here, and feeling slightly geeky.

A favourite from the moth trapping: Clouded Border (L.marginata)

July 7, 2013/2,315 Comments/by mgshersby