Sunday 28 July 2013

A week in Dorset

We joined my family for a weeks holiday in Dorset
The cottage is a converted barn right in the heart of the countryside. Today we went for a walk after lunch along a stream where there were Green-veined white butterflies, Demoiselles and a couple of damsels. In the water was a lovely yellow water lily and some Sagittarius in flower.
  
 

 We came back and strolled down a lane between high hedges. There were several Red Admirals, a Peacock, a Marbled white, meadow browns, Brown Hawker and this lovely large Southern Hawker.

The weather goes from sunny and cloudy to rain so hope it clears up tomorrow.
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Thursday 25 July 2013

Mega Moth

The moth trap has been very interesting over the last few nights with lots of moths including some new ones and some that I get maybe once or twice annually. This morning there were 40 species, which is good for here, including Common and Small Emerald, Scalloped Oak, Buff and Muslin Footman, Leopard Moth, Ear moth and 2 Elephant Hawkmoths. There was also a carpet that I didn't recognise but on looking it up my initial thoughts were Balsam Carpet, however, reading the blurb it seemed very unlikely so I tentatively thought Large Twin-spot carpet. We went down to Dungeness where DW agreed with my initial thoughts that it looked more like Balsam but again, caution and various other opinions headed us towards Large Twin-spot.
DW had some moths to take to SC so he took along the carpet which was immediately identified as a Balsam Carpet, a National A scarce moth. Some research suggests that there may have been a record from 1998 from vice county 15.

Muslin Footman
Buff Footman
Balsam Carpet
Balsam Carpet


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Butterfly days

A Monday morning at Dungeness was spent looking for grassland butterflies, especially the newly emerged Essex Skippers. Overall we had 7 species including one of my favourites, Marbled White.
A White Admiral decided to visit our garden, which was a first and there was Kent Black Arches, Phoenix and Buff Footman in the moth trap with the first Lesser Yellow Underwings of the year.
On Wednesday we decided to check out Dene Wood for Purple Emperors. PB and DW picked me up and we navigated through the countryside arriving at the car park, which wasn't as full as I expected.
We walked up to the triangle with the dog bin and stood around scanning the oak trees. A white Admiral flew by followed by a possible Emperor which shot off down the track before we could ID it. There were lots of butterflies about, Large and Small Whites and Meadow Browns.
After a while I strolled up the track to another 'master tree' where there were a couple of chaps standing who reported seeing PEs and then one flew in a circuit from the tops, along the trees, across the track, along the other side and back to the tree tops. I called the others and over the next hour we had good, but distant, views of at least 3 individuals chasing each other and patrolling the tops. None came very near or looked like perching anywhere in sight.
Walking further along to the next junction I had one more sighting as a PE fluttered down the side of an oak and off through the laurels. There were several White Admirals, a Peacock and Speckled Wood among the other butterflies.


As we made our way back to the carpark MC noticed a toad making it's way across the path. We made sure it was safely on the edge of the wood before heading home.

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Monday 22 July 2013

A great weekend

A Phone call had me heading to the patch to look for an odd seal. A walk along the power station road and up the shingle ridge to where a group were standing looking at a seal hauled out on the edge of the beech. My initial response was that it looked very similar to the Bearded seal we had seen in Varanger earlier this year.








The afternoon was spent in very good company at a 'reunion' BBQ with a break to join some bat experts checking out bat boxes on a nearby house.


A few hours around the obs chatting and watching for raptors before a meeting and then an afternoon on the patio watching for butterflies ended a very pleasant weekend.





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Tuesday 16 July 2013

Moths at Home

The catch in the moth trap this morning proved to be the best of the year with 112 moths of 41 species including Swallowtail, Blotched, Common and Small Emerald, Dot moth, several waves and carpets, Buff Arches and Elephant Hawkmoth.
Here are some of the moths from the last few days.