the heart of the matter

I've not been very active this year so far... but I decided to have the trap out on Friday and Saturday nights. I had some nice, though not uncommon, moths on Friday. Yesterday, I had a few different species including a Red Data book species - heart moth. It's seven years since my one and only earlier sighting. Much to my surprise, someone emailed me from the west country to ask if he could 'twitch' it - but I'd let it go by then. I'm still slightly reeling at the thought that someone would travel for a couple of hours to look at a moth in a pot; and only an inch long at that.
I have to admit that the photos aren't terrific. I was fighting intense sun-light which had a tendency to bleach colours out.
I've added one or two other shots from around my garden (Odonata) and the area (larvae).

Female emperor laying eggs

grey/dark dagger - cannot be separated without dissection

barred straw

azure damselflies mating

Eudonis porphyrana

Heart moth - rare and elusive

angle shades larva on our Pyracantha

Surrey moth-er, now on Portland!

Hi all,

I did say i'd let you know when I started my new blog for my adventures on Portland.  Well here it is http://theportlandnaturalist.blogspot.co.uk/  Been going a week now.  Plenty of moth stuff, alongside everything else!

Shame young Bill has deserted you for a far-flung bird observatory, oh wait.

Cheers!

A Berrylands Bonanza

This last week at the station has easily been the best of the year both in terms of quality and quantity, the macro yearlist now stands at 57 with the highlights of the week including a Small Ranunculus on July 10th, the fourth consecutive year this species has put in an appearance, I've also had in in previous years at Earlsfield and Raynes Park stations so I'm guessing it must be fairly well established in the suburbs. A Cypress Carpet turned up on July 12th, the third station record following on from the two I had last year and the rarest of the lot (in a Berrylands context) a Blue-bordered Carpet, the second station record following on from the first in 2009.





Blue-bordered Carpet





Cypress Carpet





Small Ranunculus