Thursday 24 September 2020

Strangers in the Night - Frank Sinatra

 We had been up-staged even before swinging out of the hammock this morning as a report from my old shipmate Jim the Medic, a.k.a. Doctor Sympathy in Beverley, Yorkshire, had found this

 
ATLAS MOTH
in his garden. It is not uncommon for some people to breed such things,but then again it could equally have escaped from a Zoo or Butterfly Park? Additionally, we were informed by our friend Bomber, of the Harris Clan, that it may well be the largest Moth in the World?

All we could muster from just about a perfect night weatherwise were another 'brace' of

OLD LADY'S

(there's hope for me yet)

a first for the year
BROWN-SPOT PINION
only the second for 2020  

COMMON MARBLED CARPET

Additionally, there were 2 examples of the invasive

BOX-TREE MOTH

a danger to certain divisions of Hoticulture, this pearly white form being typical

 and this the melanic (dark form) of the same Insect.

Dr Phil Sterling of Butterfly Conservation says of this 'micro moth':- it is native to India, China, Korea, Japan, and the Russian Far East. It was accidntally introduced into Europe, first recorded from Germany in 2006 and the UK (in Kent) the following year.

While in the process of returning the traps to their stations, for the night to come, we stumbled across this

 juvenile

TOAD
We don't see many of these around here though there must be plenty!
Birds on the Heath have now very much reduced to same old, same old but
did get lucky enough to click
and video yet another juvenile


DARTFORD WARBLR

There were also a couple of clumps of

what are considered to be
SHAGGY INKCAP

but no expert in such matters!

A far better view today from the main pond of the psudo
PINTAIL

Late afternoon

and saved from a fete the same as death
the new ex-BATTERY CHICKENS arrived but there was still one more unexpected to come.

We had already given them all up for gone as not seen for a number of evenings now 

but no there was still at least one perched for a while and maybe another
on the track bringing back memories of this nesting bird
during the Summer.

1 comment:

  1. What an amazing creature the Atlas Moth is..
    I do know that the Atlas moth has no mouth,
    and they do not eat once they have emerged
    from the cocoon..it has a very short life
    span of only one to two weeks..
    A female will wait for a male to come along
    and be fertilised, lay eggs and die...
    very sad side of nature l think...! :(

    Shaggy Inkcaps..When young it is an excellent
    edible mushroom provided that it is eaten soon
    after being collected...it goes off very quickly
    when picked..
    Sorry..to finish up on food Capt..only you know
    me and my stomach..! :o).
    Dooby-doooby-doo....!

    ReplyDelete