nature notes

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Found this big lad at work today.
 
I think it may be a Privet Hawkmoth. The stripes are right and the wingspan is 100mm (about 4 inches).
 
I have had to look all those up BYM, they sound so poetic, and I didn't realise a Banded Demoiselle was a damselfly, I assumed it was another moth! That does look enormouse bigjim, whatever it is!

My nature observations have consisted of watching a lizard eating his way through a pack of winged ants. He had a definite preference for those with wings, and he was so close to my foot, completely oblivious.
 
We came to the conclusion that it was one of those too, after I Googled UK moths. I certainly wouldn't want that flying round my ears. It was left on a stack of pallets near the door, to bugger off when it was ready.
Quite how it managed to find its way into a warehouse in the middle of Northamptonshire, I don't know.
 
Def a privet hawk moth, the caterpillars feed on Privet, Lilac and Guelder rose.
Banded Demoiselle's are beautiful with a lovely sheen and the females body is a metallic emerald. Emperor Dragonfly around today and 9 species of butterfly around the bramble hedge, and the Goldcrests have just fledged 4 young in a conifer. Get the bat detector out tonight I think
 
OMG! Just found defra's maps
http://magic.defra.gov.uk/
Think I found them before a good while ago but forgot.
 
Yesterday we had a bright red Tiger Moth (not the plane) flying around and this morning had an Elephant Hawk Moth caterpillar on the step in front of the garage, which was quickly moved before the chickens ate it. Hopefully we'll see the pink moth- last time I saw one was in Derby 50 years ago.
 
Couldn't get a picture as they were too flighty, but I saw my first Purple Hairstreak, and silver Studded Blue yesterday and Downy Emerald dragonfly. Thursley Common in Surrey, brilliant for dragon and damselflies
 
Wonderful article in this weeks New Scientist about species diversity and how in the UK we are losing some insect species but gaining some from Europe as a result of global warming.
But has anyone noticed how many insect species seem to be in decline. Even here there used to be hordes of daddy long legs in late summer but recently I’ve seen none. And as a child in London surburbia going to my fathers allotment and picking hundreds of cabbage white caterpillars off his cabbages. Not seen a cabbage white butterfly in England for a long time.
 
That's because they all reside in my neighbours' veg plots in Sussex.....and we have them here as well.

That's an impressive list BYM, I like looking things up which you have seen as I have never heard of them and then I can see that perhaps I have seen them, but didn't know their name. Although with the Studded Blue, I don't know if I've seen that, or the chalk blue or a common blue. My OH told me that there is a feature on many photos now that will tell you what the subject of the photo is - apologies if this is very old news! Its certainly very scary!

My nature spot yesterday was a heavily pregnant common lizard. She emerged from her hiding spot twice to confront me, I love the way the lizards will turn their heads to wherever your voice is coming from. We have a lot of insects here, probably more than other classes of nature, and I spend a lot of time doing very little except observing them. Not that I know what I am looking at in any detail!
 
I remember picking the caterpillars off cabbages to. We have had a few more this year, but certainly not in the numbers from years gone by.
I knew virtually nothing about insects, birds etc until the day OH stepped on my bus 11 years ago and the rest is history. I even remember some birds names now, but Moths and Dragonflies I do find interesting, Thursley Common has 23 species of dragonfly and damselfly so the info boards said. bit cloudy yesterday so they weren't out and about that much, ditto with the lizards but we did see a couple of babies and a reasonable sized adder skin.
Plus a raft spider on a pool which I thought was good.
We used to see Tiger Moths a lot to when I was a kid and they are a rarity now to.
 
Thursley Common sounds a great place though I've never heard of it. Is it in Essex?
Got me to thinking about wildlife. I've never seen a naked mole rat, a spitting cobra or a cassowary for example but if I could choose one animal to see it would be a mole cricket. From pictures they look to be magnificent insects.
 
Last night we were having dinner outside when OH jumped up and said 'what's that snake got in its mouth'. I jumped up in alarm - not because of the snake, but I was hoping that the dinner wasn't the pregnant lizard! Anyway, it turned out to be a sparrow.

My question for today - I got up to find 2 house spiders tangled together on a wall indoors. After a while I realised one was alive, the other dead. OH said they shed their skins, is this right? If so, what do you think the live one was doing. Its been roughly in the same place for a couple of hours now. Sometimes it walks away, but then comes back and crouches over the 'dead' one for quite long periods. All you can see is a tangle of long thin legs, and 2 very small bodies. I thought originally it might have been a post-mating death, but I really don't know and a quick look on the internet has left me confused.
 
Hen-Gen said:
Thursley Common sounds a great place though I've never heard of it. Is it in Essex?
Got me to thinking about wildlife. I've never seen a naked mole rat, a spitting cobra or a cassowary for example but if I could choose one animal to see it would be a mole cricket. From pictures they look to be magnificent insects.
Click to expand...

It's in Surrey, not far from Guildford.
We found a dead Long eared Bat on the front drive this morning, traffic casualty I suppose from some idiot zooming down the lane or old age. Not a mark on it, amazing to study so close up. photos taken and sent off to the Essex Wildlife Trust and local bat recorder. bat now in pot in freezer in case of any queries regarding it.
As to the spiders MrsBiscuit not a clue, I know they eat other species of spider. Must look it up to
 
I'm back to the moth experts. I don't really take much notice of them, nor see many, but tonight I saw a small moth on my window, so took a photo. The clarity on my phone is amazng, but you won't see it on here, because it has had to be "shrunk". I suspect this is a common moth?
 

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That's a seriously good photo, Tweetypie. Back in the days when I was in a camera club (when printing photos needed a darkroom, not a computing degree), you'd have won a prize for that, for sure!
 
Awesome pic, it's a Vapourer Moth, fairly common, look it up as the caterpillars are quite something. We had some caterpillars on the roses and had to look it up.
We have a brilliant book called British Moths and Butterflies by Chris Manley and it has pics of virtually every species of Moth and Butterfly and quite a few caterpillars
 
I'm so pleased I didn't see the caterpillar, I have a phobia for them, worms and slugs. I do think that some moths are prettier than butterflies, although this one was plain. I've only seen the cabbage whites this year.
 
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