Tuesday 31 August 2010

At last a bird photo!

Mothing over the last two weekends has been influenced by the ar temperature. The bank holiday weekend with its colder nights has certainly started to impact the number of moths being caught, whilst last night was one of my biggest catches of the year with 83 individuals. I’m still catching the odd new species for me though, such as square spot rustic.

Square Spot Rustic
Big and brown, the Old Lady, it looks dead but is quite alive.
Vines Rustic
Agriphila tristella , a dark brown individual which shows off the lateral stripe nicely.

A white point, only the second one I have ever caught, possible immigrant but more likely to be a local breeder.

Centre Barred Sallow

Agriphila geniculea, the trap is full of these common grass moths although this one seems to have lost a lot of scales.

They should look more like this one, although the right way up.

Common Wainscott
My favourite, what a cutie!

Back to my last Biscay trip and a couple of sperm whales, probably a juvenile and mother. We managed to record 20 sperm whales on our trip something that would have been unheard of a few years back.
A pilot whale with its characteristic reverse smurf hat dorsal fin.
2 tonnes of blubber being launches clear of the water in the shape of a Cuviers beaked whale. The animal managed this 5 times in a row.
Bottlenose dolphin, unfortunately fast disappearing from coastal UK waters.

3 adult Sabines gulls, probably the best looking gull in the North Atlantic.

Finally a bit of colour on it’s last legs in the strong breeze yesterday at Grain. Make the most of it as it will soon be xmas, groan!!
Common Blue

1 comment:

Greenie said...

John ,
Finally managed to read this post . Although it showed up on my list , there wasn't a new post on your blog until now .
Great shots from the Bay of Biscay , matched by the moth shots .