Garden Moths and Books

I put out the moth trap last weekend - and trapped the following - all New For the Year


Oak Beauty (Biston strataria) - one of my favourite moths

Clouded Drab (Orthosia incerta)

Chestnut (Conistra vaccinii)

As always if any of my id's are incorrect please let me know. Overnight temperatures are forecast to be milder this weekend so will hopefully be trapping again.



Garden Birds

A pair of Blue Tits are taking nesting material into the nestbox (which has a camera) and a Collared Dove visited the garden (a new species for the year).



Frog spawning activity went on for days - a good year for frogspawn :)




A Spring posy of flowers picked from the garden for Easter Sunday

Books (for Amanda)

I picked up a couple of book bargains at the Nurseries when I went looking for birthday presents for my friend last week.

The AA Book "Exploring Britain's Churches and Chapels" was greatly reduced to £6.99! In fact, I saw it at the same price yesterday in a National Trust shop. It features various churches region by region and has articles on features such as towers and spires. It's well worth buying if you are interested in churches.


This charming bee book was half price!

Will try and resist sneaky book purchases for a while and catch up on some of the books in my vast pile of "waiting to be read"!

A few More Moths

A few photos of moths trapped on 17th and 21st August.

Square-spot Rustic (Xestia Xanthographa)

Yellow Shell (Camptogramma bilineata)

Flounced Rustic (Luperina testacea) Most of the moths trapped at the moment are either various species of Yellow Underwing, particularly Large, and Flounced Rustic!

Ringed China-mark (Parapoynx stratiota) A new species for the garden and thanks to those on Twitter who helped with id.

Copper Underwing Agg (Amphipyra pyramidea)

Orange Swift (Triodia sylvina) New for Year

Finally, an Antler Moth (Cerapteryx graminis) New for Year. I was really pleased to see this species (from memory I have only trapped one before)

Butterflies

Finally, Peacocks and Red Admirals have started to appear in the garden over the last couple of days. Holly Blues and Gatekeepers have been plentiful this August.


I found this insect on a Cosmos flower - I believe its a Shieldbug (Common Green?) nymph - probably Final Instar

Some of you may already have seen a photo of this book on my other blog but I really am very pleased with it although its more of a reference book than one to read from cover to cover!

Its been quite a few years since I stopped collecting stamps but I really couldn't resist ordering a Presentation Pack of Royal Mail's Bee Stamps.

The delightful stamp illustrations are by Richard Lewington and the text in the pack is written by bee expert Dave Goulson.