Things in the Night

I went out after dark tonight and lots of things are starting to move,firstly I met two Dotted border moths on the gable end  of house under the yardlight ,these are fairly common moths with a long flight season from Feb -April .

Dotted Border Moth (Agriopis marginaria )

Then  I saw a 20 plume moth, This is a small moth that can be found all year round

Twenty Plume Moth (Alucita hexadacytla)

Then I went near open water to check for frogs ,none about yet but some water insects were in evidence.

Water Cricket (Velia caprai) This is a water cricket just the one tonight but I have seen small packs of them hunting along the water surface for smaller prey.They seem to work in groups moving along the waters edge at first while others move along the centre driving the prey into the edge for cover and their comrades in waiting.

Water Boatman (Notanecta sp.)

This is a Water Boatman ,which swims on its back,you can just make out the small hairs at its tail that it uses to propel itself through the water.There are several species and can be identified by looking at their backs for colour patterns.

A Diving Beetle larva. ( Don"t know much about his fellow.)

Caddisfly Larva (Glyphotaelius pellucidus)

This is a Caddis fly larva the white threadlike structures are gills that it uses to breathe.Caddisfly larva can be identified by the kind of cases they build to protect themselves.This one is I believe Glyphotaelius pellucidus which makes a case of fallen leaves.

This was the suprise of the night, this catterpillar was head down about 150mm (6") under water,catterpillars seemingly don"t know how to reverse out of trouble,but some also can live under water like the Brown china mark.I havn"t id ed this yet but will update when I do.

Moths again!

The rain has brought a rise in temperature, and the moths are back after a long break,the December moth only lasted 3 days this season due to the cold spell,hopefully it will recover in the next few seasons.

Pale Brindled Beauty (Phigalia pilosaria) 06/02/2010

The Winter moths are back in small numbers and have been joined last night by the Pale Brindled Beauty  (Phigalia pilosaria) this is one of the bigger moths flying at the moment,and with its mottled colouring and bi-pectate antennae is easy to identify.

Signs Of Spring !

A beautiful day today and signs of Spring ,Snowdrops in flower,and one of my favourite birds the Starlings were bringing straws into a nest that they have been using for at least 40years.

These pictures were taken last year on 16/01/2010,they started out at opposite ends of the shed and gradually after much noisy courtship ended up together at the entrance to the nest.I don"t know how long they live, but only one pair nest here so how they decide its time to change tenants is a mystery  to me.They seem to raise two broods of 3-4 young and constantly amaze me with the amount of food they bring in all day every day,regardless of weather.The farm cats sometimes try their luck at catching them as do some magpies but after a lot of screeching are usually driven  of ,the magpies try to  lure the young out to the entrance to catch them and so far have not been sucessful as far as I know.

A very large "murmur" of Starlings have also spent alot of time this Winter feeding on one of the silage fields,they must eat grass because no  insects could have survived the low temperatures ,and constant "grazing of Lapwing,Redwing,Rook,Fieldfare and seagulls etc.