after hours weekend

1 September 2013
Not much time off from work this weekend just a quick snatch of time after work to go to beach, and look at the garden. Here some images....... Seriously thinking of returning this dog as it looks more like a bloody Wolverine

 Tom and his new best mate

 Launch the dogs of war !!

 Sam and Teasel going for a run

 Bent tail - how does it do that ? and is it on purpose

 Two moving, Blackbird and Mistle Thrush, two Statues

 Reed Bunting at Thornham with cricket

Small Copper at West Acre

Purrrfect....

26 July 2013
I vividly recall pawing through bird books when I was young and drooling and dreaming over certain exotic rarities such as Siberean Rubythroat, Pallas's Warbler, Collared Pratincole and Black-shouldered Kite, all birds I fantasised about seeing but never really thought I would. Well now in 2013 all those dreams have been realised, and my recent foray back into moths presents me with similar thoughts. As a teenager I did some mothing in Kent when I was sixteen, nothing heavy, just a white sheet , mercury vapour lamp and I am ashamed to say in retrospect a killing jar and setting board. I now understand, along with many others the error of such actions and much prefer to catch these great animals on film, or rather sensor/SD card. The fantasy goals being such individuals as Lobster Moth, Puss Moth and dare I say it Death's Head Hawkmoth...... Hmmm. So moth trap set last night and a new moth in the form of Ghost Moth was an excitement (please remember I am just a novice at this)....

So off to work quite pleased... and then to my amazement on the wall outside the shop.....
Bloody Puss Moth !!!! I couldn't believe it, equivalent to a Rubythroat as far as I was concerned, not that rare but one of those things you look at over and over again in the book and think I'll never see that in the flesh/feather/scale... Listed as common... but a belter all the same :)

And also a Plain Golden Y (possibly)

and the diminutive but rather beautiful Ruby Tiger

The rest of the garden was full of Moorhens, or so it felt, our three chicks playing on the lawn.

There it is then, a common moth, and I'm made up. Great stuff really. Lovely being a novice sometimes.

Moth time

Saturday 20 July 2013
Warmer evenings and the moths have arrived in numbers. Prompted by other people's reports I put the Skinner Trap out for the last few nights. As a novice I only tend to look at the big easy ones, but there were hundreds of micros in the trap most of which fly off when I start poking about in the egg cartons. So of more interest to me are the ones I can identify and these have been in abundance recently.
Last night there were nine Privet Hawkmoths.seven Poplar Hawkmoths, Eyed-Hawkmoth, three Elephant Hawkmoths and a single Lesser Elephant Hawkmoth  and many others - some shown below.

Garden Tiger Moth at rest

 head on

wings displayed

 

 Leopard Moth

 Poplar Hawkmoth

 Privet Hawkmoth

It's nuts

At last......
To say my nuts have been neglected this spring is an understatement. The garden birds have been favouring everything except them. But now with the arrival of lots of young recently fledged birds, the nuts are at last getting some attention.

The first sign of this was the arrival of a Nuthatch in the garden.

 and some young Blue Tits

Leaving the Rockies

Sad to leave Jasper - our favourite destination of the trip. A few memories here of the last two days:

Sam and Tom went Western Horse Riding, here Tom with his favourite horse and soon to be favourite
trail guide.

 Manouvering the horse into demounting block

 Cowgirl

 Very happy Cowboy to be

I meanwhile poked about the woods and among a mist of mosquitos found this Hairy Woodpecker

 Final memories and some eight Black Bears on the last day

 including this Cinnamon Black Bear and cub

 Mount Robson, the highest point in The Rockies  at 3962m high

 Enjoying one of their favourite foods - dandelions
 however still capable of outrunning someone on horseback and have been know to attack when annoyed

Noise of the forests goes to Varied Thrush, difficult to see, and near impossible to photograph but their mournful, long whistle was a top moment of the trip

Rockies Reloaded

The Rockies - brilliant. Previous post deleted due to poor upload resolution. Rockies were great, Black Bears fantastic and scenery like everyone says- utterly amazing

Horned Lark, the only species we saw at 7214 feet !

 Pine Siskin

 Chipping Sparrow

 Audubon's Warbler - always very high up, this one responded to a bit of pishing

 Big Horn Sheep - one of the reasons (apart from Gold) that people settled here - to hunt them that is.

 Red Squirrel

 Columbian Ground Squirrel - these were everywhere and on some campsites would almost come into the RV for food, which of course we didn't feed as per park instructions.

 Jasper

 Banff

Golden-mantled Ground Squirrel