Insects that caught my attention…

I have spent time using Google to try to find out what the weird insect (in positions 30 and 31 in the gallery) was that looked so fearsome with this tall antenna with the red stripes, and wondered just what its purpose was. So far I have been unable to find anything close, but since many of the times  I have put up galleries of images from this macro world that I find so interesting seem to have appealed to the readers of this blog judging by the visitor numbers when they have appeared, I am genuinely interested to know just what its name is and why it has this ‘mast’ aloft? It seems at once ungainly, and threatening.

 The two very flat butterflies/moths were flying around in the shadows of the thicket then landing and lying absolutely flat on the leaves. I did catch sight of other butterflies but they were far to restless and unpredictable for me to get any shots, and I was lucky to catch the cricket/grasshopper at all as he was bounding for cover and only stopped for a second or two. At least the ladybird was decent enough to keep out in the open, and though he momentarily took to the air, it was only to another nearby thistle.

For all the abundance of insect life, what was surprising was the lack of birdsong; I rarely saw any birds, and in the two or three instances they were fleeting trips across the pathway and at a good distance, I did however hear the call of the woodpigeon just the once – “My toe hurts Betty”, but no reassuring return call from Betty.

A light aircraft was in an oval loop presumably doing occasional ‘circuit and bumps’ and every so often cutting his engine to be able to understand how to restart should any emergency occur in the future. When I hear an engine die, it always grabs my attention, as my heart misses a beat!

During the entire ride and when I stopped, I never saw another human, though there were frequent reminders of the passage of horses. I wish they would at least have the courtesy to move to the edges when the call of nature beckoned, as to avoid these hazards I invariably had to navigate potholes or loose gravel. My human fellow travellers might also have taken their cans and bottles back with them as it makes it harder for authorities to fund these paths when also having to pay for, or find volunteers to carry out the task later.

I did wonder whether there might be a lack of variety, or a poor choice of vegetation in this landscape that accounted for the distinct lack of birds – I have more birds and greater variety in my pocket handkerchief back garden. Starlings in abundance, Jackdaws, Magpies, Sparrows, Pigeons, Bluetits on occasion, Blackbirds, surely this is down to what has been seeded in this obviously reclaimed land?

Afternoon Visit to Luton Hoo again

Having spent a very hot and humid time at Butterfly World in the morning, I returned home to re-hydrate and offload about twelve gigabytes of raw files so I had space to take yet more photographs. Then I set off to pay a late visit to the Walled Garden in particular to see how the restoration of the farm cart was proceeding. I can report that the three main participants are doing very well indeed; there were just two this day, but there was much rubbing down of the old paintwork from the wood and ironwork and that the rear spring section was now all painted – black for the metalwork, Luton Hoo green for the wood.

Elsewhere the warmer weather had accelerated the growth of thistles which Charlotte Phillips herself was digging up, the pumpkins were now planted out, and Alex Hines was duly watering them with a hose that also gently watered a few on its own along the way! For another volunteer planting out, she was able to use a watering can confined to sprinkling only from the spout!

Another volunteer was busy tying up recalcitrant plants whilst bees danced attention on the blue flowers that they obviously took a particular shine to their allure.

It would appear that one Verbascum was being sacrificed to the Mullein caterpillar in its desire to propagate its moths; and they were feasting to the very obvious destruction of the plant, but the caterpillars were very striking in yellow and black looking as if they had some resemblance to Bibendum, the Michelin Man.

Even though a late visit it was a great chance to capture several different types of bee feasting as they pollinated, so very satisfying.

Luton Hoo – Moth Hunt in the Walled Garden

It was a shame it was not as muggy a night as it has been of late, but despite that everyone was upbeat, and Andy introduced himself and Melissa to us all. I was surprised to learn that one of the participants, Anne already knew me from the time we were both living in Slip End!

Charlotte very kindly supplied us with crisps and Cider, and we were treated to a captive peppered moth, but later in the evening a native of the Garden was captured at one of the other traps.

I have tried to capture something of the atmosphere by having shots of some of those present as well as some of the specimens that appeared, tempted by our lights. I was pleasantly surprised by how many I managed to capture in focus. I can now accept Andy's assurance that not all moths are dull and grey!