Saturday 12 June 2010

Bonxie alert!

A member of our household hadn't fully appreciated the Bonxie hazard. Thus a pleasant tramp around Yesnaby turned traumatic when Louise strayed a bit too close to a breeding pair. Attack mode was swiftly engaged and Louise discovered that lying in the brae with her rucksack over her head with a Bonxie making repeated and persistent strafing runs was none too pleasant... More caution may be engaged in future. For those of you who have never had the pleasure Bonxie's tend to come in at eye level and they aren't bothered about making contact, indeed making contact is highly desirable as far as they are concerned.

Interestingly the waders can be quite threatening at the moment. A pair of Oystercatchers has young near the school playing field and yesterday morning at football practice time the spectators were getting a bit of harassment, let alone deafened by the persistent pair. The male dive-bombing and the female carrying out a full "broken wing" distraction display.

Now for the moths from 10th June.

The Shears

Lychnis

I think this is Clouded-bordered Brindle of the melanistic form combusta
(any comments on ID gratefully received)

1126 Ancylis badiana - 3
1728 Garden Carpet - 2
2060 White Ermine - 3
2147 The Shears - 1
2173 Lychnis - 1

and maybe:
2326 Clouded-bordered Brindle (combusta)
Also three more of the black and white micro that I've got nowhere with so far.

Down on The Shunan the Shelduck chicks are growing and there is a brood of Gadwall. The Sedge Warbler is becoming a little more extrovert but still is failing to make the garden list.

4 comments:

AndyC said...

agree,your getting good......

Alastair said...

Thanks Andy, better I think. Micros are a problem as I'm not familiar enough with them to figure out them to family so using UKMoths is tricky. I'm getting a few regularly - the local recorder is in the process of helping me with some of these.

AndyC said...

Chris manley British Moths and Butterflies a photographis guide is excellent for familys and you can then look on UKmoths to find you species(hopefully)

Alastair said...

Andy,
Yes Louise has seen that book and fancied getting it so that sounds like one for my birthday pressie list, thanks for the recommendation.

I've just got hold of Ian Lorimer's Lepidoptera of the Orkney Isles and the supplement. These are quite handy. Some interesting history in them. The few sites for Cocksfoot Moth (found at the weekend) includes our house which is interesting.