Rain all day

I managed to wake up at 5:30 just as the rain began and rescue the two actinic traps, total four moths, all Brindled Ochre, but the temperature was down to 1-2C overnight. Also Vine Weevil and Nebria brevicollis (well I didn't check the tarsi but every one I have checked from the garden has been brevicollis). All the moths were from the front trap, the one at the back in the trees caught a lot of diptera, I chose to ignore them.

The day was spent catching up on insect data, sorting through a pile of moths that have been returned to me, many thanks KB and SG. There were some interesting things in there, quite a few I got right, rather a lot I didn't, although I'm definitely improving with the micros, those from this year were mostly correct or nearly so.

I've been looking through the photos from yesterday. I went to Marwick and mooched around the cliffs beyond the fishermans' huts. Generally grumpy because there were no insects that were indentifiable that I could find. In the end I took some photos.

Wild Angelica

Wild Angelica is an amazing plant, brilliant for insects in the summer and early autumn, and then its skeletons are delicate and robust at the same time. I've messed about with the colour, I think I prefer these in grey-scale.

I wandered around and found this eye driven in to the rock. I wondered how long it had been there, an ideal spot to land fish or take on crew. It must have been a bloody hard life. Huge skill would have been required to take a boat in and out of this spot.

The bird situation is poor with very little migration going on. Blackbirds are arriving though, signaled by the berries on our Swedish Whitebeam disappearing this week and the apples I put out now being eaten. Seven Whoopers flew east yesterday and the Goldfinch flock has now increased to four. There was a wee Mepit surge yesterday too, and Reed Buntings are in the bird crop and around and about away from the lower fields.

Syrphus torvus

You can just about make out some eye hairs on this male Syrphus that I collected at Northside last weekend, quite possibly the last Syrphid of the year. In any case the 2nd basal cell of the wing was clearly covered in microtrichia.

At the end of today the horse dentist arrived, awful light and the use of flash would not have been wise. The news was good for our 28 year old pony, no immediate work required and the previous extractions have stablised his mouth and he can now eat more easily. I did feel for old Blue though, not especially enjoying the dentist myself (and due to lose a tooth shortly). The skill of the dentist was impressive.