RANT! (Oh, I can't be bothered, but then I could be.)

 ... but before I do I've found some nice things. Mostly hunting with the camera = non-lethal (don't rant yet...). 

I've been wandering along the Hawthorn Hedge of late with a few target species in mind, but usually finding other things. Bees, other than Honey Bee and bumblebees, are uncommon here so this tiny beast was a nice find and NFM.

Andrena coitana.

This Grey Dagger cat was nestled in a Hawthorn leaf, not the best image but it is a very smart looking cat.

Grey Dagger, photographed using 75 - 300mm lens as it was highish up and beyond a barbed wire fence.

On the way back from one of these expeditions yesterday, as the breeze was getting up, I was casually looking at all the Wild Angelica flower heads, and suddenly a hoverfly caught my eye. Finding this species is like finding Bluethroat or Barred Warbler in birder's speak.

Xanthandrus comtus a migrant. I've only seen one before, and that was in a light trap. Nice to find one like this. There have been three already this year in the county, exceptional.

There have been quite a few migrants with another wave of Yponomeuta rorrella arriving and quite a few Hummingbird Hawkmoths in the county, with which I have failed to connect despite a careful search of the local Honeysuckle hedge.

Diamond-back Moth, Plutella xylostella, another migratory species.

Just a couple of P. xylostella have appeared, one in the trap and one on the garden Tansy, which is a great insect attractant, and one of my favourite plants.

I've also been wandering about up by the wind turbine on the moor behind the house. The Wild Angelica is prolific and covered in Ichneumons, which apart from a few photos I'm mostly choosing to ignore as they take so long to identify.

Nice moorland plant diversity near the turbine.

Eristalis arbustorum.

Plateumaris discolor, a species I've only seen once before, earlier this year.

Evacanthus interruptus.

Melanostoma scalare.

Twin-spot Plume, Stenoptilia bipunctidactyla, I think I've only recorded this species once before.

BH caught an interesting moth, a Noctuid that was very worn. There was a little debate about its identity, general opinion was that it was Dusky Brocade, it was hard to be certain. Given the specimen I did a gendet.

The dissection proved Apamea remissa, Dusky Brocade.

Re the rant; it wasn't worth ranting about. Unlike Rishi Sunak's oil and gas licenses, they are worth a rant. My opinion has always been that a particular enterprise of a Tory Government is to line their own pockets and those of their cronies. So it's no surprise to me that Infosys, the family business, has (it is reported) recently won a huge contract with BP and apparently has a partnership with "two of the top five integrated oil and gas companies, three of the top four oilfield services providers, and five of the top 10 upstream enterprises across the oil and gas landscape.” This is what Prime Minister Sunak said in his first speech as PM on 25th October 2022 - "I will unite our country, not with words, but with action. I will work day in and day out to deliver for you. This government will have integrity, professionalism and accountability at every level. Trust is earned." I leave you to draw your own conclusions. Potentially these licenses, despite the wittering on about carbon capture, as far as I'm aware an ineffective and highly questionable technology, are a further nail in the environmental stability of our planet.

No, it's uninhabitable.