Small Wonders

It was a relatively quiet week at the reserves with little significant bird activity to report. Wader-wise, Cliffe Pools pulled in c20 Whimbrel and a small number of adult, summer-plumed Dunlin alongside good numbers of Lapwing (c200), Avocet (c100) and Redshank (c150). But the wildlife highlight of the week for me came after the moth trap was put out by the barn one night.

Check these beauties out:

Ruby Tiger (Phragmatobia fuliginosa)

Brown-Line Bright-Eye (Mythimna conigera)

Peppered Moth (Biston betularia). Most geography/ecology students will be familiar with this one due to its famous evolutionary trait of visibly adapting to its surroundings. During the industrial revolution in Britain, a dark or 'melanic' form of the moth was found in areas where pollution caused 'blackening' of tree bark and leaves. A white moth would show up easily against this background and would therefore be at a higher risk of predation.   

And how about this stunner...

Poplar Hawkmoth (Laothoe populi). This moth was in a kind of 'torpor' when we looked at it but it slowly began to warm up and beat its wings furiously. Eventually it took off like a Harrier jump jet! 

These are all night-flying moths; it's amazing to think that when the lights go out and we're all asleep, these dazzling moths are busy doing what moths do. Which as far as I can tell is lurking about in the undergrowth and going crazy for any light sources. Presumably they mate at some point too. Apparently some adult moths don't even feed, they survive on energy reserves built up during the transformation from caterpillar to pupa. Most, like butterflies, drink the liquid from particular flowers but some feed on lichen (I've often wondered if anything did!) From the looks of it, moth-trapping seems to be becoming a pretty widespread, and dare I say it...'cool' pasttime. And why not, it's harmless (the moths are caught alive and released in the morning) and it makes good conversation:

"yeah, I had a Setaceous Hebrew Character outside this morning"
"nice going, I had a Lime-Speck Pug and an Old Lady in my trap..." *

Moth ID is pretty new to me so I'm looking forward to exploring them a bit more in the coming weeks.

*all real names.