Wait and They Will Come To You

 Saturday July 30

It's all happening. Yesterday, Steve and his assistant removed our stair hand rail, installed a 'pig's ear' variety on the opposite side, removed some shelves and created a lot of noise. In the middle of this, the electrician arrived to instal a socket at the bottom of the stairs. All three men, two of them six footers, working in the same confined area. There was a lot of laughter. 

To-day, Steve came back to do some of the wall repair necessary, promising to decorate the hall stairs and landing before the stair lift installation on the 11th of August. His idea, not ours. We'd assumed that it wouldn't be done until later. Steve has always looked after us well. No job that we ask him to do is too small.

This morning, Pam found a small dragonfly indoors, under the sun lounge widow. We believe it to be a female Common Darter.

 


Moth-ing has quietened considerably at home. We had our second ever Box Tree Moth, the first was last year. A moth which is adventist (imported on plants), and becoming a real pest, decimating box hedging. We don't have any box. One of the larger micro moths.


 

Cydalima perspectalis or the box tree moth is a species of moth of the family Crambidae, first described by Francis Walker, the English entomologist, in 1859. Native to Japan, China, Taiwan, Korea, far-east Russia and India,[1] it has invaded Europe;  

First recorded in the UK, Kent,  in 2007. Since then the species has rapidly increased in frequency. It is widespread in London and the south-east and is spreading northwards at a considerable rate. The species also occurs in central Europe.

 I always like to see Dark Swordgrass. We get a few every year. One of Britain's most regular migrants, it can appear in large numbers in some years, and then be relatively scarce in others.


 We regularly find beetles in the moth traps. We found a different one this week, less than a  cm. long and attractively marked. I identified it as Disperis boleti. 

Our moth-ing friend and writer of tomes about beetles, Andrew Duff, recommended that we report the finding to the Norfolk Beetle recorder, as it was probably new for our 10K square.I duly did so and it was confirmed as new for our square. Another spreading northwards beastie.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 12

Image
 Monday May 6 Most of the morning was occupied getting in touch with the car insurance people and then Autoglass - then waiting for Autoglass to get back to us.  A  stone chipped our windscreen on the way through Skye, since then its become a one foot plus horizontal crack on Pam's side. End result. We take the car to Lewis or Skye or wait until we get home. The garage here 'doesn't have the equipment to deal with the sensor in the front screen'. Ian, Heather's husband, says he does them all the time! Ah well, live with it.  Almost the first bird we saw as we drove north was a lovely male Hen Harrier. It was distant but I had to try, one of these days I'll get a decent photo. Original photo before editing, taken with 500mm lens    Edited     As we drove down to Loch Paible, a flock of fifteen Whimbrel dropped in to the near corner.We needed to turn the car, by which time the birds had gone, this Wheatear posed nicely for me.    A short d...
Read more

Moth Migration

Image
 Wednesday October 9 Like birds, moths migrate when the season and weather conditions are right. Recently, we have had easterly winds with a mouth watering fall of birds which we have been unable to walk and see. Many Yellow-browed Warblers, Eastern Crowned Warbler in Shetland, a possible Amur Stonechat and an Asian Desert Warbler in Norfolk. Our moth traps have had a reasonable sprinkling of the migrant moths - although some could be breeding here by now. Palpita Vitrialis Scarce Bordered Straw Delicate   and Rusty Dot Pearl
Read more

Day 19

Image
  Monday May 13   The day started slowly and ended at a gallop. A morning spent doing chores meant an even later start than usual, well past mid-day. Loch Druidibeg was the intended destination but we missed the turning and ended up at Loch Eynort. Both are in South Uist, but Druidibeg is not signposted on the northern approach. We even found a parking space in the small six car parking area, where we sat looking at a pretty empty sea. Eventually, Red-breasted Merganser, Shags, a Great Northern Diver and an Otter on the sea and Willow Warbler, Chaffinch, Robin, Blackbird, Dunnock, Cuckoo, and a Lesser Redpoll from the small wood alongside. AS we reversed away, Pam noticed the reg plate on the car beside us. It was WOC, Ian and Sue's car. We left them a note and drove on in the rain. We found Druidibeg this time. RSPB Scotland Loch Druidibeg, a community nature reserve formed in partnership with local crofters and the community estate. It is a Special Protection Area and Site...
Read more