Thursday 12 July 2012

Downton abbey?


Two nights of trapping running - a miracle in current weather conditions - and the lamp had the air of a TV costume drama this morning. Here on the rain shield, above, is an apparently dead drunk Common Footman, while below is a Gothic, a lovely moth whose patterns resemble the tracery of a window in a stately National Trust pile. I've added a second footman on the right, because he or she looks rather readier for carrying out domestic duties.



Meanwhile, I can't resist a couple more glories from our week near Albi: both of Europe's major swallowtails turned up, the Scarce and the straightforward version. Each was a bit battered-about with the Scarce missing its tails and the 'ordinary' Swallowtail flying tattered bits of forewing like a battleflag. Their grand, powerful and swooping flight was still a delight to behold.


1 comment:

Banished To A Pompous Land said...

The Gothic is particularly striking Martin. Finally had a decent moth to shoot here but it was by the door as I came into work this morning and so didn't have my camera. And cell-phone cameras just don't cut the mustard as macro instruments :(

http://bugguide.net/node/view/672036

Not a good enough pic for the blog but thats the ID pic from BugGuide