Thursday 9 March 2017

A touch of class, plus spider doom



Sorry, I've been hopelessly slow to record the first really nice moth of the year. In addition to my onerous grandparenting duties, I am now madly resuming my sculling career at the age of 66 and also considering whether to try to learn to play the bugle (the latter simply because we have an old one, and it seems sad that it never makes those beautiful calls).


Anyway, here is the said nice moth - an Oak Beauty, one of two which came together on Friday night. Its contrasting bands of russety brown and mottled greys produce a delicately appealing pattern which is also an effective camouflage. As shown in the picture immediately above, it also has terrific antennae. Just for the record - as sadly it is a contrastingly dull-looking species - I should note the year's first arrival of a Common Quaker, below.  Apologies to the late George Fox and the Religious Society of Friends.


On the downside, my final picture shows what I fear is the fate of the March Moth which Penny spotted on our bedroom ceiling. Indoors in our house is no place for frail winged creatures as we are spider tolerant (being relaxed about housekeeping and past readers of Charlotte's Web).


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Love the oak beauty. We had an engrailed turn up on the window this week. It's all picking up. Hope all's well with you all.

Martin Wainwright said...

Hi there - excellent to hear (as I've just said in reply on the next post). Good luck for the season - all warmest M