This is a terrific time of the year for the gardener, as swathes of destruction c an be carried out without much fear of harming little seedlings or young plants. Happily, the process seems to be accompanied at the moment by warm sunshine. The mornings, when I inspect the moth trap in my pyjamas, may be chilly, but things have got nice and indeed almost toasty by mid-afternoon.
As a result, I carry in so far as I can, either my iPad Mini or P's iPhone to get a picture of any interesting aerial visitors. I missed the Hummingbird Hawk moth earlier in the week, but above is that marvellous Autumn visitor, the Red Admiral, and below, a veteran Painted Lady and a nice dragonfly. It is interesting that in all three cases, these insects took a very conservative view of their opportunities in our garden and the surrounding neighbourhood. The Red Admiral kept to a buddleia, the Painted Lady to Michaelmas daisies and the dragonfly to our garden furniture.
I heard the inevitable media doom extract on the radio the other morning about a drop in the numbers of some butterflies, including the Red Admiral. They added, but did not emphasise, that last year was a bumper one for such species. So it was (yet another) non-story; a matter for record but not for gloom.
1 comment:
I think your dragonfly might be a common darter https://british-dragonflies.org.uk/content/dragonfly-and-damselfly-identification-help
(I'm trying to improve on my dragonflies but they are difficult!)
Post a Comment