The big guys

Hi and apologies again for the relative paucity of blog posts this season which does not mean that I've not been getting lots of moths. They are all familiar after ten years here but none the less lovely for that.

I can never resist the big hawkmoths and the largest commonly seen in the UK, the Privent, arrived on cue two nights ago. Hawks are always sleepy in the morning, even when daylight has been around for ages by the time I stagger out to check on things. So arranging them artistically is never a problem, unlike with the smaller, delicate moths which often flutter off as son as I open the lid.

There are so many moths around at the moment - July is there high season - that I am compositing them. Can you spot the butterfly? It's one which has taken me all my 72 years to meet, which is perhaps a clue.  A friend who records butterflies locally told me that she had been early to a local meadow by an oak wood and found five Black Hairstreaks nectaring on brambles. Like the infuriatingly elusive Purple Emperor butterfly, they spend far too long in the upper branches of oaks and are a lot smaller, so there's no chance of spotting them high up.

I went the next day and saw ten species of butterfly including a pair of White Admirals but was just giving up and going home for breakfast when I spotted two Black Hairstreaks on bramble, very close to local houses and a car park. My photos are far from being the world's best, but here are a couple; one with a helpful arrow and the other one bigger-sized.

You can see the distinctive line of black spots which are handy for distinguishing the butterfly from the common White-letter Hairstreak.  So, hooray!

More of my many moths now, and a closer peep below at one of them, the Drinker, whose handsome caterpillars which look as if they are wearing blue velvet like Little Lord Fauntleroy we found at school.  They climb to the top of long grass to drink the dew in the evening, giving the species its name. The moth huddles down  to rest but is a lot more purposeful when getting ready to fly.

My younger sister took this excellent photo of a Humming Bird Hawk moth in her garden, nectaring with its long proboscis. My similar efforts are usually blurs. We tend to get them every Summer but she's never seen one before  in Bradford, where she lives.

Finally, a couple of non-moths, a hedgehog scuttling about near long grass by our house and a shrew which I am sure has fallen victim to Mittens, our neighbours' otherwise very sweet cat. 

And we'll end with the Privet Hawk again, ready to take off after prolonged wake-up efforts by yours truly.