Hoovering up

 

Things have been busier in recent weeks than they will have seemed from my inefficiency at updating this blog. Although Autumn is quieter in terms of numbers and has a predominance of darker and relatively small moths, there are also bright or interestingly-patterned visitors in the mix. I was glad for instance to have a Pine Carpet call - on the right in the top row above, after an Autumnal Rustic in its Confederate grey uniform and a Willow Beauty which was tucked into the rim of the black plastic bowl.

It was also good to have a Blair's Shoulder-knot, left in the middle row followed by a Garden Rose Tortrix micro and a Deep-brown Dart. In the bottom row we have a faded Carpet, perhaps another Pine one, a handsome Large Ranunculus and a Green-brindled Crescent, a lovely moth with striking patches of iridescent green wing scales.

My second composite has a Beaded Chestnut with a browny Lunar Underwing, a Common Marbled Carpet, a Centre-barred Sallow, a Burnished Brass, Silver Y, Angle Shades, Black Rustic, Snout and a second Lunar Underwing, this time dark and light grey. 

Meanwhile, on a morning in the park with our youngest grandchild we found that he and the Comma Butterfly have something in common - blackberries. Both were also entirely distracted by this wonderful, free contribution to the national diet so it was easy to get a good photo of the butterfly and to persuade the grandchild to have something healthy to eat.

I occasionally include pictures here of 'Moths Where They Shouldn't Be', a category invented by my granddaughter in herb entomological notebook which records moths on people's heads or perched on a slice of toast and the like. Here is an example from the Oxford Arboretum at Nuneham Courteney, always an interesting place to visit: an intrepid but unwise explorer of the noticeboard about the old field trip caravan belonging to General Pitt Rivers, he of the famed museum in the city. Alas, it got stuck and has remained there mummified since, like one of the museum's many curious items.