04 May - Filey Dams

I was at this excellent small reserve by 0600 and spent an hour looking in the bushes for insects. I found these mating micro moths and this mosquito was resting on the East Hide. Others were on sycamore trunks.



I took some arty images of sycamore leaves















and this Water horsetail (Equisetum fluviatile).

04 May - Scarborough sunrise

For the first time in a few weeks I have managed to get out for a sunrise and what a good one. I went to Scarborough harbour and was there by 0450 - it is tiring being a devoted landscape photographer! The problem with photographing landscapes in a harbour when the fishing boats are going out is the number of wheeling gulls. Whilst I spend lots of time watching them and marvelling at their amazing flying skills they are a nuisance to the landscape photographer. The advantage of sunrise is the slow shutter speeds that allow them to blur themselves out of the picture, however this becomes difficult as the landscape lightens and the sun appears. Then one either has to use them in the photo (See Gull flight in the North Yorkshire Coast gallery) or spend hours in Photoshop removing them.


See more photos from today in the North Yorkshire Coast gallery.

03 May - Muston moths

A red twin-spot carpet was a new moth for the year. There were 2 melanic common pugs and another cinnabar.

02 May - Muston

A walk at the back of my garden yielded some great views of the diptera and hoverflies. The Rhingia campestris were particularly prevalent.


On the nettles the weevil Phyllobius pomaceus was noticeable with this pair mating.

This red weevil (Apion frumentarion) was found on the underside of dock leaves which it had eaten to cause these holes.

02 May - Muston moths

A first for the garden - a pine beauty (Panolis flammea). There are no pines near my garden however it was in the trap this am. It inhabits coniferous woodland and gardens between March and May.

Other moths of note were the first twenty-plume moth (Alucita hexadactyla)

and the first purple thorn (Selenia tetralunaria) of the year as well as a waved umber (Menophra abruptaria). The purple thorn has two generations and this is the spring generation that is darker. From the image on the right you can see the dark spot on the upper hindwing behind the crescent that distinguishes it from the lunar thorn which has a similar resting posture to the purple thorn.

01 May - Muston moths

More rain overnight however the trap included the first white ermine (Spilosoma lubricipeda) of the year (see left) of which there were 2, and the first cinnabar (Tyria jacobaeae) of the year (See below).






Also there were fewer hebrew characters (4), common quakers 2, clouded drabs 2, and a single small quaker.

28 April - Muston moths

A streamer (Anticlea derivata) was in the trap along with 17 hebrew characters and 1 common quaker. Perhaps the wet weather is keeping most of the moths away.


This bluebottle (Calliphora vomitoria) was resting on a sycamore tree trunk warming up in the early morning.

26 April - Muston moths

A garden carpet (Xanthorrhoe fluctuata) was attracted by the moth trap and there was a dark form water carpet (Lampropteryx suffumata piceata) again.



Star of the show was a common pug (Eupithecia vulgata).

Tipula oleracea and a single Limonia flavipes demonstrating its characteristic bobbing up and down on a wall by the moth trap were the craneflies seen.

25 April - Muston

A beautiful spring day. I heard and saw my first cuckoo of the year in trees at the bottom of the garden. The honey bees were out in force and the number and species of hoverflies have increased, including this Rhingia campestris.








The first garden carpet (Xanthorrhoe fluctuata) of the year attended the moth trap and there was a dark form water carpet (Lampropteryx suffumata piceata).



This common damsel bug (Nabis rugosus) was a new species to my camera. It is a predator that lives in dry grasslands.

Drone fly (Eristalis pertinax).

24 April - Muston moths

A waved umber (Menophra abruptaria)








and another water carpet (Lampropteryx suffumata) were accompanied by 6 hebrew characters, 7 common quakers, 7 clouded drab, one early grey, a small quaker, a red chestnut, and a streamer.






See more moths and insects in the insect gallery.