wildlife

[annew]

Huh?

[Jonny_SE]

Nice with a helping "Hand" in my benches....A bit Cold for it this morning but i warmed it up in my hand. And a little time in a sunny spot it was fit for fighting the slugs again :-)

[Matt T]

Can anyone help me ID this moth, seen at Hartlepool today on grassland near the sea? The poor wee thing's a bit tatty. It was quite large, about the size of a Common Blue butterfly.

I think it's a lattice heath moth, Anne.

[Peter Maguire]

Huh?

Anne,
This may help resolve your confusion.....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkey_hanger

[David Nicholson]

 

[annew]

That's a bit gruesome. Anyway, it definitely wasn't a monkey. Matt, that was one of my contenders - thanks for confirming my suspicions.

[Roma]

A few butterflies in the garden today
Speckled Wood
Small Tortoiseshell
I also saw 2 or 3 Silver Y moths

[Peter Maguire]

It seems to have been a good year for Speckled Wood butterflies. We've had a few in the garden for the first time, although I understand that they breed at a local nature reserve, about 2 miles away as the butter-flies. 

[Anthony Darby]

The pale markings on the northern Scottish race of the speckled wood are very pale compared with those from the Scottish Borders southwards. In continental Europe these spots can be quite orange.

[annew]

A speckled wood flew past my window through the pouring rain yesterday - brave little chap.

[TC]

We watched this Basking from Maidens harbour yesterday.  It was about 100 metres off-shore and moving up and down a regular beat hovering up plankton.
Not the easiest thing to photograph as waiting for the nose, dorsal fin and tail fin to be in view at the same time takes patience and concentration.  A couple of canoeists came up to it but it ignored them and went on with it's business.  I would estimate it at about 8 metres long......I have now gone metric !!!

These sharks used to be very common in the Clyde 50 years ago.  Brodick bay was a favourite location.  I hired a rowing boat in Brodick to go out for a look at one.
As I was facing the wrong way to see forward, Cindy guided me out towards it.  I remember she said, I think we are near enough.  When I turned the boat round I saw we were about 5 metres from it as it lay on the surface.  It was about 3 times larger than our rowing boat.  Quick decision....back off immediately. If it hit us we would have overturned so we moved off and left it in piece.  In those days the word shark was enough to put the frighteners on you.

I can also remember seeing a Norwegian shark hunting vessel, complete with harpoon gun, in Loch Eriboll, in the late 60's.

More recently we had a local fisherman in Dunure who hunted the sharks in Clyde waters.  Eventually he gave up because they disappeared.  Cause and effect ?

Thankfully we now live in more enlightened times and the sighting of a Basking Shark brings people to watch it and enjoy the sight of a whale sized fish gently swimming up and down on the surface bothering and threatening no one.

[brianw]

Interesting short bit in today’s Daily Telegraph Nature notes about Blue Tits and Great Tits (Chickadees in US ;-) laying eggs in one another’s nests and raising young etc. and song recognition by the young. Much more detail in the original paper here

http://www.researchgate.net/publication/279931532_Facultative_interspecific_brood_parasitism_in_tits_a_last_resort_to_coping_with_nest-hole_shortage

You can read it round the sign-in box if you need to. Not read it all yet.

[Tristan_He]

The pale markings on the northern Scottish race of the speckled wood are very pale compared with those from the Scottish Borders southwards. In continental Europe these spots can be quite orange.

Hi Anthony, yes they are different subspecies.  See http://www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/species.php?species=aegeria


Attached a photo of a speckled wood from the Sierra Nevada, S Spain. Almost like a wall brown.

[Anthony Darby]

A few of the Scottish butterflies have their own subspecies in north and north west Scotland.

[Maggi Young]

Brought to my attention by Alan Grainger - 42 butterflies of North America....
http://tabletopwhale.com/img/posts/08-27-14.gif- images enlarge well.