Linacre Insects

Whilst down at Linacre yesterday, I took the opportunity to take a few photos of the insect life there. Nothing new was noted, but what was there was cooperating, and I managed some nice shots.

Common Blue Damselflies were present again in good numbers, including several males and pairs "in tandem".

Common Blue Damselfly

Along with the Common Blue, I also recorded 3 Brown Hawkers and a single Migrant Hawker, but unfortunately, neither species would pose for a photo.

The sun came out while I was there, and so too did the butterflies. Gatekeepers were seen in good numbers (6+), as were Meadow Browns (5), while 1 Small Copper, 1 Comma, 4 Peacocks and 4 Green-veined Whites were also seen feeding around the site.

Gatekeeper

Comma

Green-veined White

As well as the butterflies, I also stumbled upon a couple of moth species; namely Large Yellow Underwing and a Copper Underwing species.

Large Yellow Underwing

Copper Underwing sp.

There are 2 species of Copper Underwing in Britain, but to confirm whether this is a Svennson's Copper Underwing, or just a "normal" Copper Underwing, you need to check the hindwing. Unfortunately, the moth flew off before I could check, so it'll have to go down as a Copper Underwing species.

Moths and a Sparrowhawk

Sorry, but it had to happen. Linacre blogger has started to look at moths. My darling wife agreed to get me a moth trap for Christmas. It arrived last week, and, after a few days of rain and wind, I managed to get it out in the garden at the weekend. I only had it out for an hour, but I managed to catch 2 species of moth, both of which were new for the garden (obviously!).

The first species was a Common Marbled Carpet. Here's a link to the UKMoths website. I know "my" moth doesn't look anything like the examples in the link, but they are apparently very variable!!

Common Marble Carpet

 

The second moth was another carpet species, this time a Red-green Carpet. Link here.

Red-green Carpet

 

Both species are classed as common in my moth book, so it'll be interesting to see how often they turn up in the trap.

These two species take my "garden list" (sorry, you knew it had to happen, another list!!) to 4 species when added to the Large Yellow Underwing and Silver Y that I saw during the summer. Two links again; LWU and Silver Y.

Large Yellow Underwing

Silver Y on the Buddleia

Finally, before everyone nods off, here's a picture of a Sparrowhawk that's taken to eating the Goldfinch in the garden.