rokermartin
Well-known member
Still a few butterflies in the garden today despite the cloudy conditions 3 Small Tort and several Large and Small Whites.
Hi Pete your right with the Grayling they never open there wings when resting.Did you try looking for the Purple Hairsteaks when you were at Kibblesworth.I saw 9+ the other day.double figures of small heaths, only one small skipper, 4 small tortoiseshells, one peacock, difficult to count whites at least 6 green veined, not sure about the rest. One grayling? see photo (it landed on me). also my second comma this year, this one looks very fresh. saw a couple of faded burnets but most seem to be gone now. lots of meadow browns about and a few ringlets.
Hi Ray i order a moth trap a couple of days ago just a cheap one.I should get it tomorrow.Cannot wait to try it out.Moths trapped in the garden last night.
Loads of dark arches barred straw, yellow underwings and small moths that I hav'nt ID'd yet.
Some that I've managed to ID attached.
Common rustic, marbled beauty, common wave, common white wave and orange swift.
Hi Pete your right with the Grayling they never open there wings when resting.Did you try looking for the Purple Hairsteaks when you were at Kibblesworth.I saw 9+ the other day.
Hi Ray the first one may be a Turnip Moth there colour varies a lot,and the second one looks like a Small Ermine.More from the garden last night.
Not sure on the first two.
3 - brimstone moth, 4 - Different marked orange swift, 5 - swallow prominent.
There are still a few WL Hairstreaks around.The Purple Hairstreaks were mainly flying around near the tops of the oak trees but i managed to get reasonable views of 3 lower down on the trees resting on the leaves.I did keep my eyes open for them but didn't know where best to look. did you see them at the tops of the trees? Do you know is it too late for white letter hairstreaks?
Hi Ray the first one may be a Turnip Moth there colour varies a lot,and the second one looks like a Small Ermine.
There are still a few WL Hairstreaks around.The Purple Hairstreaks were mainly flying around near the tops of the oak trees but i managed to get reasonable views of 3 lower down on the trees resting on the leaves.
Hi Pete the first one is a old female Black-tailed Skimmer, the darters look like Common and the last one looks like another Common Darter..Apparently Common Hawkers are quite scarce in the Gateshead area Southern Hawkers are the commonest.... as well as a mature female black tailed skimmer (I stand ready to be corrected here I am not confident with this one but I just thought it wasn't thin enough to be a black darter), what is likely to be a female common darter but had a bi of a tash so was wondering if it could be a vagrant darter (although the markings on the thorax do seem quite prominent) and finally a male southern hawker (I saw two of these fighting, the first one was very inquisitive) and an unknown I am unsure as to whether this is a female common darter (abdomen seems a little thick for this) or a female hawker of some kind (most likely southern, if there are already southern males present, although the small anti-humeral stripes suggest common hawker).
Hi Pete the first one is a old female Black-tailed Skimmer, the darters look like Common and the last one looks like another Common Darter..Apparently Common Hawkers are quite scarce in the Gateshead area Southern Hawkers are the commonest.
Hi Pete Vagrant Darter is a very rare migrant and most of them have been seen in southern England.That's great I've not seen a bt skimmer before, glad i got that one right, I'm not sure how to tell vagrant skimmers yet. The hawker was really nice to see, they seem very intelligent insects. I wonder how smart the giant ones were millions of years ago.