Friday 15 August 2008

A tough life

This moth interests me. It looks like the standard, shabby brown package, but those marks across its wings are not part of the original pattern. Life is tough for moths and this one has been in some sort of trouble - birdstrike possibly, or getting messed up in a spiky bush? I'm pretty sure that it's a Dusky Brocade, with the distinctive zigzags on its lower wing. There was another, unmarked, one in the trap overnight which I've posted in the smaller photo. The evil but friendly blackbird was an additional threat this cold morning, but it was a little deterred by an owl in a nearby tree and a pair of sparrowhawks which nest near us and are always making their weedy little squeaks. I was a deterrent too of course.
Here's the other one - good camouflage on the lichen. But my various theories about Peppered moths making for the eggbox barcodes (see far below) or the recent Common Footman enjoying the yellow and grey of another eggbox, had a setback this morning. An Angle Shades was perched in its crashland position right on top of a blue area of a third eggbox. It was as prominent as the Lesser Swallow Prominent dozing away nearby.

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