Wildlife April 2010

[Anthony Darby]

Oak Beauty moth (Biston strataria) outside my back door yesterday. It is a relative of the Peppered moth used to demonstrate natural selection.

[Stephenb]

Capercaillie 1-0:

http://www.fvn.no/lokalt/article753550.ece

Run the video and use Google Translate to make some sense of the Norwegian

[Ragged Robin]

5.30 and hardly dusk when I watched a bat on a circuit above against a clear sky - it was riveting!

[Maggi Young]

What a "catch", Robin.... well done!

[alpines]

 Our local butterfly, The Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus) feeding?? on ground cedar (Lycopdium flabelliforme)

[Anthony Darby]

A beautiful butterfly. It's just resting. You can see the proboscis is not uncoiled. These butterflies are nectar feeders and club mosses won't have nectar, or even flowers for that matter.

[alpines]

Thanks Anthony. I thought as much, that's why I put the ?? after feeding. There really is nothing to feed off on the cedar.

[Anthony Darby]

I thought as much. At school we use Lycopodium spores in our "custard powder" explosion tins. It is poured into a glass thistle funnel inside a genuine custard powder tin. This is connected to a rubber tube with a squeezable bulb and a one way valve. A candle is lit inside the tin and the lid firmly pushed down on the tin. It quick squeeze of the "bulb" and the the lid explodes off as the powder ignites. We use it to demonstrate the energy content of carbohydrate.

[Anthony Darby]

A friend sent me this pic of a moth reared on Eucalyptus gunnii. It is Actias isis from Sulawesi in Indonesia.

[Lesley Cox]

What a gorgeous thing. Brown leotard and yellow shoes over the wonderful multi-coloured cape. Wonder what the ballet is?

[Ragged Robin]

A chilly but warm in the sun day brought out the first Orange Tip and Swallowtail looking for wild flowers.  Even this Lizard (Zootoca vivipara) thought it was warm enough to sunbathe on a stone wall!

[Roma]

On Monday I managed to 'capture' this peacock butterfly on Prunus incisa 'Kojo-no-mai'.  My husband tells me he has released 4 recently from his shed when they were trying to get out through the window.

[Anthony Darby]

That's excellent news. Sheds are favourite places for peacocks and tortoiseshells to hibernate Roma. Many succumb to a slow death at this time of year as sheds get overlooked by the armchair gardeners.

[Lesley Cox]

One I truly wish our early or later settlers had brought with them. Lovely to see it Roma. I hope that you have at least 4, means a good breeding season for them.

[Anthony Darby]

Peacocks are a real Scottish success story. Less than twenty years ago I would have had to go to the coast to see one, and even there they were rare. Now they are the commonest late summer butterfly in my garden.