Elephants in the Garden

One of the unfortunate features of this year is that the daily number of species of moths in the garden is less than the number of birds which for June particularly is pretty shocking. 21 species of moth today and 26 species of birds HERE . Clear night skies and a persistent North-easterly wind is putting the knackers on things.  

However year list wise the comparative entomological species richness is playing out with 127 species of moths and only 56 species of bird HERE . Even though the abundance of moths is extremely low this year (apart from Treble Lines) with just ones and twos of most species there seems to be a pretty steady increase in the year list with new species appearing every night. In the last couple of days the first Elephant, Small Elephant and Privet Hawkmoths have appeared in single figures. 

The Spotted Flycatcher was around the garden again this morning and by the looks of it the Rooks have fledged and left the garden. Finally there is a Blackcap singing from the Sheep Field this morning. 

Stock Dove- at least one territory in the garden 

That distinctive Spot Fly silhouette- giving a tick call this morning like a softer thinner slightly modulated sylvia tick

Small Elephant Hawkmoth 

Elephant, Privet and Poplar Hawkmoth 

One of the Treble Bars- I forgot to check the shape of the abdomen tip

Burnished Brass- NFY

Red Twin-spot Carpet

Another interesting Treble Lines- a melanic one shown here next to a contrasting pale one. Still the most abundant moth at the moment and by the sounds of it the only moth species doing particularly well this year 

It's been really bad for micro-moths so nice to finally get a Common Marble this year

Not sure if this is a Red Piercer or some kind of bactra etc? 

White Point- NFY

Small Square Spot - NFY

A couple of mystery deaths in the mini-zoo this week. This Red-clawed Crab with not visible signs of disease or damage and also our treasured Common Pleco mysteriously died. I checked the water parameters and the chlorine was higher than usual so I treated it with Tap Safe and did a 80% water change and cleaned out the filters well so fingers crossed we won't get any more mid summer murders. 

Even the mini-farm is in low gear with slow growth rates. We are on Day Eleven now for the geese eggs- started misting and cooling them daily now and keeping the incubation parameters at 37.5 C and humidity between 50 and 60%. I'll candle them later to see if things are going to plan.