AnnMarie's Blog

The last few days have caused some interest. An old friend kindly pointed out this site. Being interested in nature & thinking this an excellent project for Tamsin, we set out on our garden moth survey. Unfortunately the nights were not ideal being rather blustery & wet. We were luckier with the days & were able to identify 4 of the moths that we have and the survey was interested in; including Humming Bird Hawk Moths as pictured below.

Since returning our results for the Survey we’ve seen 2 more moths that they were interested in. Maybe next year we’ll be a bit more organised and set up a moth lamp to help our observations.

Another bit of interest was caused when Jane found a Glow Worm, as below.

The glow worm is actually a beetle. The females, which this one is, display a bright green light from their last three sections, in order to attract the winged males as mates. The glow really is quite bright when seen in dark surroundings. The picture used a little soft torch light to fill in details, otherwise you’d just see a bright green spot

The last few days have caused some interest. An old friend kindly pointed out this site. Being interested in nature & thinking this an excellent project for Tamsin, we set out on our garden moth survey. Unfortunately the nights were not ideal being rather blustery & wet. We were luckier with the days & were able to identify 4 of the moths that we have and the survey was interested in; including Humming Bird Hawk Moths as pictured below.

Since returning our results for the Survey we’ve seen 2 more moths that they were interested in. Maybe next year we’ll be a bit more organised and set up a moth lamp to help our observations.

Another bit of interest was caused when Jane found a Glow Worm, as below.

The glow worm is actually a beetle. The females, which this one is, display a bright green light from their last three sections, in order to attract the winged males as mates. The glow really is quite bright when seen in dark surroundings. The picture used a little soft torch light to fill in details, otherwise you’d just see a bright green spot

The last few days have caused some interest. An old friend kindly pointed out this site. Being interested in nature & thinking this an excellent project for Tamsin, we set out on our garden moth survey. Unfortunately the nights were not ideal being rather blustery & wet. We were luckier with the days & were able to identify 4 of the moths that we have and the survey was interested in; including Humming Bird Hawk Moths as pictured below.

Since returning our results for the Survey we’ve seen 2 more moths that they were interested in. Maybe next year we’ll be a bit more organised and set up a moth lamp to help our observations.

Another bit of interest was caused when Jane found a Glow Worm, as below.

The glow worm is actually a beetle. The females, which this one is, display a bright green light from their last three sections, in order to attract the winged males as mates. The glow really is quite bright when seen in dark surroundings. The picture used a little soft torch light to fill in details, otherwise you’d just see a bright green spot

The last few days have caused some interest. An old friend kindly pointed out this site. Being interested in nature & thinking this an excellent project for Tamsin, we set out on our garden moth survey. Unfortunately the nights were not ideal being rather blustery & wet. We were luckier with the days & were able to identify 4 of the moths that we have and the survey was interested in; including Humming Bird Hawk Moths as pictured below.

Since returning our results for the Survey we’ve seen 2 more moths that they were interested in. Maybe next year we’ll be a bit more organised and set up a moth lamp to help our observations.

Another bit of interest was caused when Jane found a Glow Worm, as below.

The glow worm is actually a beetle. The females, which this one is, display a bright green light from their last three sections, in order to attract the winged males as mates. The glow really is quite bright when seen in dark surroundings. The picture used a little soft torch light to fill in details, otherwise you’d just see a bright green spot

The last few days have caused some interest. An old friend kindly pointed out this site. Being interested in nature & thinking this an excellent project for Tamsin, we set out on our garden moth survey. Unfortunately the nights were not ideal being rather blustery & wet. We were luckier with the days & were able to identify 4 of the moths that we have and the survey was interested in; including Humming Bird Hawk Moths as pictured below.

Since returning our results for the Survey we’ve seen 2 more moths that they were interested in. Maybe next year we’ll be a bit more organised and set up a moth lamp to help our observations.

Another bit of interest was caused when Jane found a Glow Worm, as below.

The glow worm is actually a beetle. The females, which this one is, display a bright green light from their last three sections, in order to attract the winged males as mates. The glow really is quite bright when seen in dark surroundings. The picture used a little soft torch light to fill in details, otherwise you’d just see a bright green spot

The last few days have caused some interest. An old friend kindly pointed out this site. Being interested in nature & thinking this an excellent project for Tamsin, we set out on our garden moth survey. Unfortunately the nights were not ideal being rather blustery & wet. We were luckier with the days & were able to identify 4 of the moths that we have and the survey was interested in; including Humming Bird Hawk Moths as pictured below.

Since returning our results for the Survey we’ve seen 2 more moths that they were interested in. Maybe next year we’ll be a bit more organised and set up a moth lamp to help our observations.

Another bit of interest was caused when Jane found a Glow Worm, as below.

The glow worm is actually a beetle. The females, which this one is, display a bright green light from their last three sections, in order to attract the winged males as mates. The glow really is quite bright when seen in dark surroundings. The picture used a little soft torch light to fill in details, otherwise you’d just see a bright green spot

The last few days have caused some interest. An old friend kindly pointed out this site. Being interested in nature & thinking this an excellent project for Tamsin, we set out on our garden moth survey. Unfortunately the nights were not ideal being rather blustery & wet. We were luckier with the days & were able to identify 4 of the moths that we have and the survey was interested in; including Humming Bird Hawk Moths as pictured below.

Since returning our results for the Survey we’ve seen 2 more moths that they were interested in. Maybe next year we’ll be a bit more organised and set up a moth lamp to help our observations.

Another bit of interest was caused when Jane found a Glow Worm, as below.

The glow worm is actually a beetle. The females, which this one is, display a bright green light from their last three sections, in order to attract the winged males as mates. The glow really is quite bright when seen in dark surroundings. The picture used a little soft torch light to fill in details, otherwise you’d just see a bright green spot

The last few days have caused some interest. An old friend kindly pointed out this site. Being interested in nature & thinking this an excellent project for Tamsin, we set out on our garden moth survey. Unfortunately the nights were not ideal being rather blustery & wet. We were luckier with the days & were able to identify 4 of the moths that we have and the survey was interested in; including Humming Bird Hawk Moths as pictured below.

Since returning our results for the Survey we’ve seen 2 more moths that they were interested in. Maybe next year we’ll be a bit more organised and set up a moth lamp to help our observations.

Another bit of interest was caused when Jane found a Glow Worm, as below.

The glow worm is actually a beetle. The females, which this one is, display a bright green light from their last three sections, in order to attract the winged males as mates. The glow really is quite bright when seen in dark surroundings. The picture used a little soft torch light to fill in details, otherwise you’d just see a bright green spot

The last few days have caused some interest. An old friend kindly pointed out this site. Being interested in nature & thinking this an excellent project for Tamsin, we set out on our garden moth survey. Unfortunately the nights were not ideal being rather blustery & wet. We were luckier with the days & were able to identify 4 of the moths that we have and the survey was interested in; including Humming Bird Hawk Moths as pictured below.

Since returning our results for the Survey we’ve seen 2 more moths that they were interested in. Maybe next year we’ll be a bit more organised and set up a moth lamp to help our observations.

Another bit of interest was caused when Jane found a Glow Worm, as below.

The glow worm is actually a beetle. The females, which this one is, display a bright green light from their last three sections, in order to attract the winged males as mates. The glow really is quite bright when seen in dark surroundings. The picture used a little soft torch light to fill in details, otherwise you’d just see a bright green spot

We have been watching the woodpecker family on & off, for the last few days. The male appears to be doing much of the work with their juvenile, who has gradually been coaxed out of the tree and down to our feeding station. This evening, a fairly dull wet one, the male was collecting food and passing it to the juvenile; who was sat watching, a mere metre or so away.

 

 

The young one accepts some food from Dad, as above, then waits & watches while his parent fetches some more.

 

 

For those of you who aren’t aware, the male Great Spotted Woodpecker has red feathers in the nape of his neck, the juvenile has a red cap and the female has no red marking on her head & neck.

After some time it looked like the young one wasn’t too impressed with the rain, so off they both flew.

 

 

I am not sure whether or not the female still has another chick in the nest, because she seems very reluctant to come to feed.

Well this seems like a suitable first post. Over the last few days we’ve been hoping for clear skies tonight. Why? Because a lunar eclipse was due to occur. This is when the earth passes between the sun & the moon. They don’t happen at every full moon because the moon’s orbit is tilted and so a perfect alignment only occurs every couple of years or so.

This evening was looking like being a cloudy let down but we hoped for clearer conditions and they duly arrived.

10-27pm 3^rd March

Gradually the shadow of the earth crept up over the moon, as the picture above shows.

As time went on we were dogged by clouds but we all sat outside and persevered. 11-21pm was the time that totality was predicted for, but there’s some leeway with lunar eclipses and our patience was rewarded by the following beautiful clear view.

11-34pm 3^rd March

As you can see, the shadow cast by Earth creates a red hue over the whole moon, which is now very much darker than normal. Those of you with sharp eyes will have noticed two stars next to the moon. Both are in the constellation of Leo, the brighter one being cLeo Magnitude 5 @ 150 light-years and the other is 56Leo Magnitude 5.93 @ 325 light-years.

As with all things, time marches on and as the eclipse passes, the earth’s shadow drifts off the moon, as shown below:

12-50am 4^th March

And so an evening of fun came to a close. I think Tamsin will need a sleep in tomorrow morning J