The Backward Birder

Holly Blue on Gorse.

Fresh juvenile {yellow gape, still}, Chiffchaff on the top of the tor {??}

Buzzard on the breeze.

Lined Froghopper on me.

Rippon Tor with the Folks was lovely that pm. We ambled up, enjoyed the view and afternoonses.
😄
Cue some wildlife pics!
🦉🦋🐞

It's only a Grey Heron... Bugger. Came in from Lyme Bay, and angled north along the coast.

Oh yes, you all want birds, don't you?
🤔
Most interesting bird at the Nose was this heron, which was watched by a fellow Irregular and myself come in/off.
Looked rather keel-y, and for a few seconds there was hope.

I photo'd it anyway as it came by. Here you go;
🦉

Autumn Lady's Tresses. Big fan of these! From the garden of someone with too much money and not enough restraint with the mower, alas, so they're unlikely to be seen for long... {None found on the Nose, which is very parched.}

Jersey Tiger! Feeding upside-down on a Buddleia, so flash employed to defeat the sky {Ha! Take that, sunlight!}

Weekend.
Hit the Patch, t'Moor, even did some seawatching.!

From the first, we have a couple of reasons why your Patch should be walkable from Home*;

{* I have Opinions on this. Your local Patch should be just that.**}
{** Hey, what's social media for if not howling your madness to the void?!?🙃}

Body looks pretty adult, but the pale pterostigma show she's still immature.

From the front; most obstructions {pesky grasses}, but best angle, I think.

I kept circling, but just couldn't get a clear view...

...no matter where I tried.

A different challenge was posed by this lovely immature female Black Darter, hiding in long grass near a valley mire;
🐉🦟

Red Grouse. One of a small covey, who made the mistake of loitering on a path. 'Somewhere on Dartmoor'

Feather from said path. Hmm, wonder what species this is from??

Hobby! Also 'Somewhere on Dartmoor', came blazing by not long after I'd met the famous ones. :D

Wheatears are lovely; star birds. But Bird of the Day?
🤔

They weren't even second...
😁
I have proof.
🦉
Ok, moderately awful flight shots, but you try grabbing a camera out of your pocket, turning it on, and even hitting such fast-movers as these;

Wheatear onna rock. Uncropped. Much less showy, this one.

Wheatear under a rock!

Wheatear on a bunch of rocks!

While we're at it; a few more, slightly more bashful Wheatears.

Because there is no such thing as too many Wheatears!
😆
🦉

Shameless clickbait! Juvenile Wheatears are sometimes very unafraid of you, and if you sit quietly, they'll come right up and say "Got any sammiches?"

Went for an amble up on t'Moor on Sunday. Covered a few ks, saw a few things.

Yes, there will be birds.

In fact, yes, here is bird;
🦉

Common Marbled Carpet, with a bonus micro! I think it's Delplanqueia dilutella

Common Marbled Carpet. Lots of variation in many carpet spp.

Common Marbled Carpet. Not a great pic, but even more variation.

Common Marbled Carpet. Another poor photo - I tried for better but it wasn't having it - but this is indeed a very dark individual.

3/
Though in the past they've been frequent, so far this year I've only seen one Dark Marbled Carpet. Common Marbled Carpet has been, well, more so!
Marbles are very variable, and telling them apart isn't always easy.
🦋

Garden Carpet on brick. Nice contrast!

Garden Carpet on window.

2/
Garden Carpet is one of my two historically 'common ones' - the other being Dark Marbled Carpet - and I have had a half dozen of them so far this year. As a couple have posed quite nicely, they deserve a post of their own!
🦋

Pretty Chalk Carpet. And it is.

Yellow-barred Brindle. This took me a while to work out. They start off green - and without the flash it looked a lot greener, especially the paler bits in the dark bar - and turn yellow.

It's Carpet day today!
😆
Thread of the - comparatively few in number this year, though with 2 new species - carpets that have cropped up so far.

Carpets seem to fly low, these have all come to building lights as opposed to my balcony light; never had one up here.

1/ Two new ones!
🦋

Early Thorn, 2nd gen.

Purple Thorn

Early Thorn, different individual; the flash picked out the markings in an insect which looked very Lunar to the naked eye.!

Back to the moths!
😱
A flurry of thorns {ouch} a couple of weeks back, coming to our lights;
🦋

Meadow Brown? Nope! Gatekeeper hiding one of its two white dots in the black eyespot. Sneaky...

Another Gatekeeper, this time posing in the way I'd like more butterflies to! Note double white dots in forewing eyespots.

Field Grasshopper. This is sat on my bumbleshoot, which I'd put down to shoot the first Gatekeeper!

'Merlin'!! Though that silhouette looks more like a Kestrel to me... Passing the Nose during a lull in bird passage, so I had to. {I'll always try to photo a Merlin :D }

Also from Sunday. When sunshine stopped play, I wandered back up in company with @shiphaybirder.bsky.social, {who'd been watching from the Point} and while nothing feathered caught the eye, there were a few insects about
😇

🦋🦗

{Plus a bonus, er, 'bird' 🙃}

Not exactly promising seawatching weather...

Getting rained on hard.. Woohoo!! {Seawatchers see the world differently from normies ;) }

Just had a Cory's. {Ok, ok, more likely THE Cory's had circled back for the first time.}

Couple of pics from yesterday's fun at the Nose.

Weather was... changeable. 🙃

🌊🔭

Light Emerald, annual Here with usually several seen over the flight season.

And here's the more usually-seen {by me, at least} Light Emerald, for comparison;
🦋

Actual bird news?!? 😮
3hrs seawatching from the Nose early morning gave ~ 190 Manx and 9 Balearic but only 15 Gannets & Kitts, per hour.
3 views of Cory's was probably 1 bird circulating north Bay/near Lyme area as not seen by the BH watchers 😔
Also 1 Sooty {& 1 probable Stormy}, but no Risso's 🥺
🦉

Common Emerald. Well-worn, with the chequered trailing edges almost entirely gone - just a touch on right hindwing, if you look closely - so ID took some pondering.

Same, with wings held up.

Small Emerald. Less than annual here; we mostly get Light Emerald.

No, not a carpet, this is V-Pug!

Green moths in this post.
Two new species for Here, too 😁

We have Common Emerald {new!}, Small Emerald {infrequent}, and V-Pug {new}.
V-Pug second gen {which this is} are VERY big for a pug, and I thought it was one of the green carpets when I saw it..
🤭
🦋

Swallow-tailed Moth, with intact tails!

Brimstone Moth, with mite!

Same moth. As you can see, it has two mites hitching a ride.

Big yellow things this time.
😄
Swallow-tailed Moth and a Brimstone Moth with passengers
😐
🦋

This one... Oh, this one.

It's a tiny moth. Tiny. And yet it clearly not just thinks but KNOWS it could chin you...

The camera shake is from fear at my proximty to this fearsome creature.

And yes, they are even sparkly at night..!

And more, as I am scared they'll come looking for me if I leave them out...
😰

🤨🦋

Chrysoteuchia culmella, maybe.

Maybe the same?

Ditto?

Could be Agriphila geniculea {plain with two chevrons}?

Said rush veneers of the Crambidae.

They're small, they're light brown with maybe a white streak or something, and they're right buggers to ID.

But they do give you the eye like nothing else...!
🤨
🦋

Box Tree Moth. Despite being the size of a large butterfly, this is a micro-moth. Yep.

Box Tree Moth also comes in a Dark Morph....

Light morph sat on a window hit with a flash, showing how translucent the white sections of the wings are.

Dark morph has a wonderful purple metallic sheen

Time for another moth!

Also an immigrant, arriving with and to the woe of all those Box Trees that People Of A Certain Gardening Persuasion like to hedge with.. 😆

{Yes, this is a micro, being a member of the Crambidae, like all those tan Rush-veneers.}

I speak of the dreaded Box Tree Moth!
😱
🦋

Evergestis limbata. 'Dark-bordered Pearl', I think? My book doesn't really do common names... Lovely little moth.

Paignton Snout. Finally got a half-sharp photo of one!

Couple of rarer ones;
Evergestis limbata on the 11th, and Paignton Snout on the 15th.

I get P-Snout now and again {watching out for worn/odd Bloxworths}, but EL is a new one for me 😁
🦋

Magpie Moth. A lot bigger and paler, with more {smashing Jaffa} orangey bits!

Small Magpie. Much less orange.

More moths; meet Magpies.

{Yes, I am pleased with that 😛}

Small Magpie is annual here, but the bigger version is new!
🦋

'Buff Arches' they call it... What the actual? Satin Beauty, perhaps, or Marbled Wonder, maybe!

'Tis a chunky moff, and no mistake! Though still able to hold onto glass.

A different one, with wings at half mast.

And with wings folded, like you see in the books. These pics don't do them justice, btw. Everything is either translucent, pearlescent, or metallic. Quite possibly the most beautiful insect I've ever laid eyes on. Even though you could say it's mostly shades of brown and grey.

He doubles down on the 'who cares what I called this thing?', with the first of many {oh yes 😈} posts on...

{Oh, the suspense}

...moths!
Mua-ha-ha-ha-ha!! 🤪

Ahem.

Behold a new one for here, which has come to my balcony light {no space for a moth trap} up to 3 at a time;

Buff Arches
🦋 😍

So very very very cute!

Keeled Skimmer, male.

Once I was up, it was lovely, though for some reason not a soul joined me..?!? 🤔

I wasn't exactly alone, though.
🦉
Yep, juvie Wheatear!!
😍
There's no escape from insects, though. Here's one from lower down
🐉🦟

A400M, passing by at eye level!! Observe the head-up, tail-dragging flight; not unlike a Tystie.!

Zoom in a bit.

"Mind that wind turbine..."

So I was already out and I figured, why not make the most of it? I went up a Tor on the edge of the Moor, found a nice spot, did some skywatching.

Well, it seems it was too hot for soaring birds {😲🙄}. The only thing of note passing by was this;

Ovipositing

Itchy eye!

Southern Damselfly female and male in tandem.

The female is doing all the work, here. Not just ovipositing, but holding the male up, too. Male "Oh, I'm making sure nobody bothers my beloved while she's at such an important task"

More Southern Damselfly goodness!
🐉🦟

Southern Damselfly, male. Showing variation in abdomenal markings; spearheads more like javelins and 'Crown paint' crown more like, er, antennae?

Southern Damselfly pair in wheel position. Note difference in male's abdomen markings to other insect.

Southern Damselfly pair in tandem. Presumably post mating, pre-ovipositing.

Yesterday I defied the 🌞 to seek Southern Damselflies at a nameless {sorry} and unassuming-looking bit of Devon heathland.
🐉🦟
As you can see, I succeeded. One 10m stretch of runnel contained 8 pairs in tandem, plus 7 more males.
Definitely worth the heat! 😀

Viper's Bugloss on the Slapton shingle ridge

Common Blackclock

Dock Bug

Melanogaster sp. hoverfly

One last post from the Big Bug Day Out.

At Slapton, we have beetle, bug, fly, and flower.
Oh, what a treat!
😇
🐞🦟🌼

Purple Hairstreak with Median Wasp {Inverted '7's on thorax}

Speckled Wood, actually in a tree for once.

Syrphid hoverfly sp. Female. Nothing rare, anyways.

Another Purple Hairstreak, just 'cos I've got room.

And still more, because I took a lot of photos...
😁🐝🦋

Holly Blue

Woodland Ectemnius A fly-hunting digger wasp {burrows holes in dead wood}

Spot the wildlife! White-letter and Purple Hairstreaks, Andrena sp. bee, and a Philodromus sp. spider

Comma

The sheltered sunny bit was populated by more than a handful of hairstreaks, with an assortment of bees, wasps, flies, and other butterflies zipping about being distracting...
🙃🦋🐝🕷️🦟