September 2008

[bugmadmark]

Thanks Susie - will do. Jack was asking this morning if anyone had looked at his first photos uploaded. I was keen to assess also how ive done with the cropping and particuarly the sharpening of his images. After playing around for a few minutes with the various sliders in photoshop CS I just setted for the highest amount of sharpening I could get away with without seeing any noise in the general picture. Probably not the best way to go - but after a time I found my eyes playing tricks on me and i couldn't decide which looked better! I've asked another question in the photo forum on this topic as there are some fanatastic images on here that have had some post capture processing done on them. I'll have a go on my images tonight and see if any are worth uploading! BW, Mark.

[m_galathea]

Found some lovely Buff-tip larvae today in my local woods (Binsted). I also found some elm, both here and in Rewell Wood so I shall check for WLH eggs and adults later in the year. Bad news too unfortunately, along a bridleway (old scotland lane) the local council have churned up the previously dry parts and surfaced over the wet sections. It looks more like a road now and I would imagine very little of the damp woodland flora will be left, but only time will tell.

Alexander

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[Susie]

Buff tips are great little moths.

A good few hours spend at Cissbury Ring, West Sussex, today. The weather was a bit overcast but when the sun shone it was worth it. Lots of whites and meadow browns, a good few dozen small coppers, half dozen small heath, two male common blue, one female common blue and a couple of brown argus. Add an Adonis blue male to that too.

Autumnal Copper.

[bugmadmark]

Here are my first contributions. ALthough I have files in RAW CR2 I chose to edit from the JPEGS created at the same time as I simply have no idea where to begin with Canons Digital Photo Professional software yet! Hope these come out ok as I spent time messing around using Aperture and Shutter speed priority to get these then played with unsharp mask. I think the greater the image is cropped the more accentuated the sharpening appears to be - or maybe that's my imagination. The Manfrotto monopod was so needed - but I didnt get on so well with the head 234RC as it didn't let me turn the camera into portrait mode. Mark.

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Tortoiseshell Bee USM 30pct 4pxl.jpg (240.16 KiB) Viewed 1466 times

Comma cropped USM 60 4 pxl 600pxl.jpg (251.81 KiB) Viewed 1464 times

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[eccles]

A couple of winter commas spotted feeding off fallen apples today plus one or two worn speckled wood. Lots of urgency amongst the local common darter dragonflies. They must sense the shortening days with the equinox now past.

[Jack Harrison]

They must sense the shortening days with the equinox now past.

The days were shortening long before the equinox. The media every autumn uses phrases such as "now the nights are drawing in". The summer solstice in 2008, when daylight was longest, occurred 21 June so the days began shorten from that date.

Sunset at eg 52 degrees north was at its latest on 25th June (not precisely on the longest day due ellipticity of Earth's orbit) so the evenings pulled in after that date. Again, due to elliptical orbit, although the winter solstice (shortest day) in 2008 is on 21st December, the earliest sunset at 52 degrees north is about a week earlier on 13th.

Jack

[m_galathea]

Quite right Jack. But the nights are drawing in at their fastest around the equinox, which is of course what Common Darters know all about.

[Jack Harrison]

But the nights are drawing in at their fastest around the equinox

I'm off to bed now and will check that in the morning. It would be true but for the ellipticity to which I referred earlier. (Technical astronomical term - Equation of Time). I have a feeling that the nights draw in at the quickest rate just before the equinox but as I say, I do need to check that out.

Meanwhile, I'll try to work it out in my head when I turn the light off. Good mental exercise and I doubt that I'll solve before falling asleep. I find that sort of mental challenge is very good for insomnia - far better than counting sheep.

Note to those who suspected that I am a bit odd. You are quite right (but I'm harmless)

Jack

[Bill S]

Hi folks

Popped to Bentley Wood on Sunday (21st) for walk and stumbled on an est. 50-100 freshly emerged Commas, fantastic weather that day and a fantastic sight.

Bill

[Jack Harrison]

I wrote earlier:

I have a feeling that the nights draw in at the quickest rate just before the equinox but as I say, I do need to check that out.

Not quite as I had thought. Investigation shows:
Nights draw in at a pretty much constant rate throughout September and first half of October.

Jack

[Annie]

The garden of the school where mother teaches was filled with Commas at the weekend, getting tipsy on the windfalls (mmmmm.... cider apple time.....)

[Shirley Roulston]

Jack, has the Harvest Moon got anything to do with the nights drawing in? that was 15th September, I've just looked it up on the internet and quote the harvest moon is about that harvest of emotions, an abundance of the heart. Well! its interesting anyway.

[Jack Harrison]

Shirley wrote:

Jack, has the Harvest Moon got anything to do with the nights drawing in?

Indirectly yes. The Full Moon at the time of the autumn equinox rises only some 25 minutes later each night (due to the Full Moon moving rapidly northwards in its orbit around that time). On AVERAGE the Moon rises about 50 minutes later each night, but this phenomenon around the equinox or rising only a little later each night has traditionally been used by farmers to enable them to complete their harvest under a virtually Full Moon for several days running.

I am quite sure there is a lot of folk lore about Harvest Moons, but I am sure that astronomical explanation is the best one. The next Full Moon a month later is called the "Hunter's Moon" so although the sequence of early moonrises is less pronounced than the month before, it does (did) allow hunting to continue under reasonable levels of illumination.

This page more-or-less confirms my explanation.

http://www.astronomy.net/articles/23/

Jack

[Susie]

Note to those who suspected that I am a bit odd. You are quite right (but I'm harmless)

Jack

I never believe anyone who says they are harmless, just like I don't believe a word anyone says who ends a sentence with the word "honest".

[Jack Harrison]

International Space Station. There's a very good opportunity over the next few evenings - weather forecasts are good - to see the ISS when we are in darkness and it is still in sunlight.

http://www.heavens-above.com/

Enter your own location.

I saw it again last evening and as usual waved to the astronauts

Jack

[Padfield]

I don't believe a word anyone says who ends a sentence with the word "honest".

Mmm... Reminds me of Epimenides the Cretan, who said all Cretans were liars!

Guy

[Padfield]

I've used Heavens Above for some years - fantastic site, especially for tracking comets.

Guy

[eccles]

I never believe anyone who says they are harmless, just like I don't believe a word anyone says who ends a sentence with the word "honest".

Or
"He won't bite you"

Getting back to the common darters, they were really going to town in the sunshine this morning in the local reserve. Two commas, a small white, a very tatty GV white, a red admiral, and two or three speckled woods were seen. A male southern hawker was also on patrol, hawking for prey.

[web4160]

Visited Chirk Castle, near Wrexham. Saw 20+ Commas. including 11 on a single flower bush. 10+ Red Admirals, 5 Speckled Woods, 3 Small Tortoiseshells, 2 Peacocks and a couple of unidentified Whites.

[Neil Hulme]

Hi all,
Although a lot of 'hibernators' are now 'hanging up' for the winter, there were still a few freshly emerged Comma on the Downs near Amberley today. All week I've been noticing butterflies disappearing into wood piles (left from habitat management work), outbuildings and fluttering around the eaves of houses. A couple of Red Admiral were nectaring on the ivy behind my house as I pulled into the drive. I performed a thorough Risk Assessment (very dangerous) and climbed onto the roof of my rickety garden shed to get a shot.
Neil

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Comma 2 Rackham.jpg (210.66 KiB) Viewed 1093 times

Red Admiral.jpg (242.77 KiB) Viewed 1094 times