Susie

[Paul Wetton]

My brother and his now wife hit a stag up in Scotland. It did the expected thing, stopped in the road looked at the car (Nissan Micra) and duly placed it's head and antlers through the windscreen between the pair of them.
My brother removed the almost dead animal from the car onto the side of the road and some guy with a pickup truck appeared, made sure it was dead popped it on the back of his truck and drove off, probably after checking they were ok. The stag wrote the car off and they were unharmed.
Seems you have to be cheeky daft and quick for this sort of malarchy.

[Gibster]

Well it's not quite a road kill story, but....

I used to spend a lot of time camping on The Scillies off of Cornwall. There are no foxes or mink there, but there are an awful lot of hedgehogs. The local council were a bit puzzled about what to do with all these hedgehogs. They wondered if they ought to control the numbers through culling, trapping and releasing on the mainland/other islands or just let them get on with it. One night the local radio station aired the topic and invited folks to call in with thoughts and suggestions. One guy, a known 'gypsy' who had moved to the islands years before, said he'd take them either alive or freshly dead, and cook em in the usual way (wrapped in clay and thrown onto a fire). The DJ had to ask, "so what exactly does hedgehog taste like?" The gypsy replied, "Well, don't ask me why coz I don't rightly know - but they taste exactly the same as cat"... and yep, that's another utterly true story folks!

Gibster.

[Susie]

Cat is supposed to taste like chicken I believe ...

A little update on my Emperor moths; they are all doing well. The largest is nearly double the size of the smallest but the smallest shed it's skin this morning so I hope it will continue to grow. There also seems to be two colour forms. Four have orange spots and black feet, one has yellow spots and pale feet and more of a black line down the centre of it's back.

The caterpillars all have names now; Augustus, Napoleon, Puyi, Akihito and the one with yellow spots is Victoria.

I'm off to enjoy another fabulous sunny day (possibly the last one for a while). I can't help wondering what this very hot spell will do to the pupating WA, SWF, and PE. IF they are in their last few days of development then I'll expect to see more aberrations this year. It has been really hot here lately, 26 degrees yesterday and it was still 21 degrees at 7.30 last night.

[Susie]

We were at a friend's farm on Saturday , there were loads of large skipper, small tortoiseshell, some meadow brown and a brimstone. It looks like good purple emperor and brown hairstreak habitat too.

Well I was wrong about the Emperors, there isn't another colour form, it's just a stage they go through.

I went to Marlpost woods today but it was cold, grey and damp. We saw a few meadow browns and that was it, apart from more deer and bunny rabbits.

[Susie]

The kids finally went back to school at lunchtime today (apart from my eldest who is doing her GCSEs) so I managed to get out and do a bit of butterflying this afternoon. I went to Southwater again today and what a contrast to yesterday. It was still pretty overcast but when the sun came out there were butterflies everywhere. Almost immediately I was greeted by a silver washed fritillary! and then a second! They were beautiful and absolutely perfect in every way - but very mobile. I love the way they glide. Meadow brown and speckled woods were everywhere. The sun went in and I didn't see anything for a while and then I spyed a flash of black and white up in the trees. It flew all around them, about 15 to 20 feet up, but not close enough to get a photo; it was my first white admiral of the year. Later on I found more silver washed fritillary, also four or five very fresh red admiral, a small tortoiseshell,a green veined white, and large skipper.

After picking the nippers up from school I went to another site and found another red admiral, more meadow brown and speckled wood but nothing else (oh, and a very nice brown hawker).

[Susie]

http://www.facebook.com/v/10150274006976972[/video]

[ChrisC]

very jealous sue. i'm also intrigued by the bee? Hoverfly? in the movie. looked a bit odd. with a bit of luck i'll be heading down that way myself in a couple of weeks.

Chris

[Michaeljf]

Hi Susie,
lovely photographs of the Silver-washed Fritillary, and also of the Emperor Moth caterpillars - they are so cute! Not sure about the names, but you are the daddy (or mummy)
Michael

[Neil Freeman]

Hi Susie,

I think the names of your Emperor cats suit them fine, all Emperors I believe....and one Empress.

Neil.

[Susie]

First prize goes to Neil!

Thanks, Michael. They are certainly my babies.

[Susie]

I did notice that the bee was one I didn't recognise at the time, and from watching the video slowed down I am not even sure now that it is a bee. I don't think it is a hoverfly though so am not sure what else it could be. Could be one for Stuart Roberts if I can't find out what it is from any other resource.

[Susie]

Okay, this may be mad ... but are there any bee mimic sawflies?

It's not a hoverfly as it has long antennae ... I think it has to be a bee but which one? The nearest I can find is shrill carder bee, which it can't be! Can it? No, not right for that, scrub that thought.

And a little bit of video from yesterday. I noticed something in the grass and pointed it out to my daughter, who was singularly unimpressed.

We must have caught it napping. Look out for the ears, it's what I always notice first.

http://www.facebook.com/v/10150274020136972[/video]

[Gibster]

Darnit...I was hoping for puma or definitive proof of sasquatch!!!

[Neil Freeman]

First prize goes to Neil!

Whooppeeee!!!!....I like prizes

[Susie]

I have an id for my bee! It's a bombus lucorum ... and the bit that caught me out ... MALE

They aren't normally on the wing until about August (and I have never seen one before anyway).

Nice page about them here http://www.bumblebee.org/terr.htm (actually it is a very useful site about bees generally - I am sure one or two of you would like to brush up on your ID skills).

[ChrisC]

bet you won't forget it now either bees and wasps i don't really do unless they look remarkably different. Mind you saying that i did try buying The bees of surrey but apparently the first print run flew off the selves (no pun intended ) my wasps of surrey is on it's way though

Chris

[Susie]

It was quite nice today when the sun came out. Unfortunately that wasn't very often. Managed to get a quick snap of a small tort in the back garden though. There was a red admiral around as well.

It's my wedding anniversary this weekend and the weather is pretty similar to how it was 18 years ago. Nothing to do with butterflies. Lol.

The emperor moth caterpillars are coming along well. The biggest one is the size of my little finger now.

[Jack Harrison]

Congratulations Susie.

Delighted to see that you felt it correct and proper to wear white

My current wife compromised with cream

Jack

[Gibster]

Such a beautiful bride. Methinks you've got yourself one very lucky chap, Susie. Where you into butterflies back then too? And was it truly torrential rain all evening, coz it's pretty dire here right now, lol!

[Susie]

It's off white, Jack.

thanks, Gibster. all brides are beautiful, even those of us who look like the back of a bus. lol

No, I wasnt into butterflies back then, that's a relatively recent thing. I did like gardening though and my first house had a lovely litle garden which I planted up from scratch with a long lavender hedge which attracted butterflies.

I wonder who will be the first UKBs wedding, could be you and Sami.