Life in the garden over the last few weeks

Sometime during the week I spent mostly indoors after my last chemo, the birds stopped singing. My first time out sitting by the lake I noticed how quiet it was. I hate it when that happens, but then we've had them singing for five months or more, so I shouldn't complain. The swallows are still a-twittering overhead so it's a timely reminder to make the most of them because when they leave in September, it goes really quiet in the garden!

In the veg patch it has all got rather out of control, other than around our few rows of veg. The Cinnabar moths have been happy, as their larvae cover every little groundsel weed and I'm moving them round to fresh plants, as they don't seem to move off searching for fresh food themselves, just sit on defoliated plants. It's an easy kind of weed control, I must admit! 

Cinnabar moth caterpillar (Tyria jacobaeae).

The first lot of lettuce have long since bolted and get given to the chickens who love them and we are onto the next sowing. I sowed some veggie seed myself for the first time this year a few days ago - more spinach and the last of the pak choi seed which I bought in England. It has a sow by date of 2013 and only one germinated from Keith's previous sowing. I only sowed them in 2013 after buying the packet of seed the autumn before. I don't know why English seed seems to have a sow by date of precisely one year after you buy the seed, whereas French seed tends to give you a good five to seven years for most things (which don't actually always last that long).

As far as the courgettes go, we lost trying to keep up with them a long time ago so when their allocated fridge drawer is full, the older ones get composted. Had some barbecued on a skewer last night with whole mushrooms in between, just brushed with olive oil and sprinkled with oregano, delicious! 

I have another grump with my garden centre (Magasin Vert). Remember the Belle de Fontenay 1st early spuds which turned out to be 70% large red spuds like Desirees? Well this tomato which has big to huge fruit, which are yellow now, is labelled Sungold, which is an orange cherry tomato. Sigh. These are actually rather bland tomatoes and I would have appreciated the cherries more. 

Strange tomato which is NOT a cherry!

First carrots! There is a bit of root fly, but we are not leaving
them to become big winter ones, so not really a problem.

I thought I'd see whether growing radishes in July was possible - normally I wait until mid August because our flea beetle problem is usually mostly over by then. But it was not to be and with both these pests the poor plants never got past the little seedling stage. Never mind, we've been buying radishes instead (shock horror!). But they taste as good as home grown, which is often rare with supermarket veggies.

Flea Beetle and a nymph of that bug which eats my brassicas (Eurydema ornata).

The big blowsy flowers were in their element a few weeks ago, but now are looking a bit sad due to the dry soil (no matter how much I water, I cannot water enough). I'm doing the rounds with the hosepipe and currently am back to using mains water, as although we've got about 3/4 capacity of stored water after the dribs and drabs of rain we've had (not enough to water the garden but adds up in the water containers), as there is a drought in France and the departments with water restrictions are ever increasing, I am taking my chances of saving my stored water in case we get watering restrictions here in Ille et Vilaine, so using tap water whilst I still can. Of course it might well rain bucket loads and then I'll be cursing, but it's a risk we take. There's no sign of rain on the horizon and September is always a really dry month, so potentially two more months of watering the garden to go.

Sunflowers.

Hollyhocks. This plant is 10 foot tall now!

Hollyhocks.

Hollyhocks.

Hydrangeas.

I enjoy sitting by the lake watching the dragon and damselflies and anything else that moves - including the carp, which come to the surface a lot and swim in the shallows in the summer. And pull silly faces.

Carp.

White Legged Damselflies (Platycnemis pennipes) ovipositing whilst the males
keep a good hold of the females to make sure no other males
get to mate with them before they lay their eggs.

Every now and again when the water level drops in the pond and the muddy and rocky pond bottom is visible, we get a Common Sandpiper visiting. Though having looked at some online images, I am now sure this isn't one, as it doesn't have the CS markings.... in fact after a bit of googling and discussing with my OH, we think it is a Green Sandpiper, which is a new bird for our garden list, now up to 63!

Possibly a Green Sandpiper (Tringa ochropus).

A rare sighting of a Turtle Dove - that's twice this summer which is pretty good!

Turtle Dove (Streptopelia turtur).

And a juvenile White Wagtail was playing around on the grass.

Juvenile White Wagtail (Motacilla alba).

I'll finish with some of the butterflies I've been seeing - the hot days are the best and as well as these ones there have been Skippers, the occasional Peacock, one possible Common Blue, and Small Heaths flitting about in the lawn, as well as the ubiquitous Speckled Woods, Cabbage Whites and Meadow Browns.

Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui).

Brimstone (Gonepteryx rhamni).

Second sighting of a Map (Araschnia levana).

Comma (Polygonia c-album) enjoying the coneflowers.

Comma (Polygonia c-album) with more normal lighting!

A greatly reduced in size Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta),
still able to fly and feed.

OK not a butterfly but it is nice to see the Jersey Tiger moths back again in the daytime as they are quite large and very colourful when they open up their wings!

Jersey Tiger moth (Euplagia quadripunctaria).

Hugely pleased to see the Silver Washed Fritillary back in my garden. I haven't been able to get very close (these are all zoomed in with my SX50) because they are very flitty, but are enjoying the Knapweed and other wild flowers down by my pond.

Not sure if this is the female, but looking pristine.
Argynnis paphia.

A slightly tatty male
Silver Washed Fritillary (Argynnis paphia).

Silver Washed Fritillary (Argynnis paphia).

I'll finish up with this self seeded Marjoram which appeared some years back and I'm very happy to find it has self seeded in the gravel as well. It is a Gatekeeper magnet - they really love this flower as you can see! I count eleven of them and a bumble bee. You may have to open this full size to see them properly. I'm glad to see that Gatekeepers are having as good a year this year as last, and whilst they are common, and everywhere, I still enjoy seeing them!

Gatekeepers (Pyronia tithonus) galore!

Lots of photos in this post but then I'm signing out for a week or so because chemo round 9 has started again. My last session will be mid September, so there really is light at the end of the tunnel, and hopefully there will still be some nice weather in October for going to the coast again to eat moules frites and wander the coastal heathlands. :-)

I'm also pleased because I've just found a French moth and butterfly site which is quite easy to search with good sized thumbnails, so hopefully it will make my moth IDing easier! I've had the trap out three times in the last week but the vast majority that I've caught I haven't been able to ID yet.... it's like looking for a needle in a haystack and can take hours for each one. I am also able to click on my department and look at the butterflies that have been recorded here - good grief, there have been the following blue butterflies seen here - Mazarine, Adonis, Silver Studded and Idas!!! Mind you, it doesn't say when or how many - might have been one of each, ever. :-)

Need help with IDing these moths

A continuation of yesterday's post about moth trapping (here's a quick link back to the post). 

Now I have a question to ask you mothy people. I received some plastic boxes and tubes to put the moths in, but they are quite small and some of these moths are big, and many flap like crazy no matter their size. I did put them all in the fridge to cool down and only took out one box or tube at a time to photograph the moths, but I found they were harming their wings which is quite apparent when you look at what is left inside the boxes - loads of scales and hairs. Some of the moths featured here look like they have lost a lot of scales too, and I feel really bad about it. 

I wondered what you do? I was thinking about using some of the plastic containers that I use for freezing food, which are big enough that the moths can flap without harming their wings, but still small enough to put in the fridge to chill them out a bit, if necessary. 

As for these eggs, they were laid by Mrs Oak Eggar and they haven't hatched yet but I will put them out today on some bramble leaves which are touching the ground, but I expect the eggs will just roll off. I have read that they may not be viable when laid like this anyway. It was nice to see them though - aren't they pretty! 

OK the first moth I need help with. I know it's a Thorn, but it looks more to me like a September Thorn than an August Thorn, but it was photographed on 22nd July.... however I see from the Hants Moths 'Flying tonight' posts that the September Thorn can be seen last week of July (how confusing is that?!). 

By the way apologies for my filthy looking fingernails - I thought they were clean!!! Also I haven't bothered with the Latin names as I'm not even sure what the moths are. I'll add the Latin later if I get some definite IDs. 

Edit - it's an August Thorn (Ennomos quercinaria).

This cute little moth looks like a pale version of the Clouded Border, but they seem to come in variations of colour and also markings. 
Edit - this is a Clouded Border (Lomaspilis marginata).

This next one is an I haven't a clue moth. But interestingly the two photos were taken with different cameras and look at the colour difference! The top pale one was taken with the Canon Powershot SX50, the bottom one with the Canon 600D, both set on the same colour setting, both with pop up flashes without any diffusion.

Edit - this could possibly be another Thorn moth.

I wondered if this might be a Knot Grass? I see plenty of their larvae here.
Edit - yes most likely a Knot Grass (Acronicta rumicis).

Possibly a Dark Arches?
Edit - yes it's a Dark Arches (Apamea monoglypha).

This one belongs in the I don't have a clue category - sorry I haven't got a photo of it with its wings open.
Edit - it's a Peacock moth (Macaria notata).

No idea either.
Edit - possibly a Small Dusty Wave (Idaea seriata).

Sallow Kitten who has lost a lot of its markings?
Edit - either a Sallow Kitten (Furcula furcula) or a Poplar Kitten (Furcula bifida).

This by the way, is another reason why I decided to buy the moth trap now and not next year. Keith came home from a cycle ride with some caterpillar photos for me to ID - the first was an Oak Eggar but it quickly got forgotten when I saw this one. I didn't know what it was but knew it was something special! A quick look in my insect book which has caterpillars as well as moths and I found it straight off. Not that I am likely to see the moth this year, it's too late now. But HUGE excitement to know these guys are around in my neighbourhood. This was crossing the road that runs next to the field next to my veggie patch. K did wait until it got to the grass verge before cycling off, by the way. :-)

What is it? Why, it's the larva of an Emperor Moth (Saturnia pavonia). So it got me all excited and thinking about moths, and now look where I am. There is no going back..... :-))))))))

First experience of moth trapping!

I know I said I was going to wait until next year to get a moth trap, but during my break from chemo whilst feeling a lot better, and seeing what Amanda from The Quiet Walker blog was catching with her recently purchased trap which is the same one I was thinking about, I thought 'oh what the hell, I'm getting one now!'. And so I spent the last day of my break (last Weds) photographing and learning a lot about moths.

It's taken me this long to sort through the photos (not helped by the chemo getting its own back on me for daring to take a break) - I brought about 45 moths indoors to look at/photograph so had several hundred photos! I left many smaller ones and drab ones sheltering in the egg boxes in the potting shed and encouraged them out at dusk. There must have been about 100 moths which really surprised me. The most numerous moths were what I think are Common and Scarce Footman, but I didn't get a photo of either as they flew off as soon as I tried to take a pic! But being shallow ;-) I was far more interested in the big and/or colourful moths.....

I'll be adding a second post with my unidentified or not sure moth pictures in the hope you guys can help me with ID, and I have a few questions too. 

This first time I put the trap here near the potting shed where I could run electricity out and the veg patch with all the flowers in is behind where I am standing taking the picture. There are no trees particularly close and the next time I'm going to put it under trees in a different place to see if I get some different moths. 

This trap is the Skinner trap with twin 30w Actinic bulbs which cost me £213 total including a moth book and some specimen boxes and tubes for putting the moths in, and P&P to France was £25, which I thought was pretty reasonable, given it's £12.50 within the UK. I bought it from Anglian Lepidopterist Supplies.

After photographing the moths I put them into a big plastic box with a mesh lid, which is the one I used for my pupating Swallowtails, and at dusk we went around the garden putting the moths outside. A number escaped into the living room whilst photographing them, so we spent a couple of days catching them and putting them out!

Not surprisingly, there were moths on the outside of the box and in the grass all around it too.

This was the biggest excitement and a moth I have longed to see for years - an Elephant Hawkmoth (Deilephila elpenor). There were two of them in the box and now I just have the larva to see. I'm not giving info about each individual moth but if you click on the link it will take you to an info page.

And another hawkmoth! At first I thought this was a Poplar Hawkmoth but then I saw the eyes. This is an Eyed Hawkmoth (Smerinthus ocellata) and you can see why in the first photo. The third photo is the mesh on top of the large box where I put them after photographing - I was trying for some better photos of the hawkmoths outside but the light was too dull and they were flapping their wings a lot. I love the curvy abdomen.

It took me a while to ID this one which is quite a large moth but not as large as the Oak Eggar which follows this one. It doesn't appear in either of my books but eventually I realised it was probably part of the Lasiocampidae family, so googled that - et voila, up came my moth. It's a Plum Lappet (Odonestis pruni) and I love its hairy legs. 

I met this moth last year as it flew inside my house but I mistakenly identified it as a Grass Eggar (I blame the photos on google.....). It's a female Oak Eggar (Lasiocampa quercus) and she's really quite a big girl. I've met the male outside and they fly during the day but the females fly at night - yet I guess they find each other somehow.... :-)

This was another squeal with excitement moth as I've wanted to see a Buff Tip (Phalera bucephala) for ages, as I've found their caterpillars here several times. They are one of the most gorgeous moths and so well camouflaged when on a tree, as they look like little twig stubs. There were four of them in the trap and they were the most laid back of moths, never flapping, never moving, not remotely bothered when I opened up their wings like in the photo below. In fact at dusk they had to really be encouraged to budge!

A smaller moth but very pretty, this is a Rosy Footman (Miltochrista miniata). I was fascinated to read that their larvae feed on lichen on trees, which I hadn't heard of before.

This one foiled me for a while; if it had opened its wings up I might have guessed the family. When I did find out what it was, I wasn't too surprised as I've seen similar red legs and the hairy reddish underneath before when I found a Garden Tiger in my veg patch. This is a Ruby Tiger (Phragmatobia fuliginosa) and it's unusual because tiger moths are usually very colourful and showy. But sometimes you have to look beyond the wings for the colourful, showy bits.

The only really green moth which I trapped is a continental species, the Orache Moth (Trachea atriplicis). Some of the larval foodplants are weeds in my veg patch.

Another one with a hint of green - in fact this was one of my favourite moths which I hadn't met before. I love its green furry top and stripey socks! It took me a while to ID this one as so many pictures in books are just looking down on the wings, rather than seeing them from different angles. It's a Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing (Noctua janthe).

This is an Oak Hook-tip (Watsonalla binaria).

First time I've seen a Buff Ermine (Spilarctia luteum) although I am familiar with various Ermine moths of the white variety. It's really rather beautiful!

I got the ID for this from Amanda's posts so it's either a Grey Dagger (Acronicta psi) or a Dark Dagger (Acronicta tridens). Apparently you have to examine their genitalia to tell the difference, although on the UK Moths site it looks like the Dark Dagger has circular spots mid forewing which this one doesn't, which doesn't make a lot of sense. I've seen the larvae of both species in the garden.

This one I may have identified from Ragged Robin's posts but I can't remember! I believe it's a Scalloped Oak (Crocallis elinguaria).

I believe this is a Poplar Grey (Acronicta megacephala).

I'd heard the Yellow Tail (Euproctis similis) moth played dead and it does that very well! It ought to be careful when lying on the floor though as I found one that was actually very much alive and I could have thrown it in the rubbish bin or out the window if I hadn't been interested to look at it closer - luckily for it I had already looked at the one in the moth box the day before so I was aware of what it did. However it's possible this is a Brown Tail (Euproctis chrysorrhoea) but I think I also had one with a more yellow tail in the trap.... it's easy to get confused!

I've seen this Peppered moth (Biston betularia) on various blog posts and was aware of it anyway because of its amazing evolution, where a darker form evolved to camouflage itself on soot darkened tree trunks during the industrial revolution - you can read more about it on the link above. However it's good to see the light form as you know you live in a clean environment where the moth can camouflage itself on lighter coloured tree bark covered in lichens (not surprising here in the countryside really)!

Last but not least, a Silver Y moth (Autographa gamma), which are (sometimes) seen during the day nectaring, so I have photographed them before many times.

I also had two Jersey Tiger moths (Euplagia quadripunctaria) in the trap, but as I see them during the day and have taken tons of photos of them over the years, I didn't bother!

Next post will contain the not sure about moths which is shorter than this post, you'll be glad to know! Also if I've got my IDs wrong please tell me. I've enjoyed trying to ID moths myself as you learn so much more that way, but it can be very time consuming.