Unexpected Visitors

 

This is the time of year when unexpected wild creatures might pop up in unexpected places. Retrieve a lopper from the garage and a green shadow races along the handles... grab the mobile... focus... no, its rushed on out of frame... it drops, abseiling down to the doormat, web invisible


. It’s a chase to focus on this beautiful green Crab Spider

. I gently lure it onto a piece of paper and put it amongst the plants. Green and camouflaged it will wait on a green leaf for an unsuspecting insect – lunch! I have seen them pink, more usually white, standing out somewhat against pink Pyramidal Orchids, but presumably its prey is preoccupied with more pressing matters than looking at a motionless elongated white shape

.


Go to the tree and manoeuvre the loppers to prune a thick twig... it judders, and white flutterings appear and disappear – often White Plume Moths 


 as daylight is fading. Moths come in many sizes and patterns. Some brilliantly coloured ones were featured in 4th & 21st August posts. No less impressive are the camouflaged ones such as the commonly seen Large Yellow Underwing which consistently drops out as we open our garden umbrella. Here – Spectacle Moth

 and Buff-tip

which looks indistinguishable from a broken off twig. It holds its wings tight against its body and comes out very late at night. Both of these are now well hidden out of human sight - as pupae underground – a visual treat sighting of the adults for next year!


Wildlife Garden Tips: White Plume Moths feed on Bindweed (Convolvulus), Spectacle Moth caterpillar feeds on cultivated sage and Red Valerian. Buff-tip feeds on deciduous trees, preferably in the sun – hazel, sycamore, birches, oaks, and more.


Other night fliers which sometimes turn up are beetles




 a dead, dried out husk). Piles of hard beetle wings are giveaways that a bat has roosted and feasted above, and bats also eat moths.


And also by night, irritatingly for tender skinned humans, there are mosquitoes, midges and gnats 



But fortunately help is at hand... locally, in and around Winsley.

Common Pipistrelle bats (10) eat thousands in a single night – some researchers say 3,000!




To hear and see more on BATS - amazing ‘Flying Mice’!


Talk by Bat Expert Ellie Hack


St Nicholas Church Winsley, 7.30 pm


Free, donations towards heating, electricity etc welcomed

spiced apple juice on arrival

Tuesday 30th September.


Photo credits: Nicolette Scourse, Bat ID’s10: photo’d at London Wetland Centre




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