It’s been a bit of quiet weekend for wildlife. The usual suspects were about although no sign of the garganey or two avocets, and the nightingales appear to have gone completely quiet. The female adder continues to entertain at the mini-beast mansion and we now have lapwing and redshank chicks down at West Mead.
(Female adder - Catherine Coyle, May 2018)
On Sunday, we held one of our popular Macro Photography workshops, led by local landscape photographer John Dominick. I set a moth trap the night before so our participants would have some live models to practice their skills on. It was a great night for poplar hawk moths with 6 in the trap along with two pine hawkmoths which were a first for me. Other highlights were a buff ermine, white ermine, orange footman, and three beautiful buff tips.
(Pine Hawkmoth - Emily Summers, May 2018)
(Orange footman - Emily Summers, May 2018)
(Buff tip - Emily Summers, May 2018)
Buff tips are the favourite moth species of many of the staff here at Pulborough and you can see why! They are truly the kings of camouflage, able to perfectly mimic the colours and textures of a broken twig to avoid predation. It’s a remarkable adaptation.
Alongside the collection of moths, the trap had also caught four cockchafers or ‘maybugs’ as they are commonly known. You may have come across these before – they certainly aren’t the most subtle of beetles! When stood in my kitchen one evening recently, I was suddenly under the impression that a helicopter was about to come crashing through the open window. It turned out not to be anything nearly as big or mechanical, rather it was the very inelegant arrival of a cockchafer on the windowsill. The loud buzzing noise they make is almost obnoxious but up close they are a stunning creature, particularly the males who have wonderful fringed antennae.
(Cockchafer - Elinor Newman, May 2018)
We’ve had some lovely photos taken on the reserve shared with us on Twitter recently, including the two below of the Beautiful Demoiselle and male Broad-bodied Chaser.
(Beautiful demoiselle - Catherine Coyle, May 2018)
(Male broad-bodied chaser - Ian Tern, May 2018)
Please continue to send us your photos – we love to see them! You can either email us at Pulborough.brooks@rspb.org.uk or tweet them using #RSPBPulborough.