It’s unseasonably mild here in my bit of the UK (not warm though!) with the overnight temperature last night falling to 11 C (double it and add thirty for a rough figure in Fahrenheit). There was no wind, barely any rain and good cloud cover, so a great night to survey moths in late autumn.Continue reading “64. Silver Y”
Tag Archives: UK wildlife
63. Treecreeper
Been a while! As England is now in lockdown (again) I thought it would be a good idea to continue with my blog. I will try and write every day again. Got the advantage of no work to do (my contract for my Ecologist job ran out 3 – 4 weeks ago), so got someContinue reading “63. Treecreeper”
Polecat
Over two weeks since my last one. Not good! So, anyway. There have been a lot of bats in my life recently, both professionally and personally. I survey bats for a living (amongst other things), and I’ve started to survey bats in my own time for an official voluntary scheme. This scheme involves surveying batsContinue reading “Polecat”
61. Bank Vole
As I check my great-crested newt traps for newts (which are removed to somewhere safer which won’t be developed), which forms a large part of my job, I occasionally come across small mammals, often they are under carpet tiles which they lie to hide under (as do the newts, hence why they are there!) andContinue reading “61. Bank Vole”
Poplar Hawk-moth
My dad shouted up earlier today (I’m living with the folks during the Covid crisis) ‘there’s two Elephant Hawk-moths on the tree under the bird feeder!’ This I had to see. Now sure enough there were two large hawk-moths right where he said, and they were elephant grey in colour. And they clearly liked eachContinue reading “Poplar Hawk-moth”
58. Yellowhammer
“A little bit of bread but no cheese” is what a Yellowhammer does not say no matter how many bird books tell me otherwise. The phrase makes no sense, who eats bread on the assumption that cheese automatically comes with it? And so much so that they feel the need to add the stipulation thatContinue reading “58. Yellowhammer”
57. Lesser Horseshoe Bat
I’ve finally started on bats for my new company! For most of last summer I was a sub-contractor for a local ecologists and 90% of my work was assisting with bat surveys; which basically involved sitting and staring at a corner of a building for an hour or so around dawn or dusk. This wasContinue reading “57. Lesser Horseshoe Bat”
56. Smooth Newt
Another 10 days has passed since my last post. Still eeking them out though! I’ve spent probably 5 minutes (but felt like a lot longer) just staring at this screen trying to think of a subject. Truth is I’ve not been out for my own pleasure for ages. The local park is less appealing atContinue reading “56. Smooth Newt”
55. Poecilus cupreus (a ground beetle)
Blimey, getting longer between posts but I’m still going which is the main thing. I am doing a lot of writing for work as well as being out in the field a lot (still thanking my lucky stars this year!), but enough with the excuses. Today’s post is about one of the obscure things IContinue reading “55. Poecilus cupreus (a ground beetle)”
54. Swift
My mojo is definitely leaving this blog! Alas the gaps between posts are getting wider. No idea why exactly. I do write a lot for work now, admittedly very controlled, templated, and dry texts so nothing like this, which is basically words from my head written directly to here (which is probably why these lookContinue reading “54. Swift”
A Species a Day 