30 Days Wild - Week 3

30 Days Wild: Week 3 ~ 15-21st June 2016 ~ 

You can find weeks 1 & 2 below:

Week 1 - http://blog.josiehewittphotography.co.uk/2016/06/30-days-wild-week-1.html
Week 2 - http://blog.josiehewittphotography.co.uk/2016/06/30-days-wild-week-2.html

Here goes Week 3 of #30DaysWild...

Day 15: Lots of moths, a beautiful walk round my patch with a single orchid and lots of fledged birds. In the evening I help lead a Nightjar walk on my patch and everyone in the group got great views of the birds and seemed to enjoy themselves (except for the midges)!

L->R: Small Magpie Moth, View on my walk, Bright Line Brown Eye, Yellow Rattle,
Poplar Leaf Beetle larvae, Common Spotted Orchid, Group of Nightjar watchers.

Day 16: Moths and some 'interesting' weather on the drive up to Bristol.

L->R: Cool clouds, Large Tabby (Aglossa pinguinalis)

Day 17: Sadly not too much 'wild' today as I was visiting the University of Bristol for an open day. There was some rather brilliant weather on the drive up to Swansea in the afternoon though.

Day 18: Marginally more 'wild' today as the Swansea University campus has lots of wildflower patches and is right by the beach. I saw lots of Bees and other pollinators but I didn't get any pictures. There was some lovely scenery on the way home though (if you ignore the pylon). Also a moth had made its way inside and onto our landing wall so I rescued it and put it back outside.

L->R: View on the drive home and Riband Wave.

Day 19: Father's day...I went for a nice walk in the morning but didn't take any photos. The spent the evening trying to ID moths from my pictures.

Day 20: I had a lovely walk in the evening with my parents and we saw a Golden-ringed Dragonfly, some Bee Orchids and some moths.

L->R: Golden-ringed Dragonfly x2, Bee Orchid, Pebble Hook-tip, Small Magpie.

Day 21: All about the moths! Moths during the day and set the moth trap in the evening as well.

L->R: Straw Dot, Riband Wave, Moth trap, Dark Arches, Micro Moth sp.

30 Days Wild - Week 2

30 Days Wild: Week 2 ~ 8-14th June 2016 ~ 

Following on from my first week of #30DaysWild, here are the next 7 days of my wild adventures in June!

Day 8: Went through the moth trap and it had lots of lovely species in it! I also went for a lovely dog walk round patch but didn't manage to take any photographs.

L->R: Heart & Club, Light Emerald, Middle-barred Minor, Small Magpie, Heart & Dart, Tachystola acroxantha, Shears.

Day 9: I set the moth trap again and had already caught a few when I checked it late at night.

L->R: Scoparia subfusca, True Lover's Knot, Tachystola acroxantha, Light Brown Apple Moth.

Day 10: More moths and a lovely walk with our crazy dog.

L->R: Heart & Club, Common Blue Damselfly, Elephant Hawkmoth, Our mad dog.

Day 11: A superb walk round my local area (see my blog here for more detail and photos).

L->R: Speckled Wood, Green Tiger Beetle, Common Heath, Wasp Beetle, Slow Worm.

Day 12: A nice walk in the morning with my dad looking for Dragon and Damselflies and a nice walk in the evening with the dog.

L->R: (TOP) View on walk, Four-spotted Chaser, Beautiful Demoiselle,
(BOTTOM) Micropterix aruncella, Our dog, Blue-tailed Damselfly.

Day 13: A lovely evening walk with my mum.

L->R: Nice sunset, Lobesia reliquana, A micro moth, Cinnabar Moth.

Day 14: A cracking evening spent looking for Nightjars on my local patch with my mum (turn the sound up, click play and listen until the end)!

Open your eyes and you will see...

Open your eyes and you will see... ~ 11th June 2016 ~ 

Yesterday morning my parents and I went on a long dog walk around our local nature reserve. As usual, I took my binoculars, but I also decided to take my camera with a macro lens on it.

Recently I have been getting really interested in insects/plants etc and so I decided that I would slow things down and try to see the smaller things on our walk that I would usually miss! And I was not disappointed at all - I saw a huge array of wildlife and below are a selection of the 800+ photos that I took on our 2.5 hour walk.

I don't have an ID for all of the creatures so if you can help, please comment below or message me - it would be greatly appreciated!

Red-headed Cardinal Beetle (Pyrochroa serraticornis)

Our crazy dog haring through the meadow

Chrysoteuchia culmella

Pithanus maerkelii?

Common Malachite (Malachius bipustulatus)

Silver Y (Autographa gamma)

Common Blue Damselfly (Enallagma cyathigerum)

Speckled Wood (Pararge aegeria)

Glyphipterix thrasonella

Neofaculta ericetella

Meadow Grasshopper nymph (Chorthippus parallelus)

Harvestman species

Hemicrepidus hirtus

Glyphipterix fuscoviridella

Rose Chafer (Cetonia aurata)

Green Tiger Beetle (Cicindela campestris)

Green Tiger Beetle (Cicindela campestris)

Common Heath (Ematurga atomaria)

Bloody-nosed Beetle (Timarcha tenebricosa)

Chrysopa perla

Cranefly sp (Possibly Tipula paludosa)

Ditropis pteridis

Wasp Beetle (Clytus arietis)

Yellow-tail Moth caterpillar (Euproctis similis)

Xanthogramma pedissequum

Slow Worm (Anguis fragilis)

Chrysolina oricalcia

Nemophora degeerella

Harlequin Ladybird (Harmonia axyridis)

Meliscaeva auricollis

Scorpionfly sp (Maybe Panorpa germanica)

30 Days Wild: Week 1

30 Days Wild: Week 1 ~ 1-7th June 2016 ~ 

This year I am going to be rather lazy with my blogging in that instead of doing a daily round up of my wildlife adventure, I am simply going to do a weekly summary, accompanied with plenty of photographs of course!

Day 1: 2 days previously (on Monday 30th) I had arrived down at Portland Bird Observatory in Dorset. This meant that there were plenty of birds to be seen, as well as the daily chance to rifle through the moth traps and see what had been caught (and which species I could ID!) I also went for a wander with Liam, one of the other NGBs down at the Obs to look at some plants and insects, however our walk got cut short due to an increase in wind and a sudden downpour!

L->R: Spotted Flycatcher, Lesser Trefoil, Eyed Hawkmoth, Hairy Buttercup & Silver Y.

Day 2: I was still at Portland so more birds and moths were on the cards. The weather brightened up a bit in the afternoon and I went for a walk with some of the NGBs to look for the Great Spotted Cuckoo (we saw it numerous times during our stay!) We saw some other wildlife in the Obs garden too.

L->R: White Ermine, Large Red Damselfly, View from Obs, Painted Lady, Four-spotted Moth.

Day 3: More moths, birds and nature down at Portland. Great Spotted Cuckoo seen again!

L->R: Thistle Ermine, Grasshopper sp, Great Spotted Cuckoo, Swollen-thighed Beetle, Drinker Moth.

Day 4: Headed home from Portland but still had time to look at some moths and the GS Cuckoo again (got there only minutes before it flew off for the morning). Stopped in the New Forest on the way home but dipped Goshawk & Honey Buzzard yet again...had to make do with some Redstarts and a singing Firecrest. Once home, headed to patch for a quick wander and saw some cool beetles that I've yet to ID (any help is much appreciated).

L->R: Burnished Brass, Acres Down, Great Spotted Cuckoo, Mullein Moth, Unidentified Beetle.

Day 5: I wasn't up too early but spent most of the day doing a bird ringing demonstration at one of our local sites as part of a Wildlife Day event that was being held. I didn't get the chance to take any photographs as I was busy talking to people about birds and ringing, but luckily my dad took a photo of us showing the ringing process to members of the public. Everyone seemed very interested and we got asked some great questions. It's always a pleasure to do ringing demonstrations, especially where there are lots of really enthusiastic kids there as well.

Bird ringing demonstration at Fleet Pond Wildlife Day

Day 6: Went through the moth trap, sat in the sun with our dog and visited patch. On patch I saw lots of birds as well as some insects and other wildlife.

L->R: Grey Pine Carpet, Scorched Wing, Clouded Border, Patch sunset, Our dog, Cool Beetle, Damselfly.

Day 7: A bit of a lazy day today but I did put the moth trap out again. Had to move it under a tree around midnight though as it started raining.

L->R: Mottled Pug, Shieldbug sp, The moth trap after moving it out of the rain.

Well that's it for this week but tune in around the 14/15th for the next instalment of my #30DaysWild!