Birds, Leps, Observations & Generalities - the images and ramblings of Mark Skevington. Sometimes.

Saturday, 3 April 2010

I've Got Crabs ..

.. but before that, here's a summary of garden mothing last night.

Very cool, heavy rain shortly after dark, clear and breezy by early morning. As you'd expect, these are not ideal conditions for mothing. Total catch was a modest 16 of 5 sp. (125W MV 8 of 5, 80W actinic 8 of 4).

Shoulder Stripe (Anticlea badiata) 1 [first for year]
Common Quaker (Orthosia cerasi) 8
Clouded Drab (Orthosia incerta) 3
Hebrew Character (Orthosia gothica) 2
Early Grey (Xylocampa areola) 2

Shoulder Stripe - not the smartest individual but nice to see one in the garden, albeit a bit later than usual

Haven't bothered with the traps tonight - it started raining again just before dark and it's likely to be cold. Over on the right hand side I've added a couple of links to 2010 mothing yearlists for the garden and everywhere - I'll update monthly.

As for the title .. remember we set up a tropical fish tank a few weeks ago? Well we started adding a few fish gradually, and the kids also wanted a couple of these after seeing them in the aquarist:

Red-clawed Crab (or at least that's what  think it is)

As for the fish - nothing too fancy, all basic stuff to start with. The tank also has live plants and a big piece of bogwood - not sure if that is a good idea though as despite the pre-soaking it still turns the water a bit sepia between water changes. Trying to photograph anything in a large water-filled round tank is ridiculous.

High-Fin Blue Platy

Red and White Platy

Swordtail

Guppy

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