Sin City

'Walk down the right back alley in Sin City ..... and you can find anything' Sin City is one of my all time favourite films, featuring three storylines. It's adapted from the Frank Miller comic book series published by Dark Horse. The cinematography is stunning - it goes beyond just being a film adaptation of a comic, and the superbly lit black and white image with just splashes of red, orange and yellow for salient features is quite brilliant. The casting is damn fine too, with Micky Rourke, Bruce Willis, Clive Owen, Elijah Wood, Benicio del Torro and Jessica Alba starring, and Rutger Hauer in a cameo. Anyway, should there be anyone that hasn't seen it, you get another chance late tonight (Saturday 12th) on BBC2 - here's a taster:

Random roundup

Patch, horse, moth, larvae, bugs, pupae, jokes - was going to be the more descriptive but very long-winded title for this post. A real mixed bag of stuff. After a couple of days getting wound-up at work, I ventured out onto the patch (Route 1) this afternoon to wind down. A charm of c20 Goldfinches was busily feeding on thistle seeds, until about a millisecond before I focused on one, a loud Grey Heron dropped onto the distant pool, a Red-legged Partridge was quietly feeding (the wrong sort, but a partridge nonetheless), and there were tits everywhere. Not a lot else to get excited about, but I was relaxed. As I left via the horse paddocks, one of the stud stallions appeared quite pleased to see me ... Bone of contention But it was evidently busy in a horsey mènage-á-trois with the brown one first and the sandy one next, then the brown one twice, then the sandy one .... Open relationships these days One of the other horses came over to say hello - noticed how uncomfortable being a horse must be .. Irritating to say the least As soon as I got home, I set about catching up on a few of things to photograph from recent days. I had intended to include the Feathered Thorn from yesterday, until it escaped. Arse. Click for bigger as usual. First up is a really smart Black Rustic that I forgot about the other day. I forgot to mention these tiny pug larvae found on angelica at Hazleborough Forest on Tuesday night - think they are Triple-spotted Pug but hopefully I can rear them through to confirm. Also from Hazleborough, there were a fair few Harlequin Ladybirds coming to the sheet - here a four different individuals showing a small fraction of the variation. The Small Tortoiseshell larvae unexpectedly pupated before I had transferred them to a more suitable box. They hadn't bothered to attach themselves to anything - hope they emerge okay from an unsecured position. Here's a shot showing how different a butterfly chrysalis is to a typical moth pupa (the Grey Dagger from a couple of weeks ago). Enough of all this naturalist type stuff, here's some jokes. My wife and I were sitting at a table at my school reunion, and I kept staring at a drunken lady swigging her drink as she sat alone at a nearby table. My wife asked, 'Do you know her?' 'Yes,' I sighed, 'She's my old girlfriend. I understand she took to drinking right after we split up those many years ago, and I hear she hasn't been sober since.' 'My God!' says my wife, 'who would think a person could go on celebrating that long?' A woman was standing nude, looking in the bedroom mirror. She was not happy with what she saw and said to her husband, "I feel horrible; I look old, fat and ugly. I really need you to pay me a compliment.' The husband replied, 'Your eyesight's damn near perfect.' A young woman had been taking golf lessons. She had just started playing her first round of golf when she suffered a bee sting. Her pain was so intense that she decided to return to the clubhouse for help. Her golf pro saw her come into the clubhouse and asked, 'Why are you back in so early? What's wrong?' 'I was stung by a bee', she said. 'Where', he asked. 'Between the first and second hole', she replied. He nodded knowingly and said 'Then your stance is too wide.'

Retrospective detective

Remember these larvae that I though were probably Scarce Umber? Well - it turns out that I was 100% ....... wrong. Bugger. Just found a freshly emerged male Feathered Thorn in the soil-filled net-covered box that the pupal cocoons were left in over the summer. Actually, looking back with 20/20 hindsight they were obviously this species with those small conical protrusions on segment 11. Oh well, this is precisely why rearing larvae is entertaining - it's great to be right and good to learn from mistakes. At least this makes much more sense as both the male and female fly - did wonder how a wingless female (as in Scarce Umber) could suddenly colonise a garden bush with no mature trees in close proximity. I'll get a shot tomorrow.

From the garden trap & Hazleborough Forest

From the garden trap 07/09/09 Numbers in the MV picked up with a fresh bulb fitted, and the trap immediately scored a garden tick - nice! Cochylimorpha straminea Total catch 137 of 29sp. (125W MV 58 of 21sp., 80W actinic 79 of 17sp.) First for garden: Cochylimorpha straminea 1 First for year in garden: Black Rustic (Aporophyla nigra) 1 Frosted Orange (Gortyna flavago) 1 Highest counts: Large Yellow Underwing (Noctua pronuba) 36 Light Brown Apple Moth (Epiphyas postvittana) 28 Lesser Yellow Underwing (Noctua comes) 17 Other highlights: Eudonia angustea 1 Gold Spot (Plusia festucae) 1 Hazleborough Forest 08/09/09 Last nights session at Hazleborough was with a particular target in mind - a species that is extremely scarce/local in VC55. We were hopeful of getting one or two - turned out to be the commonest moth of the night! Oak Lutestring Total catch was a relatively low 138 of 40sp., however we only trapped for a couple of hours or so and were somewhat distracted by the Lutestrings and bastard Hornets. British Tick: Oak Lutestring (Cymatophorima diluta hartwiegi) 27 Other highlights: Argyresthia semitestacella 1 Epinotia maculana 1 Red-green Carpet (Chloroclysta siterata) 1 Centre-barred Sallow (Atethmia centrago) 12 Orange Sallow (Xanthia citrago) 1 Barred Sallow (Xanthia aurago) 2 Small Wainscot (Chortodes pygmina) 1 Frosted Orange (Gortyna flavago) 1 Barred Sallow - superfresh Centre-barred Sallow Catoptria falsella From the garden trap 08/09/09 Better numbers but no major excitement. Total catch 176 of 33sp. (125W MV 91 of 22sp., 80W actinic 85 of 21sp.) First for year in garden: Red-green Carpet (Chloroclysta siterata) 1 Highest counts: Light Brown Apple Moth (Epiphyas postvittana) 51 Large Yellow Underwing (Noctua pronuba) 41 Lesser Yellow Underwing (Noctua comes) 17 Other highlights: Eudonia angustea 1 Centre-barred Sallow (Atethmia centrago) 1 Rosy Rustic (Hydraecia micacea) 2 Frosted Orange (Gortyna flavago) 1 Vine's Rustic (Hoplodrina ambigua) 2 Red-green Carpet

Super Cat & Hornet Horror .....

Not long back home after a very succesful mothing venture to Hazleborough Forest in Northants with Keith Tailby. More on the results and photos of goodies tomorrow, but in the meantime here's a couple of snaps. Keith spotted this Elephant Hawk-moth on Greater? Willowherb - superb caterpillar with very odd posture when disturbed. Almost immediately after dark, we were inundated with one of the most feared mothing villains - Hornets ... Those at the sheet were potted up to save our sanity, but of the five traps at least two were so full of them that we knocked the light off and left them to evacuate before we sorted out the contents. All potted Hornets were released unharmed, and thankfully we avoided a stinging! Nasty when riled by very bright UV light at night.

On the patch - Jubilee Park

Nipped out early this evening after work for a bit of pseudo-birding with Alex in tow. I wanted to refresh my memory on what Jubilee Park looks like, as this is another section of my adopted Soar Valley South patch, and Alex wanted to go on the kids play area. The southern half of the park (1) is a grassy floodplain with sallow/osier clumps and a few small trees and bushes. The northern half (2) is more of a playing field (with kids play area on the western side). The park is flanked to the west by a lightly wooded copse/scrub and gardens (3), and to the east by the River Soar (4). The River Sence joins the Soar in the southern section (5). There is a fairly large floodwater pond (6) which looks to be a regular feature now (certainly wasn't there when I first went there a good few years ago). The land to the east and north of the pond is all rough pasture, and is basically the same general area as seen from the corner of the Grand Union Canal (8) when following Route 1. The light was crap so I'll take a few shots from around the park when I next visit, but here are a couple of the River Soar for the sake of it (it is the Soar Valley after all). What did I see? Well, pretty much bugger all apart from a few dog walkers, a couple of fishermen and a load of Canada Geese. A flyover Sparrowhawk was the best bird, a calling Great Spotted Woodpecker was elusive, and the pond had a few Mallards. The only other moderately interesting thing was a stream of Jackdaws flying in from the north west to roost in trees near the pond - at least 50 came in. I reckon a very thorough check of the area in the early morning would only take an hour and a half. As the autumn progresses I am genuinely hopeful of getting into some sort of patch routine - it's never going to be daily though, a weekly visit to one or other section of the patch is more realistic. This is my Soar - right?