Who's got all our moths?

The Safari was more than a tad disappointed with our mothing this season, there just doesn't seem to be many about at all around here. Last night seemed like it was going to produce the goods, it was warm and muggy but with a moderate wind, however it wasn't really that bad and we had high hopes for a decent catch this morning. 

It wasn't to be, opening the trap this morning we only had three Heart & Darts, the first Dark Arches of the year and a Eudonia mercurella micro along with something that escaped.

Frank had a swimming session this lunchtime and on the way back we stopped at a small town centre supermarket for some odds n sods for lunch. As Wifey was finding a car park space a Brown Hawker dragonfly, our first of the year, whipped over the car bonnet - quite a long way from the nearest suiutable habitat. 
This afternoon we should have done some gardening in the jungle but got too easily sidetracked with the macro lens when we spotted a few Red Spider Mites scuttling about on the lid of the coal bunker. They're tiny and double quick and refuse to keep still so make quite a difficult target for a lens with very little depth of field.

And they have an almost featureless face!

Those little legs don't have cover the ground, they're here there and everywhere and barely stop to draw breath.

Something made us look up and we're glad it did as there was Great Black Backed Gull (Garden #32) flying over which just about gave us time to get the macro lens off. A really scarce bird over Base Camp, this is the first since at least 2010!

A Supermarine Spitfire also flew over but it was traveling a little faster than the gull and we missed it...good garden tick though! It was then that we noticed the enormous Prickly Sowthistles that were in full flower when we were tending to the moths earlier had now gone over and the feathery tips of the pappuses (is that a word?) were showing, one day wonders.

There's three of these impressive beasts and even the smallest towers over us and must be well over two metres tall.

Our Tree Bee colony in the kitchen roof must be coming to an end as there's been quite a few crawling around on the floor in need of rescue. We've gently lifted them up and put them on the jasmine plant with their companions but it was probably in vain. We didn't get a pic in the end. Instead we concentrated on the several Blue Tailed Damselflies that were flitting around the pond.

Peek-a-boo

On the marginal vegetation we found some exuvia

How did the adult clamber out of there?

We had a play with the macro lens.

We're undecided about putting the moth trap out tonight, half the weather websites we've looked at say it's going top rain the half don't. The way our moth luck is going we can guarantee if we put it out it'll pour down and if we don't put it out not a drop will fall.

Where to next? could be a safari out n about somewhere tomorrow.
in the meantime let us know who's whizzing around non-stop in your outback.