Thursday 20 August 2009

I promised you moths

Oh boy did the safari find some moths last night...the place was crawling with them!
At the moment they are still boxed up in the trap in the back of the Land Rover waiting for the rain to stop so I can get in the garden and sift through them - it's gonna take ages! There are some very interesting ones I don't recognise despite the trapping site being only a few hundred metres from Base Camp.
Back on this post later with a list as long as your arm and hopefully some photos.
Frank kept snaffling up the Large Yellow Underwings as they came to the light. He ate loads and at least one Svensson's Copper Underwing. The latter is tricky to identify but as he spat out the crunched carcass we were able to get a detailed look at its underside. Nice one Frank, there'll only be 200 LYUs in the trap instead of the 300 that came zooming out of the dark.
One of the most interesting sounds of the night were the noises the local chavs were making, not sure if they always make these sounds or if they were putting on a show for our benefit. Hope I don't sound too snobby when I say that Darwin would be turning in his grave if he could see what many of the human species has de-evolved into. Survival of the thickest, or survival of the ones who can claim the most benefits..."whatever!!!" Anyway they do make some fascinating sounds after dark. We packed up at midnight as it started to rain abit but the chavs were still there secreted about the bushes hooting and howling away like there was no tomorrow! Actually by this time it was tomorrow!
BTW thanks for all the hits, Fat Birder ranking was under 400 for the first time today, must have been those Wheatear and the dodgy distant Buzzard photos from the Lakes...must do some more birdy pics and try to get to 350. Maybe you couldn't resist the Slime Mould? By last night it had degenerated in to a right old snotty mess, glad I got it at its best yesterday lunchtime. Long way to go before the safari gets anywhere near Warren though. Not that I'm competitive...I'm on yer tail Warren! Haha.
Where to next? Back after the rain with more moths than you can shake a stick at.
In the meantime let us know what's creeping about, hooting and tooting, after dark in your outback.

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