David Bradley – Page 66

Today’s wonderful marvel of the day

UPDATE: One Merv in the night and another to join it by morning!

I only started mothing with a scientific trap a little over a year ago (24 Jul 2018, to be precise) but have logged and photographed well over 300 different species since then.

I heard about Griposia aprilina, aka the Merveille du Jour, a few weeks after I started and thought it would be a nice specimen to see. But, its larvae feed on oaks and as far as I know, there are none particularly close to our garden. I was ever hopeful of seeing this little marvel but I didn’t hold out much hope of it ever making an appearance.

This beautifully marked green (and black and white) moth usually emerges in adult form in early October to fly and mate. This time last year, I hadn’t seen one and even though I lit up all the way through the autumnal and winter moth season up to mid-December or thereabouts, Merv never showed.

After our recent wildlife, yoga, and sightseeing trip to the Greek Island of Kythira, I got back to lighting up only a couple of nights ago. Tonight, I was about to head for bed, but thought I would check the trap for Thorns and Sallows only to be rewarded with the little wonder that is the Merveille du Jour. It’s odd that some British moth-ers tend to call it a “Wonder of the Day” when they translate its obviously French name, using the Germanic “wonder”. Either way, it’s a marvellous and wonderful moth.

Life on Athens and Kythira

A trip to the Greek capital Athens and the island of Kythira yielded some good times, lovely views, lots of laughs with new(ish) friends, and sightings of quite a few species of bird, invertebrates and plantlife we’d not all “ticked” before. Here are a few snaps of the various species:

Dark Bush Cricket, Pholidoptera griseoaptera

Egyptian Grasshopper, Anacridium aegyptium with its striped eyes on mullein

Blue-winged-Grasshopper, Oedipoda caerulescens

European “Preying” Mantis, Mantis religiosa (juvenile)

Western Marsh Harrier, Circus aeruginosus

Long-tailed Blue, or Pea Blue, Lampides boeticus

European Bee eater, Merops apiaster, on a feeding break during migratory passage

Female Sardinian warbler, Sylvia melanocephala

Male Sardinian warbler, Sylvia melanocephala

Blue Rock Thrush, Monticola solitarius (an old-world flycatcher, not Turdidae)

Sea daffodil, Pancratium maritimum, Aghios Nikolaos bay, below Moudari Lighthouse

Tamarisk, or Salt Cedar, over The Aegean Sea, Kythira

Hummingbird hawk-moth, Macroglossum stellatarum

Southern Meadow Brown, Maniola jurtina janira

Pristine Swallowtail on Bourgainvillea in Mylopotamos

Mediterranean Speckled Wood, Pararge aegeria sp., Mylopotamos

Large White, Pieris brassicae, along the river in Mylopotamos

Mastikha, Pistacia lentiscus, plant on which Sardinian Warbler thrives

Female Praying Mantis joins our yoga class on Kythera

Yellow-legged Gull, Larus michahellis, one of only a couple of gulls we saw

African Monarch, Plain Tiger, African Queen, Danaus chrysippus

Toxic Drimia maritima, Sea Squill, Sea Onion, Maritime Squill

Common Buzzard, Buteo buteo, on the goat track between Karavas and Platia Ammos

Eleonora’s Falcon, Falco eleonorae, along the goat track, we had seen them before

Red-rumped Swallow, Cecropis daurica, one of several flocks, of up to 20, migrating south

Female Violet Carpenter Bee, Xylocopa violacea

Male Violet Carpenter Bee, Xylocopa violacea

Two-tailed Pasha, aka the Foxy Emperor, Charaxes jasius

Blackcap, Sylvia atricapilla, feeding in a fig tree, Green Chafer above

Spotted flycatcher, Muscicapa striata, happy to be photographed by end of week.

Birds
Alpine Swift
Barn Swallow
Bee Eater
Black Stork
Blackbird
Blackcap
Blue Rock Thrush
Blue tit
Booted Eagle
Cetti’s Warbler
Collared Dove
Common Buzzard
Common sparrowhawk
Eleanora’s Falcon
Great tit
Grey Wagtail
Hobby
Honey buzzard
Kestrel
Kingfisher
Lesser Kestrel
Levant sparrowhawk
Marsh Harrier
Peregrine
Raven
Red-rumped Swallow
Redstart
Robin
Sardinian Warbler
Scops owl
Spotted Flycatcher
Swift
Willow Warbler
Yellow-legged Gull

Butterflies
African Monarch
Blue-winged grasshopper
Cleopatra
Clouded Yellow
Dark Bush Cricket
European Swallowtail
Grayling
Large Tortoiseshell
Long-tailed Blue
Mediterranean Speckled Wood
Painted Lady
Red Admiral
Scarce Swallowtail
Skipper (European?)
Southern Meadow Brown
Two-tailed Pasha

Other invertebrates
Ants
Cicada
Common Plume
Scoliid Wasp, Scolia hirta
Dragonflies
Egyptian Grasshopper
Hummingbird Hawk-moth
Oriental Hornet
Praying Mantis
Red-winged grasshopper
Silver Y moth
Small Dusty Wave moth
Southern Skimmer
Striped Shieldbug
Turnip Moth
Violet Carpenter Bee

Plants
Almond-leafed wild pear
Carob
Cypress, funereal, male and female
Fig
Giant fennel
Giant Reed
Juniper
Kephalonian pine
Kermes Oak
Large Mediterranean Spurge
Lemon
Lime
Maiden hair spleen wort
Maritime pine
Mastika
Mulberry
Mullein
Norfolk island pine
Oleander
Olive
Oriental plane
Pomegranate
Portuguese laurel
Prickly Pear
Rock samphire
Sea daffodil
Sea holly
Sea squill
Sharp-leaved rush
Smilax
Spiny asparagus
Strawberry tree
Tamarisk
Tree heather
Umbrella pine

Vertebrates
Brown Rat (deceased)
Cat
Cattle
Dog
Fish
Goat
Lizards (No ID: brown/green, large/small)
Sheep

Scat
Goat
Sheep
Stone Martin

The Greek Island of Kythira

Six days of yoga, walking, swimming, sightseeing, wildlife (mostly birds and invertebrates), Greek food, and beer on the island of Kythira; what could be better?

Kythira, Cythera, Kythera, and Kithira. In Greek: Κυθηρα

Mount Lycabettus

You can’t miss the tallest peak in Athens, no not the one with The Parthenon at the top (68 metres elevation), but Mount Lycabettus, also known as Lycabettos, Lykabettos or Lykavittos. In Greek, it’s pronounced “likavi’tos”, so the first three syllables flow as a triplet and the emphasis is on the final beat. It stands at 264 metres.

Second full day on our trip to Athens, we took the funicular railway to the top to see the 19th Century St George’s Chapel and take in the views over the city. I’d have chosen to climb to the top, despite the heat, if I’d realised it was in a tunnel. But, we did walk down and then circumnavigate the pine woodland the begins about half way down and stretches to the base.

One of the things I found intriguing about the name of this hill is the “lika/lyco” prefix, that I thought must refer to wolves in some way, but a couple of Athenians I asked didn’t seem to think so. On Wikipedia, there’s a suggestion that it had an ancient name Lucabetu meaning a mastoid hill, but Wiki also says that the modern name means “walked by wolves”.

Could the original name of this hill be the etymology of the Greek word for wolf, lykos, because that’s where the early Athenians most frequently encountered them? In a similar context, the word lyceum, is definitely connected to the Greek word for wolf, alluding to wolfishness, but referring to a garden of the god Apollo who was said to be wolfish in Greek mythology…

Near-expert friend, Penelope Wilson, tells me she can corroborate, or perhaps, rather complicate! For Lycabettus, apart from the mastoid suggestion others have proposed something to do with luke (light), obviously also associated with Apollo. But, the Ancient Greeks were very good at holding more than one meaning in their heads at a time, and there are puns on Apollo Lukeios as meaning (born from/slayer of) wolves and as god of light. Anyway, she tells me, wolves are definitely there, etymology is attested from classical times. The hill itself was only named or identified with ancient Lycabettus in the 19th C it was previously known as Hill of St George or Mount Aghesmos.

That latter point suggests that the etymology is of the hill’s name not of the word wolf, in that case, but wolfishness is definitely part of the play. It’s still more complicated as Dr Wilson expands via a link to the page for the Lycabettus Run.

Athenian Architecture

Myself and Mrs Sciencebase finally made it back to Greece after far too long a break from that beautiful country. The trip was to be yoga, walking, and wildlife, with plenty of wonderful food, a lot of Greek beer, and far too many photographs. I took the equivalent of eight 36-exposure reels on average each day of a ten-day trip, thank goodness for digital and 64 gigabyte SD cards. Anyway, before we hit the island of Kithira for the aforementioned R&R, we spent three nights in Athens, a place we had meant to visit properly back in the early 1990s, but a trip we missed out on because of ferry delays, force 6 gales, and a 10-30 metre swell!

Here are a few of my snaps from our first couple of days in the Greek capital

White Stork, Ciconia ciconia

The White Stork, Ciconia ciconia, is a scientific tautonym, its binomial being duplicated to indicate that ciconia is the “type”, the archetype, of the family Ciconia. This is the bird of birth myth, the one that bears the infant baby to the homes of expectant parents. Perhaps the myth arose because they build great nests of straw on chimneys in the summer.

Anyway, the White Stork is rarely seen in The British Isles. You might see them nesting on rooftops in Germany, Poland, Finland, and beyond. They are relatively common across Europe and not of conservation concern, wintering in southern Africa and breeding far and wide into Europe and Asia. They need thermals to soar and so cross from Africa via the Straits of Gibraltar and “The Levant” rather than attempting to navigate the Mediterranean Sea, which obviously doesn’t produce the thermals they need.

There was much excitement among Cambridgeshire birders when a ringed bird was spotted at a couple of RSPB sites, Ouse Fen and Fen Drayton, in April 2018 and another (the same one?) sighted in various places across the county in early 2019.

There is a small flock of captive, ringed White Storks at Johnson’s Farm in Old Hurst, the farm with the crocodiles. My photos on this blog post were all snapped at the farm on Talk Like a Pirate Day 2019. Aharrgh.

Croc of the Rock

It’s Talk Like a Pirate Day, which holds a special place in the hearts of Mrs Sciencebase and myself that has nothing to do with Dubloons, wooden legs, nor eyepatches. Nevertheless, a day out at a local farm seemed a sensible way to celebrate, hahah. So, we headed into deepest, darkest Huntingdonshire, we met no one on the way to St Ives (not that one), flew around RAF Wyton, headed for Pidley (birthplace of our long-gone feline) and took a sharp left after a U-turn to Johnson’s Farm in Old Hurst.

Now, Johnson’s farm has sheep and cows, a butchery, and a farm shop and cafe. But, it also has Macaws and Emus, Meerkat(s), Capybara, giant rabbits, and (not seen) Wallabies. It also has a flock of about 7 or 8 Storks, a bird species that like the Gene Genie loves chimney stacks, but usually those of continental central and eastern Europe rather than the British Isles. Johnson’s also has some tropical birds, a boa constrictor, oh and there is something else…crocodiles.

The crocodiles are I believe part of a conservation, breeding programme, but from the aforementioned working farm and butchery point of view, they are the most efficient means of disposing of the tons of butchery waste generated each year. which has crocodiles…I don’t know if any of them have a ticking alarm clock in their stomach.

They’re not quite as cute as the Horsey seals, maybe not quite as watchable as the birds I photograph, and definitely not as up-close-and-serious as the moths. But, they are, you must admit, rather photogenic in an almost tropical prehistoric way…needles to say, I got a few snaps.

Moth of the Moment – Hummingbird Hawk-moth

I’ve seen Hummingbird Hawk-moths, Macroglossum stellatarum, on a few occasions but previously when travelling abroad (specifically, Croatia (2017), Germany (2018), and Italy (2010), and if memory serves many years ago France, 1996). I’ve only ever got awkward, blurry, and low-resolution photos. Earlier in the summer, a friend gave me some red valerian plants, which are a favourite of this species; same friend who donated the snails for our newly resurrected pond, #pondlife.

That was back in early June. I had high hopes of seeing swarms of this bird-like Lep, which is an immigrant to the UK but occasionally seen in numbers when there’s an irruption. But, it seemed like it wasn’t to be, until this balmy September day (just 17 Celsius in the shade though). Finally, a HBHM has turned up. Initially, I wasn’t quick enough with my camera, but at least I saw it before it headed off over our roof. But, then twenty minutes later it was back, or perhaps it’s a second one. I was ready. Shutterspeed 1/4000th of a second, still not fast enough to freeze the moth’s wings in flight, but at least you get the gist.

Moth of the Moment – The Bristly Nun

The moth mothers often abbreviate as the SHC, the Setaceous Hebrew Character, Xestia c-nigrum, turns up a lot in scientific traps from late summer into the autumn. The name refers to a marking on its forewings that resembles the Hebrew letter, nun, and the setaceous means “bristly” and refers to the hairs around the character. Hence my tongue-in-cheek reference to it being the Bristly Nun. The setaceous separates it from a distant relative but fellow noctuid, the spring-flying Hebrew Character, Orthosia gothica, it has the nun, but is clean-shaven and so lacks those bristles.

The SHC also flies in its first brood from May to June, but the second brood seems to be far more numerous August to September. You can see from my records for 2019 here that I’ve seen hundreds, with a peak in August of well over 100 on a single night. Nothing compared to the numbers of fellow noctuid the bombastic Large Yellow Underwing, Noctua pronuba. Apart from subtle variation in marking definition and some size difference, the SHCs mostly look alike. Again, in contrast to N. pronuba, which can vary considerably in their choice of browns and greys.

Anyway, there were no NFY (new for year) moths in the trap this morning, so I focused on the SHC on a whim and placed a small tribe of those from the haul on to my trusty chunk of mossy and lichen-covered bark for a quick photoshoot and a macro closeup or two.

Moth of the Moment – Large Thorn, Ennomos autumnaria

Large Thorn, Ennomos autumnaria, attracted to the UV lamp of the scientific trap, night of 16th September, didn’t get a chance to enter the trap before I potted it to photograph this NFM*.

The species, like the other geometers we know as Thorns looks like an autumnal leaf, and occasionally quivers when roosting as if to follow the breeze. It’s a relatively large moth, but the “Thorn” of its vernacular name refers to a spike on the larva and is nothing to do with the adult being at all prickly.

Also around the trap at the same time a worn Orange Sallow (worn, but NFM*) and a Centre-barred Sallow, both very autumnal in appearance.

*NFM = New for me