Meadow photographs

Here are some of my photos taken this afternoon in a break in the showers.

All seen in our meadow or in the adjacent hedge.

Burnet Moth (possibly Five-spot)

Broomerape

Bee Orchid

Very fresh Pyramidal Orchids

Goats Beard with a Grass Vetchling

Quaking Grass

A caterpillar!?

Aspects of nature from the Somerset wetlands

Its definitely raining. We've been longing for rain to keep the garden growing and to encourage the orchids in our meadow for some time now. We hope it will produce a visually exciting spectacle  for visitors. Today I'm spending  time uploading some photos and revising my  "to do" list. Yesterday with the help of the family offering advice and better still some with hard work, we were able to complete the construction of a new small pond in our "wild patch"  and fill it with rain water for the first time. Its about three metres by two and 35 cm deep at one end. We emptied three water butts in doing so but this morning the rain is quickly refilling them. A small ceremony has just taken place in the rain with photographs of us adding some pond weed.

The photo's I'm showing you below were taken during a visit on 29th May to the Avalon Marshes visitor centre in Somerset. The occasion was the Avalon 24hr nature watch. Amazingly 12 hardy watchers received a certificate to confirm that they had indeed watched through the night. Owls and bats and moths at night and otters and various activities during the day.
I took a friend from Buckinghamshire along to see what was going on and we managed to do a quick tour of the Centre itself and three adjacent nature reserves. I think he was impressed by the  peace and tranquility of walks on the reserves and the extent of the organisation going in to the extensive conservation work demonstrated.
The photos are just snaps really of items of interest ( to me at least)

This is an impressive set of wood carvings to symbolise the well known local feature of the Starling display each winter as they come in thousands to roost at night.

I thought this was an odd form of Tufted Vetch ( Vicia cracca) until I got closer and then realised the stem was covered in aphids (I assume) . They were all the same colour as the flowers which were missing. Is that because they were feeding on the plant? There were plenty of plants with flowers which are very attractive.

 Natural England were playing a big part in running the 24 hour event with tractor rides around the nearby reserve.

Goats-beard, sometimes called Jack-go-to-bed-at-noon  (Tragopogon pratensia ) is really impressive growing on the banks of a Rhyne.  ( Somerset name for a  drainage ditch)

Caterpillars in large numbers may not be everyones "cup of tea" but here they show the way they start their lives as moths or butterflies. Can someone tell me which and name them ?

Benches are placed around these very quiet reserves, rarely disturbed by planes or traffic noise. Sitting watching the fish coming to the surface now and again was a very impressive and satisfying experience for my guest and myself.

Acherontia atropos, known as the Death's Head Hawkmoth

I found it hard to accept that I was being shown a real live moth caterpillar but it was true. The third photograph shows its size and we understand it is not fully grown.  The moth itself we didnt see. Its the lava of the Deaths Head Hawkmoth.
More information can be obtained from the Somerset Moth Group.
Top picture  by John Bebbington others by Roger Harvey.
Here is a link to a photo showing the moth. Click here.

Moths and Butterflies

Possibly the hardest working specialist groups in Somerset are the "Somerset Moth Group" and the associated "Somerset and Bristol Butterfly Conservation Group". I would like to challenge any conservation group to show me a more extensive series of outdoor activities than those shown on the respective web sites, linked below, for 2010.
Please check out this web link and please let me know if anyone can do more for conservation than this!
Here is the Moth Group  link  


To complete the picture here is a link to the Butterfly Conservation web site showing their list of events.  click here

Butterflies and Moths. Public meeting. The use of colour in butterflies and moths

On Thursday 22nd January we have our first public meeting of 2009.

John Bebbington, Secretary of the Somerset Moth Group will be presenting a talk on how butterflies and moths use colour to give themselves protection from predators.John will be illustrating his talk with some of his wonderful photographs.

Despite the flooding in December we will be meeting in the Curry Rivel Primary School hall at 7 pm.

The school is in School Lane in the centre of Curry Rivel with car parking near by.

As a result of this very successful event with wonderful photos ( as you would expect from a Member of the Royal Photographic Society) and an appreciative audience, I can give two links to sites you can see even more of Johns photographic work in wildlife.
Nature Photographers Portfolio. Link here.
Somerset Moth Group. Link here.

The display of these photos on a large screen together with a very informative talk was even more impressive than just viewing the pictures you will see at the links given.