Argh.  Google have messed with Blogger and I can't use it with Internet Explorer anymore.  Instead of conveniently downloading Google Chrome as they suggested I have simply transferred my blog to a new site, which is where I will be writing from now on.  To hell with google.

http://adventuresinredgraveandlophamfen.wordpress.com/

Today I have been mainly concentrating on some of my favourite animals: moths.  Here follows a photo list of what I have caught here so far:




Plume Moth - Emmelina monodactyla, a little freak




Diurnea fagella - I think the pattern on the wings looks like an angry, angry man




My first big furry moth of the year - an Early Grey!




Satellite



Acleris notana or ferrugana, you can only tell them apart by poking at their bits... I did not poke

March moth... satisfyingly caught in March

Red Chestnut

Small Quaker

Brindled Pug... I think

Brindled Beauty, a very appropriate name

Shoulder Stripe - the most colourful and beautiful moth so far?  Look at the purple!

Common Quaker

The Chestnut

Dotted Border



Twin-Spotted Quaker



A nice pair of Hebrew Characters

Clouded Drab

The star of the show  - Frosted Green

This last moth I had the chance to become very well acquainted with, and he perfectly illustrates the placid and endearing characteristics that makes moths so wonderful. 

I didn't know what he was at first, the name "Frosted Green" being slightly misleading in my opinion, so I decided to take him home with me to have a better look.  After having already having spent the night trapped in a plastic bucket and then been given a cursory examination, he then had to face the indignity of being carted back to HQ in a wheel-barrow.  He dealt with this in an exemplary manner and then, after having been duly identified, he spent the day sitting on his egg-box by my bedside, enduring a range of world and alternative musics. 

As dark approached I took a little walk to put the trap out again in a different location.  So in he went, back into the wheelbarrow, and I transported him back to his original location where I placed him in a little pile of leaves.  Hopefully by now he is flying around making lots of baby moths, and is no worse the wear for his ordeal.  Throughout his time with me he never once tried to a) eat my belongings b) urinate and defacate on my belongings and floor coverings c) bite me d) bite the other moths e) cause me any trouble at all in any way.  This is a nice change from the usual animal behaviour I have to deal with.

I am making some good new friends in Suffolk!

Adders:  FAIL
Either we are the worst adder-locators in the world or they are all DEAD.  Have been out twice now and searched all the sunny banks and under old bits of corrugated iron and have found not 1 Adder.  We did find 2 Grass Snakes and 4 Slow Worms though.  Observe:

A Worm Head



Shortly after this photo was taken I got to hold the Slow Worm and it promptly released its bowel contents all over me. 

Reptile searching does have its upsides though.  This morning as we left the visitor centre we saw this beautiful Barn Owl hunting over the fen.

In fact our (wholly unsubstantiated but interesting) theory is that the mysterious absence of Adders is due entirely to the hunting pressure of the Barn Owl species on the reserve.

Now that they have run out of Adders I suspect they will return to their more traditional food sources.  Like this fat juicy little vole. 



Minsmere Excursion Report:
Initial conclusions:  Minsmere is a pleasant but overpopulated reserve.  I personally found it lacking in Bittern activity, but did see a Bearded Tit.  There used to be Bearded Tits breeding where I live but they're all dead now.  Avocet numbers were acceptable:

In fact numbers were almost excessive

I was nearly killed twice in stampedes, the first for a Water Vole nibbling on a log in front of a hide (it looked like Strathpig but not as cute) and then when a Glossy Ibis flew down in front of another hide.


The Glossy One


I did rather like the Ibis, look closely at it's eye which is cute.  Other birds included Cetti's Warbler, Marsh Harriers everywhere, Spotted Redshank, Marsh Tit, Red-Legged Partridge and Green Woodlpecker.

Afterwards I went shopping in Waitrose which I cannot afford but as my mother brought me up properly I shopped there anyway and the expense be damned! 

Monday I Returned To Work
Important work:  the Konik Ponies needed attending to.  Here they are in the little corral I helped build them, looking alert and wondering what we are about to do to them. 

They needed their hooves trimmed. They are supposed to be wild ponies and their hooves are meant to self-manage but sometimes they do not and they have to be interfered with.  Since they are wild ponies they need a little bit of chemical calming before a man can stick their hooves between his legs, so the vet gave them something to soothe them.  Below is Blondie, the ringleader and wildest of the wild ponies.  I like him because he tried to kick us when we trapped him in the corral.

In fact Blondie was given extra drugs just to make sure he was amenable to handling.  Below are the results:

Under the influence

Today I have been learning about Water Voles, or as I prefer to call them, Water Rats.  I learned about the tracks and signs and then we went out to hunt some down.  I found this rather charming burrow.  Note the charactersistic droppings to the left.

I am guaranteed by the course tutor that on a quiet evening they will be swarming about the river and ditches, and I just have to sit and let them come to me.  Or if that fails they will come to apple.  Very much like Strathpig then.

Tomorrow: Adders!

Alas

Tonight an Otter crawled out of a ditch 6 feet away from me and then had a massive heart attack when it saw me.  I can't really be held responsible, I was wearing a giant glowing headtorch strapped to my forehead.  If it didn't notice that then... well, it needs to learn better survival skills. 

Arrival

I live in a small room with 2 guinea pigs and 11 houseplants.  Here is a view from my window.

I think there is supposed to be a Muntjac in this photo but it evaded me.  Apparently they are like Rats around here so I am sure to track one down eventually.  Instead please observe the features of the car park where there is a small area for buying firewood and wood chips.

I live on a fen.  It is very nice, filled with reeds and water and woodlands.  Observe the fen:

On the fen lives much beautiful wildlife including this most yellow of the butterflies: The Brimstone.  Alas I did not tarry to photograph it properly, I wanted to get on and see the Prairie Dog.

The Prairie Dog, a Black-Tailed Prairie Dog to be precise, inhabits a field by the reserve.  He has excavated a homely burrow system and his passtimes involve burrowing and sunbathing.  These pastimes surely do not distract him from his sad and lonely life, but apparently if he ever finds love then he and his Lady Dog will be shot to prevent a repeat of the Prairie Dog outbreak in Ireland.  The humanity.