Many, Many Moths

The natural world never ceases to amaze me. I've been wandering around this area with an amateur naturalists eye for nearly 16 years and I've never seen anything like this.

I was walking around the field area. Parts of this fields have not been farmed and have laid fallow for a number of years. I had previously spotted a couple of 6-spot Burnet moths on some Field scabious as I approached the field. On closer inspection I realised that the whole field was dotted with white, paper looking cocoons looking like they were tied to the grass stems.

Some cocoons were empty and some had obviously only just been vacated by the moth.

Some cocoons still had residents in.

The amazing thing was that there were moths absolutely everywhere you looked. I've never seen so many...

... and it was difficult to avoid treading on them.

There are various versions of the Burnet moth, which is a day flying moth. The 5 spot is exactly the same colour and easily confused. The red and black colours are a warning to predators because the moth contains hydrogen cyanide.

After doing a bit of research I realised that there is another Burnet moth called a New Forest Burnet which is sadly now extinct in the Forest although it is still found in Western Argyle, Scotland.

Just for good measure, I also spotted this Blue-tailed dragonfly later in the evening. It's quite common but I've never seen one before. 

By the way part two of the Kukuri video is up on my YouTube Channel.

I'm off to Devon to mentor and help instruct a Shadowhawk Tracking course this weekend so I'll see you next week.

Thanks for the visit.

Pablo.