Category: Nature

Tuatara 0

Kiwis, Caves and Snow-Capped Volcanoes – New Zealand Day 14

It’s Monday and we are still having the holiday of a lifetime in New Zealand. We awake to a damp drizzly day in Otorohanga, have a shower and breakfast in Camp Kiwi and then take the 30 second walk to the Kiwi House. The Kiwi House We are the first ones in and are treated...

Surfing The Bar, Whangamata 1

Surfing ‘Da Bar’, Crazy Golf and Kawhia – New Zealand Day 12

It was the day of the K2 race around Coramandel today. I’d found out a little bit about it now. It was a 200km hard core hilly bike race around the Coramandel Peninsula. The start location and route change from year to year and with the hot sun and the hilly route this years looked...

Kiwi Sign 0

Kauri Trees and Waterfalls – New Zealand Day 9

It was now Wednesday 24th October and we were awake early so made an early start. Through the Jungle After a breakfast of coffee and cereal in the camper we packed up and headed north along a gravel road to Waipoua Forest. The road itself was pretty interesting, a gravel track cutting through forest clad...

Our Route North 0

Northward Bound – New Zealand Day 8

With the race over it was now time to relax and enjoy myself and of course bask in the glory of competing in a World Championship Triathlon. Facebook was filling up with messages of congratulations and Anna, Morgan and myself were all now looking forward to two weeks touring around New Zealand in a camper...

Black-banded Moth 1

Black-banded Moth in Ceredigion

It may not be the most exciting of moths to look at, but it has caused some excitement here today. It’s a Black-banded moth (Polymixis xanthomista) that I found in the trap last night. It’s fairly rare in the UK having a designation of ‘Nationally Scarce A’. It is a sub-species distinct from those in mainland...

Swallow Prominent 0

More August Moths

Temperatures remained above 15°C last night, with a little bit of rain and some mist, but we had a fairly good collection of moths in the trap this morning. 72 moths in total from 23 different species, including a couple of new ones. Here’s the list 2x Drinker 3x Willow Beauty 2x Gold Spot 1x...

Small Rufous 0

Moth Trapping

On our way home from a swim in Aberydtwyth last night there were loads of moths in the headlights so I decided to put the moth trap out. Unfortunately the wind filled in quite a bit overnight getting to around 30 knots, so despite the fact that the temperature stayed up close to 20°C there weren’t...

Drinker 3

Last Nights Moths

We put the moth trap out again last night, but with cooler temperatures and stronger winds there weren’t quite so many moths come the morning as there were the other night. That did of course make going through and identifying them a lot easier this morning and Morgan and I had fun doing so. It...

Box of Moths 2

A Big “Box ‘o’ Moths”

Wow, loads of moths in the moth trap on Wednesday Night. Literally hundreds of micros and close to 150 macro moths from over 35 different species as well. Here’s the trap before I opened it. And here’s a typical sheet of egg box covered in moths. Here’s the full list: 18 x Common Footman 4...

View up the Dyfi Valley this Morning 1

Where are all the moths?

The second half of our night-time science experiments didn’t go so well. After the success of viewing Saturn, we put the moth trap out. I wasn’t expecting loads of moths in the trap as it has been so cold lately, but with clear, fairly dark skies, light winds and temperatures only dropping to 6°C I...