Thursday became our wettest day of the year with recorded rainfall of 11.2mm. It was dull and miserable with spells of rain throughout the day. It was a shock to the system after the lovely weather of the last week or so.
Thursday’s rainfall amount wasn't anything exceptional for one day and doesn't get it into our top thirty wettest days since 2009. At least 13.0mm is required to move into the top thirty.
In the last couple of days I've spotted a butterfly and moth which I thought were unusual and that I hadn't seen before and must therefore be rather rare. As it turns out that’s not the case for either of them. I spotted the butterfly on a visit to the plot on Wednesday. I popped down to drop of some materials for making a fruit cage to protect our redcurrants and to water our newly sown peas.
I couldn't remember seeing one of these small butterflies before but it turns out to be a small copper and a common variety.
On Thursday afternoon between the rain showers I popped up to check that nothing was drying out in the home greenhouse. Unlikely to happen on such a dull day but better safe than sorry. I only just spotted this tiny moth resting on one of our viola flowers.
After a quick snap with my phone camera I headed back to the house to try my luck with my Sony camera. When I got back the moth was still on the flower and then it was a question of how close could I get without disturbing the moth or finishing up too close and with a blurry image.
After a bit of cropping and tweaking the final result isn't too bad. It’s a common mint moth but I can’t remember ever noticing one before. As you might guess it gets its name because the caterpillars feed on the mint family. I’ll inspect our pot of mint for caterpillars when the weather improves.
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What lovely photos. How do you stop them flying off when you approach?! I can't photograph a butterfly for love nor money, they see me coming from miles away.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest I usually get lots of flowers or leaves and no butterfly.
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