Gavin Deane
@gjdeane.bsky.social
I don't normally do the #BigButterflyCount in the garden, but I have this year. Buddleia and Ragwort did their stuff and I've just counted 12 butterflies on the list (well, 11 butterflies and a Silver Y moth), plus this Silver-washed Fritillary www.bigbutterflycount.org/count/32494470 Finally something other than a Winter Moth 🙂. Double-striped Pug found on a window on Monday.
Very early in the flight season according to guides books and internet, but I don't see what else it can be, and other people seem to have been seeing them. #teammoth Hi @mothiduk.bsky.social . Does this look like Common Marbled Carpet to you? Found in my house in East Devon this week. Thanks! Don't think I've ever seen a moth this worn before and still alive! There's a tiny bit of pink and black still showing on the abdomen so I think it must be a Convolvulus Hawk-moth @migrantmothuk.bsky.social.
Privet Hawk also pink, but it's too late in the season for that I think. #teammoth Hey! I've just counted 6 butterflies using the #BigButterflyCount app and I thought you'd be interested! www.bigbutterflycount.org/count/29153774
Well, actually 8. Saw a couple of Grayling too, which aren't on the count.
(Plus 4 or 5 too distant to ID).
Lovely stroll in the sun in the heath. bigbutterflycount.org
Big Butterfly Count
Some good daytime moth action in the garden today. Rosy Footman on the buddleia. And a Jersey Tiger - perhaps one for @migrantmothuk.bsky.social (I'm in East Devon). #teammoth I don't do my #BigButterflyCount in the garden because I already record those in the @savebutterflies.bsky.social Garden Butterfly Survey. But if I did, I'd be counting loads of them. My little buddleia is really doing its job. Comma, Large White and Red Admiral - 3 of the 6 species I've just seen. Just spotted this freshly emerged #dragonfly in my garden #pond. Looks like a Hawker of some sort, but not sure which species while it's all just pale green like this. Been watching the larvae in the pond for a few months so it's nice to see the adults now. @britishdragonflies.bsky.social Hello @mothiduk.bsky.social. Would appreciate confirmation for a couple from my East Devon garden this week. Do I have Common Marbled Carpet and Dwarf Pug? Thank you! Some of the 20 Maybugs that were in my moth trap this morning. They have been around a lot recently but this is definitely a peak count.
(There were moths too, although I haven't finished ID'ing them yet)
#teammoth #teambeetle @colsocbi.bsky.social 13 moths of 8 species in my East Devon garden last night. Highlights were a Marbled Brown and this impressive Great Prominent, which are new species for me. Treble Lines most numerous (4 of them). And I always love a green one - Green Carpet. #teammoth I've never seen a cave spider before, but it seems that I've been living with them. We've taken the living room floor boards up today, and found two of these beautiful and distinctive egg sacs underneath. I'll go and look for the spiders later, when it's dark. @britishspiders.bsky.social A quiet night in my East Devon garden last night. Just 5 moths in the trap. 4 Hebrew Character, and this Streamer which is a new species for me. #teammoth He's hatched! My first Orange-tip butterfly sighting of the year is the one I found as a caterpillar last year. Named - obviously - for the orange wing tips, but the underside is just as striking. That's my daughter's hand helping to release him.
@savebutterflies.bsky.social This Engrailed was another crisp, fresh-looking visitor to the outside of my kitchen window last night. And my Orange-tip chrysalis from last year is definitely turning more orange now. That colour wasn't there a few days ago. #teammoth @bcdevon.bsky.social A few from the playing field this weekend.
#WildflowerID are the first two sone sort of Speedwell, and Ground Ivy?
Also some Cow Parsley getting ready to flower, White Deadnettle, and Lesser Celandine (they're everywhere at the moment).
Ladybird and wolf spiders were out too. #WildflowerHour Put my moth trap out in my Devon garden on Friday. First time since moving across the country. 10 moths/7 species (@migrantmothuk.bsky.social all resident - no migrants). Early Tooth-striped (a new species for me), Early Grey, Hebrew Character and Common Quaker (one of four) in the photos. #teammoth @mothiduk.bsky.social Not very well marked, and apologies for a bit of a blurry photo, but does this look like Diurnea flagella to you? Trapped in my garden in Devon on Friday night. Thank you! #teammoth Seen flowering in the banks and hedges this week: Gorse, Hazel (didn't see any tiny pink female flowers), Snowdrops, and what I think (???) are Stinking Hellebore, and Greater and Lesser Periwinkle (not sure if the last two count as wild). #WildflowerHour @wildflowerhour.bsky.social @rspb #BigGardenBirdwatch results submitted. Wouldn't have predicted Rook was going my winner, but three of them sat in a tree for a bit. Did my @rspb.bsky.social #BigGardenBirdwatch on Saturday morning with the kids. 25 birds of 15 species.
We've moved from Cambridgeshire to Devon since the last one and it's much more wooded here, so Coal Tits and a Goldcrest were a bit of a change from what we saw in the old garden. 
