Saturday, 29 June 2019

Painted Ladies, Foresters and a mystery carcass

The recent influx of Painted Ladies has continued, I saw 5 last Saturday but over 20 today around Beeley Moor. They were most apparent on the newly replanted forest areas but I saw several crossing Beeley Moor in a southerly direction.
Many are very worn but some are in quite good condition which makes me wonder whether they have all travelled the same distance. Hundreds if not thousands have been reported from eastern and southern coastal sites so it's a very significant immigration.
Painted Lady

The first Forester Moths have emerged again on Flash Lane with at least a dozen seen today. I heard of other sightings in the Cromford and Ashover area so this is probably a fairly widely distributed moth on rough grassland which may have been overlooked in the past.
Forester Moth - male on right and smaller female on left
Walking in Whitesprings Plantation with Mel Hayes we came across the emaciated, headless corpse of a mustelid. We couldn't specifically identify the corpse which was about 35cm long, including the tail, but suspected it could be a young Polecat. There have been a few records of dead animals as road casualties in the area in recent years but I've yet to see a live one.
Possible Polecat corpse

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