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Brampton dragonflies and butterflies
I only occasionally photograph dragonflies and damselflies, the Odonata. My big zoom doesn’t give me the best results with these insects for some reason. However, I was at Brampton Wood yesterday for the recently emerged Black Hairstreak butterflies, of which I saw several dozen. Took a shorter zoom, 75-300mm instead of 150-600mm and tried my chances on snapping some dragonflies. First in the frame was this lovely Black-tailed Skimmer, Orthetrum cancellatum. What a great scientific name. Black-tailed Skimmer – Orthetrum cancellatum And, here’s a male of the relatively common species Broad-bodied Chaser, L...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - June 14, 2023 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Invertebrates Lepidoptera Source Type: blogs

Mothing addiction and the meaning of mothing
I acquired yet another moth trap to go alongside my old second-hand, home-made Robinson with the 40W actinic UV fluorescent U-tube, the portable 20W UV fluorescent Heath, the LepiLED, and, of course, the pheromone trap for the Emperor moth and the clearwings. The day-flying Yellow-legged Clearwing moth has evolved to resemble a wasp in order to avoid predation I crammed it with the usual stock of roosting options for the moths, a load of empty cardboard egg cartons and lit up. Skinner moth trap It was 11 Celsius last night, a degree cooler than a recent lighting-up session, but the new trap brought a fairly good haul, 28 m...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - June 6, 2023 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Lepidoptera Source Type: blogs

The White-point moth
TL:DR – The first White-point of my mothing year in the garden 4th June 2023. The White-point (Mythimna albipuncta) is one of the moth species we refer to as the Noctuidae, the owlets. It has perhaps the most obvious of names given its appearance. The White-point is an immigrant species to the British Isles, primarily found in the southern and southeastern regions of England, although it is seen in Norfolk. I’ve had it numerous times in my Cambridgeshire garden over my five years of serious mothing. In some years, hundreds are reported and there is some evidence that it might even breed here in good years, al...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - June 5, 2023 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Lepidoptera Source Type: blogs

Black Terns on a camping trip
TL:DR – Record shots of the three Black Terns at a local RSPB reserve. They say that one good tern deserves another, if you’re talking comic terns. So, when you go looking for one and three come along all at once it’s quite amusing. As I mentioned in a previous post about processing low-light photos, we were camping, locally…so local in fact that when three Black Terns were mentioned as being present on Ferry Lagoon at RSPB Fen Drayton it was only a short hop from RSPB Ouse Fen where we were camping to get a view of them. Black Tern on a pontoon Of course the birds were fishing in the waters there ...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - June 1, 2023 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Sciencebase Source Type: blogs

Processing photos at dawn
We were up early from our camp bed near Ouse Fen on Bank Holiday Monday. The aim was to get on to the RSPB reserve and observe at dawn. The Bitterns had boomed through the night and one or two were still calling when we timorously made our way through the chill (just after) dawn air, it was 5am. Mrs Sciencebase spotted a solitary Bittern crossing from reedbed to reedbed, the wont of females I believe, homing in on the blown-bottle sound of the males cryptically tucked away among the reeds. So, here she is, the unprocessed shot on the left saved from RAW format from the camera and untouched. To get the image on the right, ...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - June 1, 2023 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Birds Source Type: blogs

Will the tin man kill us all or take us down the yellow brick road?
Will artificial intelligence (AI) lead to the extinction of humanity? Well, the simplistic answer to that question, is a simple “no”, despite what every post-apocalyptic science fiction tale of our demise with an unhappy ending has told us. There are eight billion people on the planet, even with the most melodramatic kind of extinction event, there are likely to be pockets of humanity that survive and have the wherewithall to procreate and repopulate the planet, although it may take a while. A less simplistic answer requires a less simplistic question. For instance: Will artificial intelligence lead to potentia...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - May 31, 2023 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Artificial Intelligence Source Type: blogs

I got the Small Blues at Magog Down
It could have almost been a serenade to lepidopteral melancholy if I’d chosen to seek out butterflies at Trumpington Meadows* this morning, it’s not been a good season for butterflying there so far it seems, but instead it’s a celebration as I ended up counting dozens of Small Blue (Cupido minimus) at the equally serene but far more undulating Magog Down. Magog Down in almost full bloom The site is almost opposite Wandlebury where Mrs Sciencebase reckons we may have seen one of the rare blue butterflies many years ago (perhaps a Chalk Hill or a Small). A Small Blue butterfly, Cupido minimus. Not to be con...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - May 27, 2023 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Lepidoptera Source Type: blogs

Searching for Dingy Skipper, Erynnis tages, at Devil ’ s Dyke, Cambridgeshire
The weather picked up mid-morning, so I pinged my photo buddy Andy to see if he fancied taxiing me to Devil’s Dyke to seek out the cluster of Dingy Skipper butterflies not by others at this chalky embankment adjacent to Newmarket Racecourse. He did and within seconds of stepping on to the Dyke, we’d seen our first Adonis Blue (a presumed introduction dating to some time during the first lockdown). There were several Brimstone and a few Whites within the first few steps too. Adonis Blue butterfly at Devil’s Dyke We had to walk a bit further to pick up more Adonis Blue of which we probably saw several dozen...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - May 23, 2023 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Lepidoptera Source Type: blogs

M ôn Mam Cymru – Ynys M ôn, the Mother of Wales
TL:DR – Modern-day equivalent of the holiday snap slideshow a record of our most recent trip to Wales, specifically the Isle of Anglesey, Ynys Môn. May 2023, we finally got around to visiting Anglesey (Ynys Môn, sometimes referred to as Môn Mam Cymru meaning “Môn, Mother of Wales”, for its agricultural productivity) just off north-west Wales (Cymru). We stayed in the seaside town of Rhosneigr right next to RAF Valley and with beach views of Snowdonia, Yr Wyddfa. Thankfully, we only really had airbase activity and noise on the last day of our week there. Although that in itself was fun to watch as tra...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - May 22, 2023 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Birds Lepidoptera Photography Source Type: blogs

One swallow does not a summer make
In his writings on ethics, Aristotle had it that: One swallow does not a summer make, nor one fine day; similarly one day or brief time of happiness does not make a person entirely happy. Usually, we abbreviate it to just the first part of the quotation, suggesting that seeing an early swallow in the spring may well not mean that the good weather of summer is about to arrive. Barn swallow, Hirundo rustica Indeed, in Aesop’s fable, The Young Man and the Swallow, we learn of a fellow who spends most of his money on gambling and good living, when he arrives peniless and sees an early swallow in the spring he sells the c...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - May 10, 2023 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Birds Source Type: blogs

A hairy-winged member of the Amphiesmenoptera, Stenophylax permistus, the Permitted Narrow Guard
While most of my invertebrate photography focuses on Lepidoptera, it’s also fun to get shots of other insects, such as this large caddisfly, Stenophylax permistus, which turned up in the moth trap overnight. I’ve seen it several times before, but hadn’t previously felt inclined to take a photo until this morning. Caddisfly, Stenophylax permistus The scaly-winged Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies, same thing) and the hairy-winged Trichoptera (caddisflies, also known as sedge-flies or rail-flies) share a common evolutionary ancestor. The former group evolved to have scales on their wings while the latter h...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - May 9, 2023 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Invertebrates Source Type: blogs

Boosting your butterfly photos
It is Green Hairstreak season. I’d heard that this tiny, shimmering green butterfly had been spotted on Devil’s Dyke in Cambridgeshire in mid-April, so I headed out on foot to a local woodland patch that very day where the butterfly had been seen a couple of years ago. I was in luck! One specimen showing briefly. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a photograph on that visit. Next bright, sunshiny day headed out with Mrs Sciencebase to take another look. There were none on the expected patch, but we kept at it and rounded a corner where there was a Dogwood thicket and various other bushes with a crowd of Green Lo...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - May 1, 2023 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Lepidoptera Photography Source Type: blogs

Citizen science butterflying
Regular readers will know I’ve been making a concerted effort to see more species of butterfly during the last couple of summers. Obviously, most people will have seen the relatively common ones – Brown Argus, Comma, Common Blue, Green-veined White, Large White, Orange Tip, Painted Lady, Peacock, Red Admiral, Small Copper, Small Tortoiseshell, Small White. But, there are many more including various fritillaries, hairstreaks, other types of blue, other types of white that are not seen so frequently. They have limited ranges and sites, nectar and lay eggs only in particular environments, and are generally not see...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - April 24, 2023 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Lepidoptera Source Type: blogs

Butterfly cribsheet for Cambridgeshire, Essex, Norfolk, Northants, Suffolk
Regular readers will know I’ve been making a concerted effort to see more species of butterfly during the last couple of summers. Obviously, most people will have seen the relatively common ones – Brown Argus, Comma, Common Blue, Green-veined White, Large White, Orange Tip, Painted Lady, Peacock, Red Admiral, Small Copper, Small Tortoiseshell, Small White. But there are many more including various fritillaries, hairstreaks, other types of blue, other types of white that are not seen so frequently. They have limited ranges and sites, nectar and lay eggs only in particular environments, and are generally not seen...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - April 24, 2023 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Lepidoptera Source Type: blogs

How to attract more birds to your garden
TL:DR – Advice on attracting birds to your garden I was asked to offer some advice on how to attract more birds to the garden. I wrote a rather long article with lots of detail and added some bird photos of species we’ve seen in ours. I then asked ChatGPT to summarise the article and give me ten bullet points. This is my heavily edited version of the algorithm’s output: Attracting Birds to Your Garden: Provide water: Place shallow bowls or birdbaths with clean water at ground level and/or on a stand. Create a wildlife pond and extend it to create spillover area that becomes permanently muddy and diversif...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - April 22, 2023 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Birds Source Type: blogs