Abbey Meadows

Abbey Meadows

Tuesday 11 May 2010

Hadston dunes

Garden Tiger moth caterpillar


Sedge Warbler

St. Marks fly


Spent an hour in the dunes at Hadston. Plenty of plants coming into flower and swarms of St. Marks flies. It must be the time of year for these to hatch rather than the temperature. It was freezing along there today. I have read that Garden tiger moths come out of hibernation when the weather warms up but it still felt like winter today but there were a lot of these caterpillars in the dunes. A few birds here with Whitethroat and Sedge warbler singing in the scrubby areas.

In Morpeth there has been a Grasshopper warbler singing all week in a grassy area between St. Georges park and the Howburn woods. I saw a Badger on my way home from work the other night.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wish i could find a Garden Tiger, Nigel. Larva or adult will do. It`s one of those species at the top of my want to see list.

abbey meadows said...

I'm quite surprised Dean. They are quite widespread and I have seen adults on the walls of buildings in the early mornings in the past. The larva are quite numerous in the coastal dunes here.

Ipin said...

St marks flies are numerous too! millions of em today

Emma Anderson said...

That's a super caterpillar picture. When I was a child, someone put just such a caterpillar, or something very similar, on the palm of my hand and my hand was quite badly poisoned.