Halloween

For those who partake, have a happy and safe Halloween.

The 'head' was fitted with two beads which contain a low dose radioactive substance which glows when illuminated with UV light. In this case each bead has an UV LED glued to the back. The 'head' was photographed and the background removed and replaced with a colour using the Mac app Super Photocut:

Busy Autumn Bee

Not many bees around now that Autumn is well under way. This was the one I was watching on an Autumn Crocus when I spotted the micro moth I wrote about yesterday:





It was busily collecting pollen.
Towards the end of these video clips you can see it scraping the pollen in to its pollen sacs:

Micro Moth

I was watching a bee busily collecting pollen from an Autumn Crocus flower when I noticed a small dark triangle move. I had a feeling it must be a moth and a bit of research showed it was a micro moth, Anthophila fabriciana known as Nettle-tap:







Although descriptions say they have a 10-15 mm wingspan, presumably when in flight, as this one crept from pollen grain to pollen grain around the petals I would estimate that it was about 5-6 mm across. I also managed to take a bit of video:



These are said to be very common daytime flying moths which are active from May to October.

Background sounds include the bee I was originally watching and various whistles and clicks from nearby Starlings.

Sunrise with Crescent Moon

It was interesting yesterday morning to see a colourful Sunrise with the waning crescent Moon. As it was only 9% illuminated it was hard to get both to show in a photo:

 

May be difficult to spot but the Moon is near top centre.

Succulently Yellow

Nothing to do with food or eating.
A couple of my succulents have flowered for the first time, both have yellow flowers:

Faucaria Tigrina:


Faucaria Britteniae:


They are native to South Africa and grow in the propagator along with the Lithops (living stones)

Wordless Wednesday

Sunrise