counting coots

Beauty does not necessitate colour.  That's not another quote from one of those book things, it's an observation what I made.  Yes, Bee-eaters and Kingfishers are beautiful but some of my favourite birds are black.  Or white.  Or a combination of both, for monochrome simplicity is also beautiful.  And so it is with moths.

This moth (called an Ermine) was found in the kitchen over the weekend.  Dead, as you expected.

Very pretty moth (especially when it's alive).  Black and white doing it again.  Note the red patch on the back of it's head - it's not the norm.  I have seen this in Ermine before (get me!  Sounding like a right lepidopterist!) and this is how I reckon it happens.  They fly to the light bulb and bounce off.  And do it again, and again.  This slowly burns the fur (?) on the back of it's head of and then when it keeps going to the light it fries it's little brain up, and there it ends.  There was another one on the kitchen floor last week which also looked dead.  However, I picked it up and took it to the back garden where twenty seconds of direct sunlight brought it back to life and it flew off.

My moth list is now charging through the 20's with the addition of a few more species including this Light Emerald (Campaea margaritata), which can be assumed to be fresh as it is still quite greeny.