Moon Moth

It rained a lot yesterday and when I came back from work, unusually both my wife and son came up, grabbed an arm each and dragged me onto the balcony. Wondering what I'd done this time and whether I had any useful excuses available, I didn't notice at first that they were pointing up. Then I saw it. A Japanese Moon Moth as big as my open hand fastened to the ceiling! It must have dived in to escape the previous nights rain.

I've seen these a few times, usually after heavy summer rains which tend to damage their wings if they're caught without shelter. They only appear around July ~ August and rarely last more than a week in their moth form. This is because they don't have functioning mouth parts so cannot eat. The short time they exist is just long enough to find a partner and mate. Beautiful creatures and we were honored to see one on our balcony :)

Dragon Hunt on One Leg

Well, bought a new camera this week which takes great shots in macro or telephoto mode which is the good news. On the other hand I hurt my leg badly enough to stop me from roaming too far from home. This means I've been practicing my photography in a small area crammed with wildlife I can get at, which at this time of the year means dragonflies. Good thing is I don't have to go hopping after them, just exercise a little patience and they come and land nearby.

Hopefully after a few sessions with the physiotherapist I'll be back on two (functioning!) feet again and can go on some wider safaris.

With a little luck and a planning I'm hoping to get some video of these in flight. Call it my summer homework. Until then, enjoy these and wish me luck ;)

This one looked to have some damage to it's wings making it easy to capture in image but a little sad to see.

The Mandibles!!

It's got my finger!!

Well, Professor Ewan got his first pet of the summer, and in an unexpected location. We opened the front door and there on the porch was a Japanese stag beetle (kuwagata). It was a surprise to say the least. With a totally uncharacteristic turn of speed the Prof picked it up and transferred it to a pet box while I was still pointing at the spot on the ground. It seemed like he'd been training all his life for this moment! Anyway, our guest has adapted well to his new home, possibly because of the abundant supply of jelly that my son has lavished on him. It's getting to the point where I'm afraid I'm going to wake up one morning with a 2 meter set of mandibles locked around my neck!!

About the right size for my son to ride it!

 Actually, stag beetles make great pets. They're easy to look after. All they need is a suitable piece of wood to hide under, a reliable source of jelly and can be carried around on a finger. With two you can enjoy the spectacle of them trying to fling each other off the piece of wood! One thing to avoid is holding them to close to the face. They have a very beetle like habit of spraying fluid out of their back end. You can see this in the video :)

Micro Martian Monster

Was walking through the fields watching out for some of the local wildlife I could photograph, like herons, lizards or perhaps a snake and not having much luck. Everything seemed to be hiding. Seems I was casting my view too wide. Sat down in the grass for a bit of a rest, when I noticed this green speck on my arm. Could barely see it as my eyesight is not that great, so tried to take a macro photo and see what turned up. Out of half a dozen attempts this is the only one that worked out. The micro monster from Mars, more commonly known as a greenfly ;)

Stink Bugs!

Watch out for that spray!

If you read my last post you'll find that I had no idea what kind of beetle I'd found. Well, today I got a surprise. Along with the type pictured here, they belong to a group called 'stink bugs' and they are actually classified as pests! Apparently, they can do a lot of damage to crops like soy and others and farmers spend a lot of time and effort to eliminate them. The thing that most surprised me though is that when scared, they spray out a smelly liquid. Considering I spent some time handling the bug in the previous post and didn't get sprayed, I guess I'm lucky! Either that or the beetle I picked up was a dud bug ; )

The Finger Dragon

Professor Ewan with his first exhibit of the year.

Couldn't believe this lizard was out and about. Have had a miserable, rainy, freezing cold winter this year, but yesterday the sun came out for an hour and it was slightly warm - about 12C. Found this little beauty sunning himself on a wall. Professor Ewan - so named because he's always lecturing me on various topics - was beside himself as we weren't expecting anything to be awake for a good few weeks yet!

Loved the pattern of his scales and beautiful yellow eye.

We spent 15 minutes taking photographs and having a good look at him. Usually, it's very hard to catch these because in the summer they're like little streaks of lightning. Most of the time all you see is the end of a tail disappearing into the long grass. On the rare occasions we've caught one, we've had to hold on tight otherwise they're off! However, because of the cool weather and an empty stomach after 4 months hibernation this one was very easy to catch and handle. Great for taking photos, but a pity we didn't have the video with us.

We put him him back on the wall and he disappeared into the leaves.

We didn't have much success in keeping these last summer. We caught several, but they refused to eat and would rapidly lose weight. Sadly, we lost two, and then decided just to keep any more we caught  for a few days before returning them to the place we found them. This summer we're planning to do some research into the best environment for them and make a larger and hopefully more suitable home for the lizards and any other wildlife we catch.

Here is a video of the first lizard we kept back when Professor Ewan was around 5 or 6. At that time, he'd just got his first camera and I started taking videos of the animals we caught and various mini safari's we took together. The six or seven I made became a series on Youtube called 'The Family Pet'. These can be seen by clicking on the link.