Sunday, 17 April 2011

Belted Beauties at Sunderland Point


Belted Beauty habitat. You can see a female on the post in the foreground in the right hand photo, just below halfway up the post. The saltmarsh is of course tidal, so the water levels in this creek will rise and fall, but at the time the photo was taken, the post was completely surrounded by water. Makes me wonder if the females can tollerate at least some salt water and maybe can cross small patches of water. The posts may seem a safe place to live, but the caterpillars need to feed in the vegetation, so at some stage in the life cycle, the moth has to get from the post to the vegetation!

Yes, this is a moth. Female Belted Beauty.

A male Belted Beauty (left) and a pair mating (right).

Drake Eider, never a common bird in the Nort West.

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