JERSEY TIGER MOTH - Euplagia quadripunctaria

Well here is a turn up for the books!

I first saw one of these several days back and thought it was mi first Garden Tiger Moth?! It flew in front of me a couple hundred yards from my house in Enfield and then landed on a wall. The only camera I, rather annoyingly, had on me was my phones camera but no sooner had I removed it from a pocket and the Moth launched back towards me and then up and over a fence!

Around two or three days later I had just left my house when another, or indeed thew same one, looped over my garden fence and then landed on the wood. I shot back inside the house to grab the camera only to find it had disappeared on being back in the garden?!

Darn it!

Than I was moving around slowly when it flew across me from right to left and up under some conifers before landing again! Then I got some shots and some videos!

It was then that I noticed it did not look like a Garden Tiger Moth and thought it must be something different!

After some excited texts from my brothers I realised it was a Jersey Tiger Moth, Euplagia quadripunctaria.

Now there are three videos and this thing was stunning in flight due to its deep orange underwings, which you may just get a glimpse of at the end of one of the videos?!

VIDEOS ...

THE ORIGINAL RED EAR RETURNS

I am sure this is the smaller of two Terrapins I know quite locally that last year I did not spot?

The one I did see I am sure is a couple inches bigger than this one? Anyhoo this was the second Terrapin seen that day and spotted between some bushes while on my bike on the way home! I was of course looking out for these ones, there were two originally, so not a big deal spotting it really.

THE RETURN OF THE DANCING DEMOISELLES

Ahh my old favourites return!

Graceful on the wind like that of a pirouetting ballet dancer when the reality is that other flying insects live in mortal fear of. A hunting and expertly winged predatory eagle eyed death on the wing Damselfly.

PAIR OF MATING DAMSELFIES

A apr of Damselflies mating up at Cottonmill Stream.

A SPIKY CATERPILLAR

From my young days with a younger brother and if memory serves me well this distant, from me, caterpillar may well be a Peacock. I am sure spikes and nettles rings bells of Peacocks? Probably Small Tortoiseshells?! LOL!

A GOLDEN COLOURED DRAGONFLY

A very peculiar coloured Dragonfly, not Damselfly because it holds it wings out and that is one difference between the two.

Probably a female Darter of some sort and there are Common Darters in the area. This is at Cottonmill Stream which is a welll known Dragonfly sanctuary. Not as many as the authorites would have you believe, not even close but I have so far seen three or four large Dragonflies of the Hawker group (Brown, err Migrants last year and the other looking like that one, Emperor), Banded Demoiselles are always in large and impressive numbers too. Also seen Red Eyed Damselflies and pictured them but rubbish. Hopefully this year some good and sharp shots.

Hairy Legged Damsels ... errrr ... or was it White Legged Damselflies?! Lol!

BEE ORCHIDS 2014

Now there did not seem to be many of these about, but I have to go back and double check a few things!

Last year the surrounding plants were a great deal lower than they are this year and I cannot emphasize this enough! So I do not know if I just cannot see the others, which might be why I have not found them previously, or much more likely that the excessive and constant Winter, Spring and early Summer rain has allowed the normal plants to block out the light from the Orchids?

There was one Bee Orchid, shown in one of the videos, which was much taller than the others and all of them were much taller than the ones I saw last year.

Bee Orchids Patch One

A nice example of a Bee Orchid in Patch One

Bee Orchids Patch Two

THE RED EARED ALIEN

Well there is an alien in the vicinity down at the cotton mill!

Not spotted by me previously a Red Eared Terrapin of the North American Clemmys ... errrr or is that Macroclemmys genus. Sometimes going under the silly name of Red Eared Sliders no doubt called by children in America because they look like they are sliding down ramps into water?

Oh wait or have I got this correct?

I filmed two of these four miles apart and one of them I know and have posted films and photos of it previously. One I have not, lol.

A PAIR OF PYRAMIDAL ORCHIDS

Now whereas the numbers of Bee Orchids are vastly reduced, POSSIBLY, compared to last year the numbers of Anacamptis are only slightly reduced.

So doing a running year by year study of the local British Orchids here is the site of the Pyramidal Orchids, which is site 1 of course as its the only one! Well only one I have found thus far!

A DEAD GRASS SNAKE

This one was at Cottonmill Stream and as soon as I looked down and despite it being upside down and torn apart at both ends and missing a head that this was a young Grass Snake, Natrix ummm natrix helveticus? Cannot be bothered to look it up and the memory not working as it should lol, damn this Fibrofog malarkey!

Have to keep an eye out for these and I think an early morning raid, well camp out in reality, is in order to get more on these?

SHOW US YOUR WINGS, SKIPPER!

A Skipper Butterfly and I was sure there was another butterfly of similar colour but a little bigger?

For those Butterfly enthusiasts into the finer details of said things this other Butterfly had the typical ... bounce in its flight that I did not think Skippers performed? Think of a White or a Brown in flight and it was like that. This was quite close to some Bee Orchids and some Pyramidal Orchids I was filming.

COMMA BUTTERFLY in 2014

A new year and a new set of British Wildlife films!

Let us hope I see a few things quite out of the ordinary this year?

So first up is a not out of the ordinary, well not of recent times that is for certain, a Comma Butterfly.

THE RETURN OF THE DEMOISELLES

My new favourites, no not 'old' favourites, the Banded Demoiselles!

So very cool and very reassuring to know that these are back and I am back there filming them because I was begiunning to wonder where in the hell the summer had gone?! Especially as we were supposed to be eight weeks into a roasting and in reality its been two days and a couple of days 6 weeks back.

Unfortunately this sudden rise in temperature combined with my sudden need to cycle for miles resulted in the most gargantuan of headaches that I get eevery year at this time. How much the temperature has risen will dictate just how bad the headaches are, especially the early ones.

I have long suspected this is down to dehydration and refer to them as my Dehydration Headaches and that the awareness of my condition of Fibromyalgia and the fact that this condition does indeed affect your ability to deal with extremes of heat and extreme changes in temperature I think that the body must also dehydrate very easily and quickly when it gets too hot too quickly?!

I normally takes a few weeks or more to acclimatise to the changes, bah humbug!

Now lets hope the waether stays good, though a little cooler would be nice, because there are a few things happening on other blogs over the next few weeks. So getting a start on this one along with some tropical Orchid stuff happening on another one and my technology blog getting some much needed content its exciting times indeed!

THE CANADIANS AND THE SWAN FAMILY

Odd here because I spot Canadian Pond Weed, no not the Elodea densa you buy for your Goldfish but the smaller, less bushy and more intricate Elodea canadensis.

I am sure I never spotted this before at this site?!

Also a family of Swans with young cygnets, numberig five, at Cornmill Stream that I will now keep an eye on when I can as Gwen would never forgive me otherwise! Lol!

FIRST SPOTTING OF BEE ORCHIDS SITE ONE

Well here I am at Site 1 and sure enough I have now gone two years in a row at seeing Bee Orchids there and yet for 5 years beforehand not a single bloody one?!

Queue Twilight Zone JINGLE!! Lol!

These are my first ones this year and my first PROPER venture out this year two, that I was not both extremely ill and suffering from heartbirn and then throwing up, lol.

COMMON SPOTTED ORCHID NEW SITE CONFIRMATION

Shocking myself by walking up to the same point I saw these Orchids last year or the year before by some miracle I filmed and can now confirm the existence of Common Spotted Orchids are Site 1 of my various sites.

Now I state that I walked to the same spot but while looking the same there were just two Orchids where last time I thought there were three of two different yes, I remembered them being closer together, but might have just been that one has not appeared alongside another just yet.

Also you have to remember that after spotting the Bee Orchids and Common Spotted Orchids last year I then SCOURED the area looking for other Common Spotted Orchids to no avail. I of course did this again after finding these but only found several Bee Orchids. Some of the buds of the latter were not open so I will go back up in a few days time and ... scour once again.

Also bear in mind that I have been visiting thhis site dozens of times each year for at least 6 maybe 7 years now and yet only in the last 12 months have I seen both Common Spotted Orchids at this site, not documented as far as I know, and Bee Orchids, which are documented as being here for sure.

So the most boring site of all the Orchid sites has now become the most ... intriguing!

PYRAMIDAL ORCHIDS JUNE 2014

First venture out, proper that is, this year and just in time to!

Now this is site number one using my definitions and the Pyrmidal Orchids were out in force, where when I was there last 6 weeks back and very ill there was no sign of them at all!

I do a pan shot video and get a few photos and videos of exceptionally coloured specimens.

Now I do not know how I did it but I walked directly the to the remarkably indistnguishable spot where either last year or maybe the year before I spotted three other Orchis species to the two I had read were on the site?! However it was a bit different because there were two and they were farther apart than I remember. Despite the flowers dried up and finished when I spotted them the first time I did think that of the three Orchids there were two types?! This time there were just two and they were both Common Spotted Orchids I will post up next.

Yes the Bee Orchids were also out but not like they were last year and in all honesty the grass and weeds have grown exceptionally high which may have hindered their growth due to bloking light. Even my garden and the edges of the local playing fields the grasses and weeds are three feet high and I have never seen them this high before, not even later in the year!

One part of the River Lea towpath even felt like I was being swamped in a section thats normally very open!

IN SEARCH OF THE WHITETHROAT FLYCATCHER!!

I was flummoxed today, no really I was!

I spotted an out of the ordinary bird that was dipping and peaking the tops of the weeds and nettles, which had grown high due to the abundant rainfall this Spring 2014.

Now as I state in the first video below these were sizeable birds and I would say larger than a House SParrow, which is listed at 14 or 15cm. I thought they, there was a second one it turned out, SPotted Flycathers? However I had never seen Flycatchers and turned out there size would have been too small to be these.

They were perching in upright and vertical stems of plants which is not done by many species of birds and outside of Warblers, which I think I stated in the film, and Bearded Reedlings, which these were clearly not, not a great many do that.

There was a hen Blackbird nearby and likely a youngster bu these guys looked biggert than that even. However when I got hom and finally looked at the second video, where I actually get one on film briefly, I discover that they are White Throated Warblers?!

This got even stranger when I noticed in my RSPB book that the size given for Whitethroat Warblers was too small for these birds! No white ring around the eye but it is a difficult distance admittedly. In fact outside of the Barred Warbler none of the sizes quoted look like they could come close to these?!

On the description in YouTube I do a rundown of all the Warblers and ruling them out for one reason or another and I am left not really knowing. Exceptionally large Lesser Whitethroat Warblers is the only way I can describe them.

I will have to get my brother Ryan to look at the second video at some point.

THE DANCING, THE WAVING, THE SLITHERING & THE BELITTLING

Being something of a very educated man in the world of amphibians but admittedly with my finger of the proverbial pulse in recent times I got a bit confused at this report.

Dancing frogs is what the BBC report calls these things but when I resting about this seemingly unusual dancing behavior it started to become somewhat ... familiar!

Although the frogs in the picture look different to the family of frogs I think they are related to they look more like something related to another, Epipidobates of South America which are plain cousins to the Poison Arrow Frogs, or Poison Frogs, of the Dendrobates groups, many renamed now, of South America?

The odd thing is the behavior they refer to as 'dancing' I think is nothing of the kind, until I have looked into it further. I believe these are types of Semaphore Frogs and the genus I am familiar with are Staurois. These wave they legs about while arising their toes to reveal a turquoise blue webbing because they bred near noisy waterfalls. So body in fact that it renders any vocalization completely useless and therefore they evolved, or learned, to use the blue webbing to advertise themselves. Hence the name Semaphore Frog and the same name as those guys that work on an aircraft carrier signaling to pilots on manoeuvering their jet fighter?

These little guys of the Staurois genus ate in a short list of amphibians that ate fascinating top me but never had the privilege of seeing them, let alone breeding them!

Still whatever the case let's hope they have the initiative, not just the titles, to save the frogs?

Which reminds me if a little report recently in a bespatter regarding Aesculapian Snakes in Camden. 

Bloody late yet Anson they state that this is a new colony just appeared of 60 snakes?!

First off ... err NO!! This coming I have been hearing about for bloody years! Secondly do not be stupid enough to write how many there are?! Jesus!

Thirdly, and this is the one I like the most, locals (or likely naive old ladies with dogs the size of rats that make a lot of noise while trembling in a sift breeze) want them exterminated?! Worse still is that there is a decision to be made on this letter in the year?!

Oh my bloody God!!

Oops and here is the big problem, make your fecking minds up about governing alien species in this country because not long ago I was surprised to hear that Ring Necked Parakeets ate now listed as a British species due to the amount of time they have been here?!

First of all this is stupid! No they should not be wiped out like some believe but they are not and never will be a British Bird because they never arrived here naturally!

Despite the Aesculapian Snakes being non-native these should not, I repeat NOT be exterminated!

Now let me clear something up right now? I have been feed up with the decisions many idiots have made over the years and believe me I have meet at least one of them and brain of Britain they certainly are not! There ate all these fines for very silly and nonsensical acts regarding the raster British amphibians and reptiles, asking with many other animals. You cannot sit their handing out preposterous fines for simply 'disturbing' animals with one hand while using the other to wipe out an entire colony!

It's complete hypocrisy!

Also it is very, very difficult to decide what I'd native and what is not because our records simply do not go back far enough. Bird watchers refer to alien species as plastic. An odd choice of word considering that many other things could be 'plastic' and they just do not know?!

Half the fish species or more could be alien because it is very common for fish eggs, and even amphibian eggs, to be carried upon the feet of birds!

This is no different to the man who inadvertently introduced Midwife Toads, Alytes obstetricans, to Bedford around 1882 when some males carrying eggs, yes they are called that for a reason, came in with a load of Asparagus from France.

We are part of the animal kingdom are we not?

However this seems to go out of the window as do the rules when the authorities decide whether or not they want to play God or flex their muscles when others show a keen interest in things. I will never get over then stating on the program coast about how you bed a license to hold a Natterjack Toad?! I literally burst out laughing and was tempted to email in and ask if an average person would die from doing so or if the toads explode if not held correctly?!

Lmao!

New 'dancing frogs' found in India http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-27330603

A BARRAGE OF BIG BASTARDOS

One BIG ASS TENCH

One BIG ASS GOLDFISH ... A AB CD GOLDFISH?!

This is a bit of an odd one as this looked like a Goldfish but was huge! But then again I have seen more than my fair share of fish that get a lot bigger than what it states in the books! Some beating them by a bloody couple of feet too! Those happened to be three foot long Clown Loach (Botia maculata) which were quite deliberately kept quiet about, including the speies, until I walked in and said "Oh yeah, where is this tank of fish I am supposed to look at?!" Whereby the shop owner I was just meeting for the first time simply pointed up at a 45 degree angle to the other end of the room. "FUCK ME!!! Err SORRY??" was all that came out of my mouth to a cacophony of cackling laughs.

Teaching me then and there that absolutely nobody knows it all!

Then a set of all same Carp!! Well that made a change for those 30 minutes!! LOL! Tes its that time of year again where I am itching to get out there and among the nature and I am particularly fired up to do so! Unfortunately the brain is not getting that message through to my body!! Lol!

THE JACKDAW of CONFUSION

I got a surprise when I spotted this near my home and at first it looked so light I thought it was a Hooded Crow?!

I had not seen one of those since I was in Italy some years ago and my brain was confused because it should not have been there! But after looking at the video again I realised it was a Jackdaw! Buggering fool!

Still not used to seeing these and cannot remeber the last time I saw one ... couple of pictures and then a video ...

The video of the Jackdaw of confusion ...

THE FIRST FINCH FILMED

A hen Chaffinch I managed to get when I went out on a wildlife hunt.

Oddly I have been out a few times in horrible muggy heat and yet the leaves are still to appear!

I cannot decribe how weird that appears to me, I was sweating and had only a t-shirt on and yet I was looking at bare trees as if it was still mid winter!! At the time as this was over a week ago now. This was in an earlier spell of warm weather....ooooh no I am getting this wrong I am thinking about when I was at Lea Valley Park but there was nothing about!

This was the day before yesterday! Yes I was in Forty Hall and a nasty bailiff had left a notice for me despite them bing told I not only do not owe money, but not supposed to pay the money anyway and also they have broken the law by coming to me! Yes that was the day and I am not getting into that about Bailiffs here and it is covered in much detail on my corruption blog

asaintcalledallnights.blogspot.com

It is over Council Tax and they have been sent by the Council but despite my Doctor telling me I know more about my condition than he does and that I am teaching him everyone else thinks that not having that pieve of paper from him that they can then totally disregard the law. Infortunately for them I have trapped them which is shown on that blog and they will clearly be shown to be totally ignoring the facts because of a piece of paper! Except on my corruption blog you will see a piece of paper that states that I have an upcoming appointment with Guy's Hospital who are the leaders in the UK for my condition of Fibromyalgia which causes loads of pains around the body that are not actually there, yeah I know mad, right?! It screws up the signals in the nervous system all over the place and causes some really horrible things! I have 120 symptoms and all down to this one condition though they told me for 13 years it was not possible! Oh and I diagnosed it! They knew for sometime what I had and kept it from me I just do not know how long. They definately knew for over 6 months and I think it has been several years! So much so that the Parliamentary Health Services Ombudsman have asked me how much money I want? lol!

Personally I am annoyed the PHSO asked me that! I certainly was not expecting it.

Amy how that is for another place but it has the potential to disrupt the many blogs I have been working very hard on! So a little warning things might go a bit dead for awhile, lol.

That hen Chaffinch...

EARLY SPRING PEACOCK AND COMMA BUTTERFLIES

Some mid March videos of the first Commas and Peacocks. Also seen Small Tortoiseshells but unable to get a video for both pairs I have seen thus far.

APOLOGIES OF THE PAUSING

Sorry for the gaps from time to time. I have had a battle with both my health and the NHS for over twelve years now. My health driving me nuts and the NHS constantly refusing to admit that I have one and telling me repeatedly that there is no such condition that matches my symptoms.

Now due to the fact that Doctors and Hospitals all like to deal with one thing at a time, oddly the same as the government and the DWP so your getting knowingly screwed, this has caused me considerable grief, pain, problems financially as well as he fact that dozens of realtionships broke down over the years.

Indeed it may be surprised to know that everything I state that I have achieved both on this blog and my others, the one on corruption will hurt your eyes that is for sure, I achoieved while suffering from this condition, including my degree!

I wrongly self diagnosed myself with something called Charcot Marie Tooth Syndrome and not only was this entertained by thge NHS, as they sent me for tests that were nagative and basically said 'oh well there is nothing else out there it can be' I then ran across the correct condition. AT the same time I was prescribed two drugs consecutively that in over 15 years were the first drugs to ever work on any of my pains. They were not non-steroidal ab=nti-inflammatories either and were Gabapentin and Amitriptyline. After a failed effor to say I was mad I was then kicked off my last GP surgery for insinating violent conduct. Bullshit basically and am now on my fourth GP with the same catchment area.

For the first time ever since I have liobved in this area my NEW and FOURTH GP offered an aover forties halth test to which I agreed. Just as well becuase I not only failed everything miserbale but they discovered an infection and a possible peoblem with my kidneys. I have had to have further blood tests amd now have to have an ultrasound on my kidneys in a few weeks, wonder if they will lie about this ultrasound like they did the last one?!

There is also an official complaint and as I had the excuse and have a blog about corruption in the UK government and public offices I approached the GMC expecting them to nothing, which is what I had hoped as it goes along with everything else I say about the UK. They did better than this and helped the GP kick off the register by showing him a letter saying that he was so rude, arrogant and lying to my face I wanted to break his jaw and likely will so if I was put through that again. Bein responsible I was not planning to return to such an imcompatent and arrogant twat who was really merely just a nobody dickhead, lol.

Ss as well as all this I have had to find a new GP, and then I was frefused my repeat prescriptions, which have all been wrong and screwing up my kidneys for years it seems now, to which it was hinted at bh NHS England that I would get my pills if I dropped my official complaint.

I said NO of course and unlucky for them I had already charged into the surgery and obtained the prescription, lol. I did wonder why they seem to have difficulty finding it and were holding back to giving it to me? I think they held the NHS to ransom because whatever my problem is they do not deem it their fault.

But it was and it is, though the NHS headquerters are much more to blame too. But to understand how that all works and how I provied it you would have to read my asaintcalledallnights.blogspot.com blog. It is all there too just so no one can get into any doubts or post any comments on there, despite one air-head doing that, lol. Hours of recorded audio of Doctors lying, most I prove by other means and one Doctor at Chase Farm Hospital being pulled to acount by me and admitting it on a recording. So arrogant and confident that he did not send the amended letter to my GP and sent the first one with lies?!

There are a great many Doctors and specialists with heads of departments that I have on tape and documents for and it is bo no means all, not even half of it, not even close. I have Police and Detectives doing the exact same thing along with Local Government and almost all Ombudsman.

Due to all this and the very recent fiascoes with people with public offices I have been a little rushed around. I also have held back from admitting for years that I am forgetful as many Doctors just roll their eyes at you and you just end up wanting to punch their over arrogant faces that suffer with deluisions of grandeur. This is because when you tryo to explain their errors and that tiy are just as intellgigent than they are they just shut you off mid sentence, which is of course RUDE. So they have brought much of this on themselves both what I have done and what I will do throught 2014.

As for this condition that causes me in the region of 110 symptoms, give or take 10, that I have Doctors repeatedly stating on tape does not exist?!

Oh well that would ne FIBROMYALGIA and for those that know me or used to know me it causes all my problems in all four limbs, feet, knees, shoulder and back/neck and is also behiond my skin conditions, night blindness and also even my heartburn. Which means I have only ever had ONE corrupt diagnosis off the NHS in 26 years and have been given the wrong pills all this time which is why the new GP looks concerned!

Oh yes and it causes short term memory problems too! Oh yes and it causes short term memory problems too?! Sorry...I just could not resist that one. But it does though so every GP I wanted to punch for roling theor eyes was in the wrong and I habe now proved myself correct as I stated all along for over 13 years.

Hemce all this has had a negative effect on anything I tried to start, c reate for myself or startung any careers. Just so that you know that when I disappear for a bit there is normally some good reason behind it.  I apologise fore my absences nevertheless.

Rest assured though that this condition that they have repeatedly told me does not exist does do and I have now found it. I also found that there is a large department for it at one of the most famous hospitals in the country, being Guy's Hospital, fancy that?

You may now be wondering the same things I have been asking myself since I found out...how the hell can so many GPs, Orthopaedics, Podiatrists, Rheumatologists, Physiotherapists, Head of Departments, Nurses, Back Specialists and Pain Consultants all not know about Fibromyalgia and what is catered for at Guy's Hospital?! HOW?!?!

Well they all do have one thing in common...

...they are ALL NHS and as I long stated on my corruption blog, the NHS is corrupt and has been lying to patients for bloody years.

By the way do not try to defend them if you was diagnosed with a condition that they cannot possibly state does not exist. Becuase that simply is not fair in all honesty. I cannot say that my living room is painted black because people will see when they come around that it is painted white.

But rest assured if you feel that you are being messed about then you are and I am living proof, as is all my proof, as to how and why they are doing it.

I am on the verge now of being referred to Guy's Hospital...so bloody well hopefully this blog and all my other blogs can resume to normal speed and if the NHS, the DWP and Enfield COuncil do as they are fecking saupposed to do the amount of work I will put into these blogs will grow expomnnentially, of that I assure you.