It started with this - in the garden
A House Mouse. I think the neighbour's Cat dunnit. Poor wee thing.
The dead Bat was on one of the paths on the Reserve. We don't know the culprit. There were also three dead Shrews. Mischa says they 'live fast, die young' and thinks dehydration might have been the cause of their demise.
So much for the mammals.
One of my regular activities is practicing Moth identification. Mischa showed some of the Moths collected in her trap to some colleagues. These are unharmed by the trapping and released as soon as we have counted the species.
The one that looks like a stick sitting on a stick is a Buff Tip. The pink one is an Elephant Moth. The flouncy one is a Poplar Moth (clearly the best one) and the big brown dude is a Pine Moth. I forget the name of the little white one - but he took a liking to me, though he wasn't well camouflaged on my sweatshirt.
As for the fluff: it's from the Poplars.
Apparently, Native Americans used to weave it and they also used it to line the cribs of babies.
Tonight, I am off to count Bats on the Reserve. Alive ones. Thank goodness.
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