Baby kites and beautiful moths

It feels strange not to be tagging everything with #30DaysWild, but that's all finished now, so we're back to just being wild again!  Today we visited my parents and checked in on the red kites nest in their back garden. The chicks are really big now and you can see a big difference between the two of them (there's possibly a third one in there, but we can't be sure!)

The one on the left has lost all the grey fluff from it's head and is starting to really resemble the adults. The one on the right looks about a week behind its sibling and is still sporting the wild grey fluffy look.

The parents don't stray far from the nest, but one of them was really enjoying a bit of sunbathing, sat in the Christmas tree at the end of the garden.

 

We had the moth trap out last night and caught another big haul of hawkmoths, with 2 privet hawkmoths and 5 elephant hawkmoths. They're fabulous moths and the kids love to hold them before we let them go. A privet hawkmoth on the nose is a big treat in our house!

We lined them all up along Bug Mad Girl's arm and watched as one by one the elephant hawkmoths flew away. The privet hawkmoths seemed quite happy to stay sat there, so we put them on the hollyhocks and they can leave when they're ready.

 

 

A few of the other nice moths from the trap included a scarlet tiger (on the grass next to it), a white satin moth, 2 sycamores and an old lady. The white satin moth and sycamore are both considered local species (so not rare, but not common either). The old lady is a big moth and reminds me of the time one flew into the house and we all thought a bat was flying around indoors!

 

Sycamore

 

White satin moth