Coastal Cinnabar

Walking the beach in summer this stripy creature wiggled into view, a cinnabar moth caterpillar.  I wondered what it was doing out here on the shingle bank between channels and shore and nowhere near its usual haunt, feeding on the bright yellow ragwort.  It takes in poison from the ragwort leaves as it feeds so maybe a bird had picked it up and then gone, yuk ,with the foul taste, and dropped it. You can only see a couple of its spines on my photo but they are venomous enough to create a itchy rash on human skin if one were to pick it up.     

Like the caterpillar the shoreline is on the move and the shingle bank keeps changing and growing

and is now popular for a walk along and night fishing.

Rattle your way down the pebble banking and sand is soon reached again.  Returning to the cinnabar moth seen all along the coastal area here

Creative Commons : Sharp Photography

it takes its name from the red mineral (which used to be ground and used by artists as the red pigment, vermilion).  Whichever naturalist named it in the mists of time must have known both minerals and moths because the mineral contains mercury so like the moth is poisonous.

Creative Commons: Sharp Photography

An entry to ABC Wednesday, a journey through the alphabet this week sojourning at C here 

 

Duddon Dawdle

The Osteospurnum making the most of yesterday's afternoon sunshine as was the little wasp.

The roads and fields are showing the effect of so much rain over this last fortnight.  We passed this field on the way to walk through the Duddon Mosses. And boy were the mosses wet. I am doing flat walks at the moment to build my leg up after its break and was using my new walking stick while boasting about its usefulness in gauging the depth of water and so keeping my feet dry.  No sooner were the words out of my mouth than my leg started to sink.  I will have to add this move to my physiotherapy exercises, pulling leg out of gloopy peat.

The day was warm and a lone male black darter dragonfly flitted along the path while down below 

a fox moth caterpillar was taking its ease in the grass, waiting for its photo opportunity. Next year this little fellow will metamorphose into this:

 This photo from the blog Wild Wings and Wanderings

 But in the meantime the fox moth caterpillar's favourite food,

heather, was flowering along the path under the birch trees where something had taken a liking to

a Fly Agaric and chomped half.  I wonder what fancied a poisonous fungi with a powerful hallucinogen?