Early moths

I put the moth trap out over the night of the 12th-13th January. It was quite mild and I caught this Spring Usher Agriopis leucophaeria as well as a Winter Moth Operophtera brumata.

Plates!!

Over the Christmas period, I tried my hand at a different type of painting - ceramics. Whilst the children painted boxes and ornaments, I did this Jay on a plate. It seems to have come out not too bad, though some things did not work quite as well as I planned them.

The border is not very good and some of the background came out rather strange.

It is not the first plate I have done. Below is a Tiger Beetle I did a few years ago. Both of them show I have a lot to learn before I am happy with this technique!

First big beetle of the year!

We visited Minsmere RSPB Reserve, http://www.rspb.org.uk/reserves/guide/m/minsmere/index.asp, as a family on Saturday 5th January. Again, Eleanor was filming. She managed to capture footage of a very tame Muntjac in the picnic area. It took lettuce from our hands while we were eating. She also filmed a male Stonechat and views from the hides.

Walking through the woods, we were looking under logs and found a Devil's Coach Horse, Ocypus olens. Eleanor filmed this running around the ground.

Tom became an expert at finding Goldcrests amongst the Tit flocks, but we did not see the Firecrest that was supposed to be about. Sophie and Tom borrowed some RSPB rucksacks with binoculars in. They were much better than their own binoculars and both of them were observing the birds well. They have both decided Lapwings are one of their favourite birds.

North Warren RSPB reserve

Visited North Warren http://www.rspb.org.uk/reserves/guide/n/northwarren/index.asp, near Aldeburgh, Suffolk on New Year's Day. My daughter, Eleanor had her new camcorder to practise for her future career in wildlife filming (!)

Despite the cold, a fair amount was about to be immortalised on film. There were a couple of Barnacle Geese amongst the White-fronted Geese. North Warren is one of my favourite RSPB reserves and has a good variety of habitats. I hope to return in the summer for the insects.

We walked further than we anticipated - into Aldeburgh for a chip lunch, followed by ice cream.

A little bit about Peregrine Productions

Peregrine Productions is a company specialising in British Insect identification plates. Products are available in the following formats:

A5 double-sided laminated identification plates

A4 posters - laminated or plain
A4 laminated double-sided plates - the 'Mini-beasts' series
A5 check-lists

All these ranges are currently expanding.

Peregrine Productions donates 20p from each Lepidoptera associated product sold to Butterfly Conservation (http://www.butterfly-conservation.org/) to aid with Lepidoptera conservation in the UK.

The company is very small (me, helped by my wife and the children at various times). This means that producing new plates takes a long time. However, it also means that the company is friendly and approachable.

We are based in rural Suffolk and maintain a few acres as a mini nature reserve. This area is home to a few rare insects. I hope to mention these species in future postings.

What I am working on

I am currently working on the paintings for an A5 plate for the genera of British solitary bees. This is harder than I thought it would be! They are tricky insects to paint for a start. The research is not straightforward and trying to show them in a life-like pose is quite a challenge.

They take a long while, so I am not sure when the finished product will be available. So keep checking the website http://www.bombus.freeserve.co.uk/catalogue.htm for details of availability.

I have been painting the bees for some time already. I was even filmed by the BBC at work! This is for a new series to be shown on BBC4 in Spring 2008. The series features amateur naturalists and our family are on a programme about insects. I will put more on the Blog nearer the time.

First Posting

This is the first posting for the site. I hope to have a random assortment of information on insects and Peregrine Productions. Peregrine Productions is my company that specialises in laminated insect identification sheets and insect illustration. I concentrate on British species.

If time allows, I may include articles on natural history in general and some of my other interests.

More later.