Here comes the rain again....

No Annie Lennox here and indeed nobody at all. Its not much of a day really. Pouring with rain, Mrs. Ha out, Wales losing to some team or other yesterday and only Hereford rescuing the situation. I can hardly see through the windows but a Hair-crested drongo did pass briefly by in the garden opposite.

The moths are beginning to perk up. A lot of them are micros (for micro read "small" although that is a generalization that does not always hold good). They are poorly recorded in Hong Kong. Some lepidopterists specialize in micros and one, Mark S is contributing to the magnum opus on HK Moths. Unfortunately (for us) he is no longer resident here so his work has become more sporadic and poor Roger K bears the brunt. Poorly recorded also means many are unidentified. There are few reference guides so it all becomes a bit of a lottery. They can however be quite extraordinarily beautiful, even if in some extreme cases you need a microscope to see the colours and patterns.

The pictures are a bit small but the top one is a tortrix moth, very elaborately patterned with the clear geometric marks where the wings meet. Maybe they look to a bird like bird droppings against the main background of the forewing and so get left in peace. The other two are phycitinae, but as to species, I have no idea.

The bottom one is a B&W shot from the top floor of the house. Low hanging clouds draped carelessly over the hills leaving only the islands in the sea clearly visible.

Only the dog seems unbothered by the dankness of the weekend. She stays deep in her basket, snaffling a biscuit occasionally, hoping when I pass that I shall smuggle a venison chew into her mouth. I have no idea whether they are actually venison. Somehow I hope not. The main thing is Lulu likes them and we won't disillusion her. She is too young to be told that venison chews, like Santa, may just be less than the real thing.

Only 7 days to the lunar new year. I ought to be driving back and forth to Mai Po to see big gulls (Big gulls don't cry, as one song famously doesn't have it). But the energy isn't there so I get my gull fix vicariously looking at the amazing photos on HKWildlife.net. This year garden birds and the local patch are enough. All I want is a dry period to explore again.