Back to buntings

I finally got to do my first real birding/butterflying in over two months last weekend and immediately added a new species to my Belgian list by twitching this male Cirl Bunting which has set up territory in the province of Namur.  Despite the crappy photo, I got to see it really well and also heard it singing, its song sounding a bit like a half-hearted Yellowhammer.  I saw and heard a few Yellowhammers too, with at least three families of Red-backed Shrike, several Melodious Warblers and a great look at an adult Honey Buzzard.  There were also quite a few butterflies around, with lots of Gatekeepers plus this Scarce Swallowtail, which is rare in Belgium and usually only found around Couvin in the very south.

 

Topsy-turvy world

I'm still struggling to get around but, thankfully, one of the guides at Cristalino Jungle Lodge is keeping me busy whilst stuck at home by regularly sending photo's for me to identify or just admire. 
Now, everyone knows that butterflies fly during the day and moths at night, and their respective Dutch names of dagvlinder and nachtvlinder even incorporate that fact.  Most people also know, however, that some moths are active during the day, such as the Hummingbird Hawk-moth, which has resulted in several laymen coming up to me and claiming they have seen a hummingbird in Europe, the burnets, or this Nine-spotted Moth (Amata phegea) from the Alps.

Fairly recently, though, a group of moths, the Hedylidae, were found to be genetically closer to the butterflies than other moth families and thus reclassified as nocturnal butterflies.  There is even one species of Hedylidae, Macrosoma tipulata, which is more active during the day, making it the exception to the exception to the rule, or a day-flying nocturnal butterfly!  Try to get your head around that one, or just admire the latest addition to the Cristalino butterfly list, which has now officially passed 1000 confirmed species thanks to these nocturnal butterflies.

Macrosoma sp by Sidnei Dantas