Monday, July 14, 2014

Grounded female

Determined not to see the season out without seeing a grounded iris, I ventured out to the forest in Arundel. Having spent an hour searching an area, I put out a mayday to Colin Knight who gave me the exact location I needed to be in and that he would join me.

On arrival at the new location, Colin dispensed a foul smelling liquid that he assured me was an attractant from his accessorized purple spray bottle. I had an unfortunate whiff that nearly sent me running.


We then checked to footpath and then off into the woods for signs of activity in the tree canopy.

An hour elapsed before we returned at midday to find nothing was down on the baited patches. Then as luck would have it, a female descended between two parked vehicles and started to feed on salts. Allowing for some good photo opportunities I managed a couple of record shots.



She then moved off down the track into the woods and flitted into the trees at low level.

An hour later she reappeared and whilst Colin was getting his fill of photos, I stood back and watched another iris (sex not determined) come in from the left an sit on some foliage before becoming invisible and vanishing into the woods.

The original iris then came down again and we noted that she to have a stupor to her left side whilst on the on the ground and Colin noted that he had seen this with the individual a few days before. Has anyone observed this in the species?



1 comment:

dennis said...

Paul,
what do you mean by a stupor?
what are the symptoms

dennis