I'm back (kind of)

[Rev. Redmond Farrier]

Greeting all! Those of you who were here last September may remember me. I lost my job and thought I was going to have to have my internet disconnected. I haven’t found a job yet, but I managed to budget myself in such a way that I was able maintain my connection.

I was planning to come back to the forums when this collecting season started, but it has not been a good season at all for me. Excessive rain has kept me from doing much daytime collecting and has kept activity at my light to a bare minimum. Summer never really got started here either. I am accustomed to 100f+ temps throughout August. Instead it stays around 85f. The unusual weather coupled with the fact that my budget does not allow for any non essential spending (new bulbs, pins, etc…) has meant that this season has been horrible thus far.

I did manage to catch my first Eumorpha fasciatus tonight and what I believe to be a male Lucanus capreolus last week though. I still need to sit down with the beetle and verify the id to make sure.

I still have to keep an eye on my cats when I bring bugs inside as well. A little while back a cicada followed me inside and Luna quickly made a meal of it. Lol

I suppose that is enough of an update and I should cut it off before I type out my whole life story. lol

I’ll be back on with an id request when I get my camera set up. I seem to have found a butterfly that has me stumped.

Rev. R. Farrier

[dertodesking]

Hey Rev!

...welcome back

Simon

[nomihoudai]

Nice to see you back again Rev.!

[Adam Cotton]

Welcome home Rev. Good to see you back again, and to hear that you are not totally destitute.

Adam.

[lepidofrance]

That's good news !

[ckswank]

Glad to see you back, as well. Always enjoy your posts. Wish Texas were getting some of the rain you've been having. We're 10 inches below average on our year to date rainfall total & it's really made a noticeable difference in the collecting. Take care & post often.

[Rev. Redmond Farrier]

Thanks for the kind welcome back folks. The rain has finally eased up a bit for most of this week and temps have risen a little (though still not to the norms). Hopefully things will pick back up now and my collecting will be a bit more fruitful.
I am still having a major pin shortage though and won't allow myself to purchase any more until I get an income again. I found a few that were freed up after a dermestid issue took out a handful of my specimens though. I know that there are over 200 of them (pins, not dermestids!) in a tiny envelope along with my pinning block, but I have not been able to find them all season. lol I guess it isn't too bad though since I have so few specimens to use them on this year.
Maybe next year will be better for collecting, and who knows, maybe by then I will be in the job I am hoping for and can afford to throw together a portable lightsheet set and move out of my back field to see what other diversity I can find in this area.

[anthony]

Very good to see you back here and looking forward to bug and cat updates.