Social Isolation

Yesterday afternoon I headed over to Charnwood Lodge again to escape the histeria. I am hoping that I will not at any point in the near future be expected (or forced!) to self-isolate. But if I am, does that really mean staying in the house (in one room) or can 'isolation from others' be extrapolated to getting out of the house (in a car on my own) and walking around huge open spaces where there are no other people, or at the very least there is ample opportunity to maintain a significant social distance. All I do know is that I will go absolutely barking mad if I am stuck at home as spring rolls through to the peak season for ento-action.

Anyway, Charnwood Lodge is a big open space, and aside from a few locals it is not on the radar of the mass populace. Here's a bit of it, you can see maybe a quarter of the overall site from this:

I fully expected to see no, or at least few, other people. I was almost right; I saw three other people in four hours rambling around the site. Except one of them was an old bloke with a huge dog who insited on approaching me to ask what I was doing (with genuine interest, but clearly no fear for his own respiratory safety).

It remained overcast and relatively dull through my visit, though there were no showers and it was fairly mild. I managed to have a really good walk around the site, lifting stones, poking logs and sieving tussocks, leaf litter and thrashed bracken on the way around. I need to get hold of a useful saw or similar to do proper tussocks properly. I've also ordered a proper large white tray from NHBS to lug about.

Whilst on site, I wandered around parts of the woodland I've not seen before, and made a point of looking at a couple of areas that I've not been to for years including Colony Reservoir.

It felt like I wasn't finding much for the effort, but I've ended up with a few carabids, a couple of clicks to key through and a small selection of small beetles to ponder over. I also saw a few other bits which I'll post about separately over the next couple of days.

The biggest beetle I found was under bark on a well-rotted log, and is one I've been looking forward to seeing though I am sure any snail coming in its way would not feel the same ..

Snail Hunter (Cychrus caraboides)

Other beetles found under bark were ..

Silpha atrata

A couple of large dark/plain click beetles to check

Quite a few beetle larvae, think these are probably Elateridae?

Maybe it's just as well I've got a few things to check and post about over the next few days - no chance of getting out today as the weather is fithly. And in any case, after the blissful afternoon I was headlong into the madness with a trip to Sainsbury's for the regular weekly shop. No bedlam or chaos, as no hoards of people in the evening, but equally nothing on the shelves so I need to get back out for cat food and rich tea biscuits. I've ordered a family set of bio-suits and breathing aparatus from Amazon, the garden filtered bunker is coming on well and I've poached a cow and a pig for sustenance .......