Luck ....

I timed my walk into the square today a little later, and was able to enjoy a great couple of hours in nice sunshine - albeit still a bit nippy. I took a route through the new housing sections of the estate, south along the A426, around the horse paddocks, around the copse and then back up the lane. I had no specific intentions, I was quite happy to just see what came my way. As it happens I was fairly lucky today.

Before heading out though, I pointed the camera at this on the front garden fence ..

Dicranopalpus sp. - I will collect a couple in the spring and work out formally that they are [almost certainly] D. ramosus

Whilst out and about I again pointed the camera and hand lens at some fairly common lichens, which I will save for another day. At one point on my route, I stopped and rolled a few stones/bricks on a mound next to a car pull in. The mound has grown over many years from selfish arseholes flytipping their garden waste and rubble etc. I found a few molluscs that I've potted to have a look at, and under one large stone I found a couple of smart beetles with orange markings. I wasn't expecting that, and pointed the camera at them more in hope than anything else as they repeatedly attempted to evade being looked at. Whilst the find was lucky, the resulting photos were not ....

Badister bullatus - with some of it in focus

Anchomenus dorsalis - with nothing closer than its hind leg in focus

Whilst at the horse paddocks, I had another look at the concrete fence posts with lichens from yesterday. I was sure that closer scrutiny might yield more species. It did, but not in the way I was anticipating ..

Ribautiana tenerrima - last thing I expected to find today

And a little later whilst in the copse, I rolled a large burnt log that was more charcoal than wood, finding this hibernating on the underside ..

Hawthorn Shieldbug - with some sort of fungal masses that I ignored

Pretty much everything I've seen in the square so far this year is from casual observation, and today's stone and log rolling was a genuinely lightweight effort.

By the time I was on the lane and heading for home, the sun was just setting. Perfect, I hoped, giving a chance of something flying over on the way to roost. I had Canada Goose in mind, but the solitary Cormorant that flapped over will do.

The buildings to left are Attfield's Farm Shop and Cafe [and farm!]. The front and most of the eastern side of this is just inside my square.

Popping Pills on the Garden List

Wednesday night whilst pottering about the garden with a torch, I noted and potted up a relatively bland looking Pterostichus sp. - which I've not looked at yet. This prompted a targeted five minutes or so looking in various nooks and crannies, and I was surprised to easily find another four beetles - three of which were clearly new for the garden. One of these was lumpy and boring looking, two were streamlined and relatively colourful carabids ....

Pill Beetle - barely awake and very docile, a beetle photographers dream.

 

Anchomenus dorsalis - swanky looking, bloody well stay still!

Agonum muelleri - green / bronze / green / bronze / bloody well stay still!

Also from the same night, but found in the moth trap. It's not unusual to find Nicrophorus spp. in moth traps - they are usually docile, stinky and covered in mites. The most exciting thing they normally do is fall off the egg box.

This morning I found one ravaging a Pale Tussock - literally eating it alive. Gruesome but compelling. The Tussock was frantically flapping and kicking, whilst being chewed.

Nicrophorus humator - covered in Pale Tussock whilst eating it.

More typical Nicrophorus humator - doing feck all apart from smell.

Ketton Quarry 04/05/2014

Took the opportunity to nip over to Ketton Quarry yesterday morning. With some decent sunshine and warmth I was fully expecting to find an Adder or two, but yet again not a sniff despite being there reasonably early. I did manage to find a few of these during the morning though ...

Common Lizard

The lack of Adders was only a minor disappointment though, as otherwise my efforts with the net, hand-searching around rocks and rabbit dung and peering around dead-wood brought a load of interesting things.

Here's a couple of views of part of the southern side of the reserve. The 'donkey paddock' is a basin with steep grassy banks on two sides. This compartment was grazed by donkeys at one point, hence the reference.

Looking down into the donkey paddock ....

.... and in the donkey paddock.

This area brought the most interesting new species for me, in the most unusual circumstance. I'd just put my net down and was trying to get photos of a Grizzled Skipper when I noticed a small shining dot on one of the many rocks. I thought it was a small beetle, but once potted it was clear that it was actually a very small shieldbug ....

Scarab Shieldbug (Thyreocoris scarabaeoides)

This is a generally local species in southern UK, mainly associated with violets growing on dry sandy or chalky spoils. There are no dots for VC55 on the NBN maps, and this is therefore quite probably a VC55 first.

I did manage to grab a Grizzled Skipper shot, and I did find a small shiny beetle on the rocks too ...

Grizzled Skipper

Chrysolina varians

On the other side of the reserve I found another interesting PSL tick, and again no dots currently on the NBN maps. This one was found under bark on rotting logs.

Aneurus avenius

This is one of the flatbugs. This is not dead or squashed, it really is very flat indeed and makes itself flatter by holding its legs sort of splayed out as well.

Around the wood piles I found another two male and one female Platystomos albinus, pretty much confirming that it is established here (I added this to the VC55 list a few weeks ago).

I also found a PSL tick beetle around rabbit dung that appears to also be a second VC55 record, again just from Ketton Quarry. Couldn't get this one to sit still on anything though so photo not great.

Onthophagus joannae

Other PSL ticks during the morning included a spider ......

Xysticus erraticus

a bee ....

Two-coloured Mason Bee (Osmia bicolor)

and another beetle ....

Anchomenus dorsalis

Other stuff seen during the morning were Red Kite, Green Hairstreak and Dingy Skipper, Slender Groundhopper, loads of other inverts and I was very pleased to find this one - the first I've seen since 2003 (one found whilst out moth trapping when I wasn't really bothered about beetles).

Rhagium mordax