Waterfronts and Weevils

So yesterday evening I headed over to Watermead Country Park South. It sounds grand, and a good three decades or so ago when it was relatively unknown and certainly had no proper access and car parks it was actually brilliant for birds. I remember seeing breeding Redshank there, Marsh Warbler, spring Garganey etc.

Over time the car parks came, cycle paths were laid and people arrived in time to force feed a burgeoning population of feral Greylags etc. Now it's a bit of a dump with potential. The reedbeds have grown up nicely, there is plenty of scrubby shelter and carr-like habitat.

It's still possible to enjoy a visit there and see/hear birds as long as you have the will power and intent to ignore and avoid fuckwits. That's back in 'normal' times, let alone now. Yesterday it was busier than Sainsbury's car park but still easily possibly to avoid contact and maintain distance - you just have to focus on what you're doing, expect that everyone else is a fucking idiot (even if they're actually very considerate) and ensure that you actively move over or - as I did - stay in the scrubby verges as much as possible rather than on the path.

Anyway I digress. I nipped over to Watermead CP South and had a very enjoyable hour walking around the lakes - the first open water I've walked around for months. I particularly enjoyed seeing and hearing warblers: Reed, Sedge, Cetti's, Garden, Blackcap, Willow and Chiffchaff. I also enjoyed Common Terns, hirundines and Reed Bunting. I didn't enjoy feral goslings and masses of Mutes. I was hoping to be able to point the new camera at some of the better birds but all were either skulking, partially hidden or brief.

I managed to stalk a Grey Heron though ....

It was actually the wrong side of the low sun, but I was able to go around it and come from the other side. Here it is on no-zoom and full-zoom from the same spot ...

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It was a full-bodied heron, not just a neck and head .....

.... unlike this new-to-science and undescribed headless cormorant sp. ...

Aside from the horrible goslings, I saw another less-desirable thing ..

Size of an otter.

Views welcomed on this mother-duck ....

.... in-bred RCP or an RCP x feral Mallard-type thing?

The moth trap yielded a garden-tick beetle last night...

Heterocerus fenestratus

I did pot it for a better shot but, actually, it's one of those hairy-but-shiny beetles that look crap unless photographed properly when dead and stacking so I gave up and let it go.

Today has been blisteringly hot. After packing up for the day, I remembered about the spear thistles just on the edge of the estate and headed out for five mins with my sweep net. Result! Four thistles, six swipes, five weevils + two tortoises + several lacebugs ....

Rhinocyllus conicus

Spear Thistle Lacebug [Tingis cardui]

Cassida rubiginosa - one intact, one with a bite?

Also this hoverfly larva gorging itself on the masses of aphids on the plants

Complete F Up

I headed out late this afternoon for a long walk locally with my sweep net. I'd not even got off the estate before I made my first sweep at this large thistle, one of several growing along Springwell Lane ....

Mild euphoria as nestled in the net was a superb weevil that I've been expecting to see, Rhinocyllus conicus. Weevil safely potted, I headed off down the lane where I noticed a few more large accessible thistles. Another swipe, another weevil. I quickly surmised that I can't be that lucky, and there must be loads of them around. I fumbled this one and dropped it whilst fannying about with the camera, but given that there would be others and I had my camera out now I decided to place the potted weevil on the thistle for a better shot. What a stupid idea that was .....

Needles to say, no weevil, no photo and despite my early luck no further weevils swept. There will be others, but there's nothing like getting a nice shot of yer ticks!

Anyway I carried on and headed to the place I refer to as Countesthorpe Meadow. In the past I've got my timings completely wrong and arrived just after the farmer has mowed the meadow. It's left to grow initially, cut for silage (I assume) and then probably again in the late summer/autumn. So in spring before mowing there's plenty of long grasses, umblifers and buttercups but not much in the way of interesting wildflowers (probably the land gets fertilised in the late winter).

I spent a happy couple of hours sweeping, and brought home a few potted beetles and flies. The beetles will have to wait (maybe something new when I get a chance to check them through) but I've pinned a few flies including these ..

Empis opaca - red femora and thoracic pattern differentiate from E. tesselata

I thought these were both Empids too. I thought I recognised the one on the left, but looking at E. stercorea the thoracic colouration and markings, and the antennal colour are not quite right. Not sure if the darker one actually is an Empid. Call it homework.

This one was sat still enough for a shot.

Mesembrina meridiana

I also swept down the lane. All the usual expected bits, but a tortoise beetle always makes for a good outing I reckon.

A fairly plain Cassida rubiginosa (pronotum rear angles vs rounded in C. viridis)

I am planning to get out tomorrow for more ......

Floral Ticks, Invertebrates and bits

Having posted all those pics of Croft Pastures I then didn't get around to highlighting what I'd gone there for. I had a few plant targets after seeing that Graham Calow has posted photos to NatureSpot. Mainly small and not very photogenic plants at that. A couple of the key species at this site were good to see locally, but I have seen them before on the first PSL get-together in West Sussex.

Bird's-foot

Subterranean Clover

In the small area where this clover was growing, I also saw Annual Knawal, a small and not very inspiring looking thing, but was too late in the season to find any remaining Upright Chickweed (but good to know where to look). Also in this small area were a couple of interesting lichens including this:

Cladonia rangiformis

There is a steep-sided 'cliff' along one side of the reserve. One of the plants that has established and spread around the cliffs is Reflexed Stonecrop, not yet in flower but identifiable.

One that hasn't been identified yet is undoubtedly a garden escape, though it was growing freely and in profusion! Appears to be a spurge of some sort.

One I walked past on my first short visit, was this Common Cornsalad - easily overlooked as again it's a straggly ugly plant with tiny flowers.

A much nicer looking and more obvious flower was the Meadow Saxifrage carpeting parts of the reserve ..

I also saw, but failed to get photos of, Wild Clary and River Water-crowfoot. Away from Croft Pastures, I also picked up another plant tick by shamelessly twitching some Dusky Crane's-bill in nearby Leire.

Plants aside, I've also picked up a few other bits around the weekend in the good weather.


One the Saturday, I spent a bit of time watching the River Soar from the roadside footbridge in Croft village. Turned out to be very productive as with a bit of patience, wearing sunglasses and switching to bins I managed to see enough detail to pick up four fish ticks. The most obvious, and pleasing, was Brown Trout - amazing really given how narrow and relatively shallow the Soar is at this point. Managed to get a very pants photo of the largest of the three seen ..

I also saw Perch, Roach and a good few bottom-feeding Gudgeon. Good to add a few more vertebrates to the PSL list. As it happens, I managed to add a couple more vertebrate ticks last night. I nipped over to Saddington Reservoir with the bat detector on a mission that turned out to be highly successful. Before it was too dusky I was already watching what I thought were Noctule Bats hunting, though at that point they were out of range of the detector across the other side of the reservoir. As it grew more dusky, I started seeing and detecting bats hunting low and directly over the water - Daubenton's Bat. Calls peaking at c47khz (all a bit subjective within a couple of khz I reckon). I'm sure the following gives the full sense of the occasion!

Whilst walking back to where I'd parked near the dam, I picked up a very distinctive signature peaking at c24khz - a very synthetic slow paced 'chip-chopping' - Noctule Bat. Well pleased with that. The sound is reminiscent of late 70s Human League - there is a sound-clip here.

So having added seven new plants, two lichen and and no less than six vertebrates to my list, it would be surprising if there were no new inverts included. There were, though only four.

Best were these two beetles ....

Anaglyptus mysticus - this one swept from hawthorn near to home on Friday evening ..

.. and then like buses I found this one openly sitting on bramble at Croft Pastures on Saturday

Thistle Tortoise Beetle (Cassida rubiginosa) - swept from low vegetation at Croft Pastures

Otherwise another beetle (Elodes minuta) which won't sit for a photo at all, and a bee that threw a seven in the pot before I could photograph it (Nomada ruficornis).