Common as Muck

I managed to nip out for a refreshing walk into the square this afternoon; nothing too strenuous, just a stroll with my net, a few pots and camera. The sun was out, mostly, after a dull start. Skylarks singing, Yellowhammers calling, but no early warblers. In fact there are still plenty of Fieldfare and Redwing around here - nothing to suggest anything moving.

When it comes to early-season flowers, I am sure that many behold the first flowering Lesser Celandines as the indicator that spring is here (along with garden and escaped snowdrops and daffs of course). However, I think on balance seeing one of these in bloom is a better indicator ....

Colt's-foot

Whereas the celandines give plenty of warning with their emergent leaves, flower buds and then the blooms, Colt's-foot just seems to emerge from nowhere with the flowers preceding the vegetation. I like that - surely they wouldn't bother if it wasn't really spring. Meanwhile the celandines keep going; they were flowering when I was last out which is getting on for three weeks ago.

 

Lesser Celandine

Of course the main thing is that the early yellow flowers, including dandelions and buttercups, are potential magnets for flies and bees. Not that I saw any on the flowers today. I did manage to net what I thought was a large fly that turned out to be a pair in cop - now pinned for later scrutiny. I've also got another fly and a couple of beetles to look at from today. Whilst out I spent some time specifically looking at and around a long-dead ash tree which had cramp balls on it. No sign of the anticipated Scarce Fungus Weevil. Later, I casually rolled a bit of random log to look underneath - nothing exciting, but when I repositioned the log I noted a bumpy variegated blob on top that I'd missed before the rolling ....

 

I sometimes find these when looking for them, but more often find them when I'm not. I just can't be that lucky, they must be genuinely common around VC55.

 

Sunny respite

Last week, during the glorious sunny weather and excellent mothing conditions, I was too busy at work to capitalise. On Thursday we had several consecutive design sign-offs for a new drinks range. I left work as normal and had an early evening walk down the lane, before going back into work to cover the last design - I got home from that at around 01:00 on Friday. The only highlights of the Thursday walk were a couple of OFFH yearticks - a singing Chiffchaff and a Jay along the old railway line that crosses Whetstone Gorse Lane. So, on Friday afternoon when everything was a bit calmer at work and the sun was shining I managed to leave at a reasonable time and get back out down the lane for a bit of sun. I spent a good couple of hours enjoying a bit of peace before heading home and out for a meal and drinks last night - hence this belated update.

One of the areas I've never really looked at is an old strip of rough roadway at the back of the Springwell Lane fields. Thinking it might be good for odd insects and flowers, I spoke to the farmer and got permission to walk down there - expect a few shots in future. I had a quick look yesterday and there were plenty of butterflies dog-fighting in the sunshine - three species involved:

I carried on over to Whetstone Gorse Lane. Yellowhammers and Skylarks still singing away, and now at least 2 Chiffchaffs. Red-legged Partidges singing everywhere also - not quite so pleasing to listen to! One of the fields has a big rotting pile of shite near the gateway which usually has one or two wagtails, Pied and Grey. Today it was Pied only ..

King of the shite. Click for big - the black specks all over the place is not dust on the sensor ...

Plenty of Pheasants around aswell - usually legging it away from me as fast as possible ..

Lots of ladybirds around at the moment - all 7-Spot.

Also this shieldbug, which I'm assuming is a Green Shieldbug still dull after over-wintering.

No exciting flowers really, though at least I can remember what Lesser Celandine looks like after learning it last year ..

Daisies in every patch of grass now ..

.. and Hawthorn coming into leaf with flower buds forming

The Lane - looking north towards Whetstone

Today is dull, cool and cloudy. Bloody typical. May still head out mothing tonight if the rain holds off.

Life in the garden 09/04/2010

Our rear garden lawn is gradually sinking and the bottom half of the garden is a clay bog. On the upside, the lawn is generally unmowable until after a good couple of weeks or so of dry warm weather ..... The borders are not too bad, though neither of us bothers too much about weeding other than in occasional bursts of enthusiastic culling. As for the paved bits, I reckon its only the weeds and moss that stops the slabs from wobbling. The front 'garden' is a lot smaller than it used to be - not physically as such, but there used to be a lawn there aswell before we had an extension to the house and driveway. Now there is just a planted area around our cherry tree. The gardens are not exactly wild and unkempt, but they are not formal and neat either - somewhere in between which does mean that there are opportunities for finding all sorts of unexpected things of you have a good look. But today when I got home from work early, I wasn't searching the undergrowth - just enjoying the sunshine and have a general nose around.

One thing I noticed was some small yellow flowers growing around slabs that I couldn't remember seeing there before. When it comes to plants and flowers I am pretty much incompetent - I just can't retain an image of the structure/colour and associate it with a name in the same way that I can with relative ease for birds, moths etc. Anyway, I noticed the flowers but didn't know what they were. This prompted me to dig out the only wild flower books I have to again trawl through blindly. Whilst I had the book in hand, I recalled various people mentioning seeing Lesser Celandine recently so I looked it up. Bugger me - it was the small yellow flower I was intending to try and identify! Or at least I think so ....

Of the flowers that we have actually planted, pleasing to see that the Snake's Head Fritillaries (sourced from commercial stock) continue to thrive:

Also about were my first Peacocks of the year, with several flying around in bursts in between soaking up the sun, and also my first wasps. Also lots of big fat White-tailed and Red-tailed Bumblebees evident, plus loads of 7-Spot Ladybirds and a couple of 2-Spots.

A weakly-marked 7-Spot

The garden moth traps last night produced a total of 44 of 11sp. (125W MV 16 of 7, 80W actinic 28 of 9).

0672 Parsnip Moth (Depressaria heraclei) 1 [first for year]
0688 Agonopterix heracliana 1
1524 Emmelina monodactyla 1
1746 Shoulder Stripe (Anticlea badiata) 1
1862 Double-striped Pug (Gymnoscelis rufifasciata) 1
1917 Early Thorn (Selenia dentaria) 1 [first for year]
2182 Small Quaker (Orthosia cruda) 3
2187 Common Quaker (Orthosia cerasi) 11
2188 Clouded Drab (Orthosia incerta) 8
2190 Hebrew Character (Orthosia gothica) 13
2243 Early Grey (Xylocampa areola) 3

Early Thorn

Nothing remotely interesting bird-wise to report.