Yesterday was my second chemo IV session. It took 7 hours or so, including
waiting time and a reduced rate/increased time administering of the cytotoxic
chemical. My left arm was no less painful, and I've only started to get the
use of it back this morning. PICC line being planned for the remaining x6
sessions which will alleviate this arm numbing discomfort.
As it took so long, it was properly dark and around 7:15pm as I left the
building to be picked up. Just as I was between the building and car park I
could hear a Tawny Owl calling, apparently from the roof of the building I'd
just left. I looked around but saw nothing whilst the calls continued. The
calls then seemed to drift off south-east of where I was. And where I was was
here, just c100meters north of my 5MR area boundary. Still, even if the bird
was in it, or flew into it, I was out of it.
That stadium is where the Tigers chase the wrong-shaped ball. Badly in recent
seasons.
On the face of it, a built up hospital on the outskirts of the City is not the
place for a Tawny Owl, but pulling back on the zoom shows a few places it
could roost and feed ....
Left - right: Nelson Mandela Park, Welford Cemetery, Victoria Park
Actually it was good to realise that a decent chunk of the cemetery and the
best birding bit of Victoria Park are in the 5MR area.
Later this afternoon, after trying my best to get some work done one-handed
before gradually getting both arms back, I had a half hour potter on the
front garden. I couldn't last much longer, as the chemo I'm on also makes you
sensitive to cold for a few days. Even though it was mild and I had gloves
on the tingling sensation increased and the inside of my nose was stinging.
I found a couple of Psychidae cases on the front garden wall - which I've
not found on here before. I think one has to be Narycia duplicella,
certainly the most likely species though it doesn't look quite right and
actually looks a bit like a Dahlica sp. so I I'll try and pot it up to
check/rear. The other was probably Luffia lapidella f. ferchaultella,
but it was clearly a damaged or old case. So neither added to the list as
yet.
I also remembered that I'd noticed a Vapourer egg batch earlier in
Jan but forgot to snap and add. Actually today I found four more. As this
species overwinters as the egg, and most of these look intact, it should be
okay to add to the list.
A number of lichens that I haven't ever tried to sort out are on that wall,
I've snapped some to ponder over for another day. I expect all are common
and being on walls and mortar limits the candidates.
Having found one on the window ledge, I found a number of globular
Dicyrtomina saundersi today on the underside of stones - never seen
them in the garden before this week, which is either down to not looking
hard enough or they have genuinely moved in recently.
I also snapped an Orchesella cincta that was on the wall ....
Nothing else identifiable, and it was probably a few hours too late in the day
- I'll have another look around earlier tomorrow.
This small spider appeared to be carting a parasitic wasp larvae around ....
.... and there were a couple of Dipterans that would need properly keying and
checking.
A Chironomid, quite possibly Chironomus plumosus.
And I believe one of the Mycetophilidae 'Fungus Gnats', possibly a
Dynatosoma sp. I did try to pot this but it evaded the cack-handed effort.
Here's some proper nostalgic breakbeat stuff from before the enforced name change
....
End of the week, and the weather has shown some signs of perking up for the weekend. Just as well, as I think I've just about come to the end of any useable photos. Here's a random mix.
The moth trap has not been out since Monday night, when it got wet and yielded not much, but I've got a couple to share ...
Yellow-barred Brindle - one I forgot to post with the last lot from Sunday 26th
Spectacle - the only NFY in Monday night's trap
I've got a couple of beetles found on windows / window frames, one more welcome than the other.
Anaspis maculata
This was on the outside of an upstairs window, and I managed to pot it one-handed whilst on a call to work. Forgot about it until when I tipped in onto a windowsil for a lazy snap today. NFG
Varied Carpet Beetle - sadly resident!
And some garden randomness .....
Orchesella cincta
Tipula somethingorother (if it was November I'd assume confusa)
Yet another weekend dominated by shite weather and dreadful VAR decisions. This morning I was hoping to get out and try more sieving for beetles, but the gloomy conditions with drizzle soon put and end to that. Later this afternoon though, the sun came out for a while and I headed out for what I knew would be a relatively brief jaunt. I didn't really have a plan, other than with all the rain we've had many sites that I might visit would be very wet. So I made a snap decision to head for some woodland, and made my way to Fox Covert on the edge of the Ulverscroft NR. Although this can be a wet woodland area, part of it is high up and I hoped that the rain would have run/drained down to the lower parts.
That at least worked out well, as the area I worked was reasonably dry. No such luck with finding lots of beetles though; no matter how much sieving, log poking or polypore bashing I did I was not really finding anything worth taking to scrutinise. I am not exactly blessed with lots of patience, and find that if there is no early success my effort and persistence wanes.
What I did find though were 1000s of tiny collembola. However there seemed to be a much greater range of species, sizes and shapes than I usually see, so in lieu of any beetle action I pointed the camera at a few bits that ended up in the sieving tray (which you may remember is a large plastic pot saucer in the typical 'terracotta' look colour). I recognised a couple of species, and tentatively identified another, but I've not collected any as I find they are usually dead and shrivelled in the pot before I get home.
First up, a couple of fat round 'globular' species:
Dicyrtomina saundersi
Dicyrtoma fusca
A couple of larger typical springtails:
Orchesella cincta
Pogonognathellus longicornis
If you look closely at the above, which I believe is the largest UK species, there is a very tiny springtail sp. just above it.
Here a few other smaller spp., one with a tentative ID:
Folsomia candida
(Note a bit of a tiny beetle)
Aside from collembola, I found what appeared to be a couple of beetle larvae and a very tiny (smaller than the globule springtails) but noticeably marked spider which I guess is likely to very immature.
And whilst poking dead wood I found what I think is one of the 'pin' slime moulds.
Whilst taking photos of this, I noticed some movement and tried to get a quick shot but the camera would not focus. However, despite the shockingly bad image the ID is not in question ...
Today was my first full day back at work since 10th January. I did spend a few hours working from home whilst I was off, and went back on short days last week, but it's not the same. Physically fine, it's more about remembering how to use my brain to juggle several things/people at the same time. Anyway, whilst I was there it was lovely and sunny. As I left it looked like it might cloud over a bit. As I got home it got duller .....
There was enough time to go out and have a look around, but with the sun gone and the light going I decided to not bother and just had a potter about in the garden instead. It seems like it's been quite a while since I actually had a poke around in the garden with the camera, and I was reminded of a few things ..... like .....
It's been a few years since I bothered properly looking at the slugs in the garden, and there may well be new species that I've not seen here before. I've not even scrutinised the 'yellow slugs' properly since the arrival and spread of Irish Yellow Slug in the county. I found a clump today but typically they remained scrunched up and I couldn't coax one to properly stretch out for a better look. I'm pretty sure that all of my garden yellows are now Irish Yellow Slug, but need to check. They're not going anywhere, I just need to remember to get myself in gear and go out collecting a load of slugs from the garden one warm damp night to properly look at them all.
Ambigolimax sp. - 'Greenhouse Slug' or 'Balkan Three Banded Slug' ??
Limacus sp. - (probably) Irish Yellow Slug
This photo also shows how productive lifting a pot can be, if you can be arsed to catch and check all the flat-backed millipedes, woodlice and earthworms ......
Pot and slab lifting also produced a couple of usual suspects.
Leistus fulvibarbis
Orchesella cincta
An out of focus Orchesella villosa
It was around the time of the last couple of shots that I remembered a couple of other things: springtails are massively abundant and ought to be looked for/at more than they have been, and bloody hell I can't actually see and focus on the camera screen properly when shooting hand-held anymore and can't see if the subject is in focus. I need specs.
Other bits didn't need looking for, they were just there.
Brown-lipped Banded Snail
Oddly coloured Green Shieldbug
Marchantia polymorpha - all over the place in the garden now
Ubiquitous Scarlet Lily Beetle - back again to destroy my Snake's-head Fritillaries
I noticed that there are more white Fritillaries this year
In other news, that grubby female Psychid from yesterday is still alive and kicking ... and not egg-laying.
Managed to run the garden trap on Thursday and Friday nights, using the 22W synergetic combined with a 20W actinic CFL for a change. Neither night was spectacular, but the first Orthosia spp. of the spring turned up ...
Common Quaker
Hebrew Character
Best moth though was another Oak Beauty - raising hopes that this species could become a spring regular in coming years. Definitely a different individual as the first had a damaged patch to the left forewing.
On Friday I also managed to get home from work early enough to enjoy an hour or so of daylight in the garden - feels like the first time that's happened for months. Pointed the camera at a few bits because I could.
Ran the 80W/11W Actinic/CFL combo trap last night. It was looking distinctly empty around midnight but there was one moth in it this morning - a slightly tired looking Dotted Border.
Later this morning there was some nice bright sunshine which brought a bit of activity in the garden, with a few flies hanging around and a couple of other bits ....
7-Spot Ladybird
Nursery Web Spider
I potted up a springtail on Thursday late afternoon whilst out walking in my square, which looked a pale yellow and wasn't very hairy. I couldn't match it to anything in a Collembola key and left it in a pot with some moist soil for another day. When I looked again today I was surprised to find that it was no longer pale yellow and bald, but was now a dark grey, very hairy and clearly Pogonognathellus longicornis. I just hadn't thought about springtails moulting through instars which I presume is what happened. I'll try and get a photo tomorrow but I'm not having much success with springtail photos - here's a couple from the garden today (photographed on the underside of a lifted slab at a jaunty angle):
