Get Up Get Off

Another day, another (lucky) tick. Been busy doing prep work for redecorating the hallway and landing today, but I enjoyed a spot of lunch in the garden and whilst mooching around looking at a generally quiet and barren space, I noticed one small fly that I recognised. I grabbed camera to have a play, fired off some shots and this evening when reviewing them I've realised that it's not what I thought it was ...

Microchrysa flavicornis turns up in the garden trap quite often, but the above hasn't got any yellow in the antenna and is a little darker in the thorax as it is Microchrysa polita (Black-horned Gem). A new soldierfly for me that might have gone unnoticed if wasn't such a quiet day otherwise.

Apparently from tomorrow I will be able to legitimately bugger off to Ketton Quarry etc, on me todd, to enjoy time out in decent habitat beating the living daylights out of hawthorn, sweeping vegetation and generally enjoying the natural world whilst socially isolating. Which is pretty much a blissful scenario for me anyway, and I can easily manage a minimum 200 meter people-radius at most of the sites I enjoy. People are of course fully entitled and able to ignore any easing of measures and stay at home by choice, but either way I fully expect that hoards of beach-goers and groups of friends meeting up in large public parks for picnics will soon have us back in a more restrictive lockdown. Hopefully I will get a chance to get up and get off out for a day in the field before then. Quite whether furtive moth trapping in woodland is allowed I'm not sure .....