50 Shades of Brown

Here's some fairly standard fare from the garden traps at this time of year - mainly brown apart from this one ....

Sycamore

Shuttle-shaped Dart - slightly oddly marked

Ingrailed Clay

Small Square-spot

Brown Rustic

Rustic Shoulder-knot

Agonopterix arenella

White-shouldered House Moth

Scalloped Hazel

A few more bits

Before I post some photos from today, this news about the Orkney Walrus is exciting. Of course, Walrus has featured on this blog before. I'm sure there will be a lot of listers heading up to tick this bloated goofy blubber sack (the Walrus, not Dickson-Wright), which is preferable to the action of the finder who threw a stone at it to see if it was alive!

Had a bit of time in the garden after U12s football this morning, and a couple of hours in the square this afternoon. All very relaxing. Found some more new lichens, a couple of fungi and added some more inverts to the 1000 in 1kmsq list.

Eristalis tenax

Liocoris tripustulatus

Empoasca vitis

Agonopterix arenella

Scotohaeus blackwalli

Narycia duplicella

Phaonia tuguriorum - a slightly better photo than yesterday

Stubbs, Plate 7, Fig 13a

As hoverflies go (at least in my very limited experience) this one is a real tiddler - Neoascia tenur. It was also nigh on impossible to get a decent photo in dull evening light with a very flightly beast. This one is the best of a bad bunch in that it shows the slightly waisted abdomen (though not as dramatically as in Sphegina clunipes), a yellow abdominal band and clear wings.

Having found an Early Grey resting in the garden yesterday evening, and with it having beeen the first mild/dry day for a fair while, I put out the garden MV last night. It was raining by early morning and the whole catch consisted of four Hebrew Characters. Complete pants. I did pick up a garden yeartick though with an Agonopterix arenella that came to a lit window on the other side of the house.

Today it rained pretty much all day; the bottom end of my garden is flooded again. I really should plant some phragmites down there and see if I can get breeding Bittern on the garden list .....

Snakes n stuff

Another superbly warm sunny day. After emptying the moth traps and giving Nichola a lift into work, I headed out to Ketton Quarry with the boys to have our first go this year at searching for reptiles.

By the time we got there it was already very warm, and there were no snakes basking in any obvious spots. Someone was already there looking, and had been for a while, but he'd seen only 1 female Adder which was now still just about viewable but only as a tail-tip. There was a small male Grass Snake out in full view allowing very close views - however it was dead! We moved down to the other main area and soon found a very lively and active Grass Snake. We got good but brief views which kept the boys happy, but no chance of photography. We also found a handful of Common Lizards but again they were very lively and would not sit still for a few seconds. We'll try again in a week or so - either we were too early in the season or the very cold winter has demolished the reptile population in the area.

Also on site I picked up good numbers of active butterflies, including Peacocks, Small Tortoiseshells, Brimstones and a Comma. Also plenty of bees of one sort or another, and a fair few of these bizarre Bee-flies (which I think are Bombylius major):

Bee-fly

Whilst there, at least two Blackcaps were in full song plus a couple of Chiffchaffs. Before leaving, I collected a few Teasel seed heads to check for and rear the tortrix Endothenia gentianaeana. I later checked one and found a larva so I expect all of the collected heads will be populated.

Endothenia gentianaeana

On the way home, I had a very quick look over Eyebrook Reservoir. Nothing too exciting - no terns or waders - though this flew over the road just as I was moving on. I managed to jump out of the car and point the camera for a crap record shot.

Osprey

Shame is that with the plethora of translocated birds and their offspring, I just can't get excited by Ospreys in our county.

Back home mid-afternoon, just in time to post a bet on my Blue Square account for the Grand National and make a modest £25 profit after backing the winner.

Later on, I checked the Psychidae from Monday that I brought back to rear/check and I found that 3 of the Dahlica spp. had emerged and the apterous (no wings) parthenogenetic (no males) females were actively egg-laying into the vacated cases. I will hold on to the cases for a couple of weeks before taking them back to the wall they came from. I need to get the spent females and the head-plate from the pupal exuviae under the microscope to confirm exactly which species they are (hopefully I've got both).

A short clip of the unfertilised female pumping the vacated case full of fertile eggs .....

Meanwhile, from the garden trap last night, 32 of 10sp. (125W MV 14 of 7, 80W actinic 18 of 5):

0667 Semioscopis steinkellneriana 1
0688 Agonopterix heracliana 1
0697 Agonopterix arenella 1 [first for year]
1524 Emmelina monodactyla 3
1746 Shoulder Stripe (Anticlea badiata) 1
2182 Small Quaker (Orthosia cruda) 1
2187 Common Quaker (Orthosia cerasi) 1
2188 Clouded Drab (Orthosia incerta) 3
2190 Hebrew Character (Orthosia gothica) 19
2243 Early Grey (Xylocampa areola) 1

Agonopterix arenella