Luck ....

I timed my walk into the square today a little later, and was able to enjoy a great couple of hours in nice sunshine - albeit still a bit nippy. I took a route through the new housing sections of the estate, south along the A426, around the horse paddocks, around the copse and then back up the lane. I had no specific intentions, I was quite happy to just see what came my way. As it happens I was fairly lucky today.

Before heading out though, I pointed the camera at this on the front garden fence ..

Dicranopalpus sp. - I will collect a couple in the spring and work out formally that they are [almost certainly] D. ramosus

Whilst out and about I again pointed the camera and hand lens at some fairly common lichens, which I will save for another day. At one point on my route, I stopped and rolled a few stones/bricks on a mound next to a car pull in. The mound has grown over many years from selfish arseholes flytipping their garden waste and rubble etc. I found a few molluscs that I've potted to have a look at, and under one large stone I found a couple of smart beetles with orange markings. I wasn't expecting that, and pointed the camera at them more in hope than anything else as they repeatedly attempted to evade being looked at. Whilst the find was lucky, the resulting photos were not ....

Badister bullatus - with some of it in focus

Anchomenus dorsalis - with nothing closer than its hind leg in focus

Whilst at the horse paddocks, I had another look at the concrete fence posts with lichens from yesterday. I was sure that closer scrutiny might yield more species. It did, but not in the way I was anticipating ..

Ribautiana tenerrima - last thing I expected to find today

And a little later whilst in the copse, I rolled a large burnt log that was more charcoal than wood, finding this hibernating on the underside ..

Hawthorn Shieldbug - with some sort of fungal masses that I ignored

Pretty much everything I've seen in the square so far this year is from casual observation, and today's stone and log rolling was a genuinely lightweight effort.

By the time I was on the lane and heading for home, the sun was just setting. Perfect, I hoped, giving a chance of something flying over on the way to roost. I had Canada Goose in mind, but the solitary Cormorant that flapped over will do.

The buildings to left are Attfield's Farm Shop and Cafe [and farm!]. The front and most of the eastern side of this is just inside my square.

Incarcerated

From tomorrow, I'll be working from home for the forseeable. I must one of the few people on this planet that is not pleased about that. I know what this is all about. I know that there is a huge crisis ongoing, but that doesn't stop me feeling like I am being incarcerated. I think I am feeling it more than perhaps I would have previously because of the amount of time I missed out last year whilst ill, recovering, being treated etc. I've got no idea where we are actually going with all this, but I absolutely expect that we will lockdown for a month, gradually start getting back to normal and do it all again. And again.

As for work, I should point out that my factory is well and truly a vital cog in the food industry. All those tinned beans, soup, veg, beer and soft drinks that people are buying up like there is literally no tomorrow only exist if there is packaging to put them in - ie the food and beverage cans that my company makes. Numbers, numbers and more numbers is all I will see. Nothing physical. I'll be looking at the line monitoring software, virtually watching machines run (or not), and checking that the hourly scores and total output is where it should be. Reviewing, sense checking, questioning, and quite probably being a complete pain in the arse to the people still actually there doing.

Away from work, outdoor activities will be limited to the garden and anywhere very local where I can walk for a short while alone for my 'once a day exercise'. Ironically, I reckon there is less chance of finding solitude locally than if I were driving out to the sites I would usually visit. I'll not be taking the piss and carting around sieves/sweepnet etc, though I don't see how walking with a shoulder bag carrying camera and pots is any more risky or selfish than jogging about or going on a bike ride, which I know many will still be doing. I'll keep in mind how fulfilling and generally satisfying the 1k in 1k square thing was back in 2013, and maybe enjoy some more of that approach. The garden moth trap will become vital to generating interest too, and surely that has to pick up soon (a single Hebrew Character last night).

Today brought the first garden butterflies of the year; a couple of Small Tortoiseshell, a Comma and a Brimstone. None of these hit the camera lens. Bird action so far has been predictably dull. Flyover Canada Geese this morning, a couple of Lesser Black-backed Gulls, the usual array of c10 species using the feeders. I found a couple of beetles though, which I bunged into a steep-sided ceramic pot with some compost and stones and then chased around for a while with the camera. Harder than you'd think!

Badister bullatus

Loricera pilicornis

I can find other things to keep me busy or entertained too, including working on some new stuff using my DAW (I use FL Studio) and an array of  VST synths, samplers and drum machines. I didn't play with it last year, but I've started up a new track and I can feel a number of SARS-Cov-2 quotes and samples coming on.

It might take hours or months to percolate into something presentable. When I say presentable, I mean that it sounds like a tangible construction - not anywhere near professional in either the structure or mixing. It's not aimed at anyone in particular, and doesn't fit a narrow genre. It's just something else that I can sit back every now and then and think 'I made that'. Ironically, the last couple of tracks I made sound about right for now - 'Captivity' and 'Insane'.

It also struck me today that it is less than 18 months ago when we were enjoying sun and sand in the Caribbean as part of our 50th Birthday celebrations. Spot the difference.

Croft Hill 13/04/2014

I nipped over to Croft Hill for a couple of hours late yesterday afternoon to enjoy the last of the warm sunshine. Turned out to be pretty productive with a couple of PSL ticks and one pending ID. The visit was also notable for a couple of things present en masse.

Firstly there are lots of dry open patches, quite likely caused by rabbits, plus dry well-walked paths. It was immediately noticeable that these areas were very busy with these ...

Ashy Mining Bee - male

Ashy Mining Bee - female

These bees were absolutely everywhere on site, 100s of them. Lots of interraction between individuals, a lot of it appearing to be aggressive behaviour, and small nesting holes were all over the place.

Typical area used by nesting Ashy Mining Bees

There were odd individuals of other solitary bee spp. around, including Early Mining Bee, but most noticeable were several Nomada spp. I've kept one to check out (and so far can't resolve it with either of the keys I've acquired) but Nomada lathburiana has to be a strong contended as it is the cleptoparasite of Ashy Mining Bee.

Nomada sp. - male

The other notable massed presence was around the oaks, with loads of these flying about or settled on trunks and fallen logs ...

Eriocrania subpurpurella

Pair in-cop

It always interesting when you look at something you've looked at 100s times before and see something new. Whilst browsing around the gorse bushes looking for Gorse Shieldbug (which I didn't find) I noticed a tiny weevil, only c2mm long. Further searching revealed that there were quite a few of them around, generally perched on the flowers and probing in. It is Exapion ulicis - a common weevil associated with gorse. How have I not seen it before?

Also new for me was this groundbug, which was a completely lucky find as it happened to crawl into view whilst I was watching the bees coming and going. Turns out to be scarce in VC55, the county recorder has no previous records but there appear to be a couple of dots on the NBN Gateway maps for Rutland.

Peritrechus lundii

I also found a couple of other beetles, Bembidion quadrimaculatum and this Badister bullatus ...

... and finally, the whole site was awash with Spring Beauty again.

Orange & Black Ticks plus

Another good mothing night in the garden - relatively that is - but I'll come back to that. First up I'm going to post some ticks from the garden and local area, all coincidentally following a bit of an orange and black theme:

Badister bullatus - a flukey tick and shot as it happened to scuttle underneath me and into a paving cervice whilst I had camera in hand.

Bramble Sawfly - found this locally on Tuesday. I thought it was dead in the pot but it made a miraculous recovery just as I was about to throw it out, and so I took some more shots.

 

Neuroctena anilis Tetanocera sp. - another fluke as this flew into the house just as we were sitting down to have dinner this evening. Potted up and photographed soon afterwards.

Right, here's last nights trap results as an interlude.

Total catch 28 of 15sp.
(125W MV 10 of 8sp., 22W/18W Synergetic/CFL combo 18 of 12sp.)

0247  Tinea trinotella  1 (NFY)
0409a  Argyresthia trifasciata  2
0647  Brown House Moth (Hofmannophila pseudospretella)  1 (NFY)
0648  White-shouldered House Moth (Endrosis sarcitrella)  1
0998  Light Brown Apple Moth (Epiphyas postvittana)  1
1136  Epinotia immundana  1 (NFY)
1524  Emmelina monodactyla  1
1738  Common Carpet (Epirrhoe alternata)  2 (NFY)
1776  Green Carpet (Colostygia pectinataria)  6
1834  Common Pug (Eupithecia vulgata)  3
1883  Yellow-barred Brindle (Acasis viretata)  3 (NFY)
1906  Brimstone Moth (Opisthograptis luteolata)  2
2063  Muslin Moth (Diaphora mendica)  1 (NFY)
2092  Shuttle-shaped Dart (Agrotis puta)  2 (NFY)
2188  Clouded Drab (Orthosia incerta)  1

Common Carpet

Yellow-barred Brindle

And here's a load of random recent stuff I've pointed the camera at, all from the garden apart from the procreating beetles ....
 

Salticus scenicus

Garden Spider

Tephritis formosa

Calliphora vicina

Eyeball - no idea what fly this is

 Green Dock Beetles mating all over the place on Monday evening