I'm properly struggling with trying to get back to a normal work-life
balance. I was intending to ease myself back into work, but three weeks in and
my innate desire to have everything 'right' has almost tipped me right into a
work-work mentality and I'm drowning. I've barely had time to log on to the
home PC, let alone get out and do anything. I've been feeling knackered when I
do get home, and given that the conditions have improved I've been compelled
to run the garden light trap more which means earlier starts compounding the
fatigue. I'm not complaining, I needed to get back into working for a living
and I will, eventually, strike a balance and make time for R&R.
In the meantime, I did manage to get out into the square and find lots of
stuff at the weekend, and as mentioned the light trap has started to produce
some proper diversity - both lepidopteran and 'bycatch'. But I'm not going to
offer anything like a comprehensive roundup, or even half-arsed summary. I'll
share a few photos now, and I'll make some effort to get my records and lists
up to date over the weekend.
Toadflax Brocade
Rhinocyllus conicus - swept from Spear Thistle
Epinotia bilunana
Ptinus sexpunctatus - light trap
Scorched Wing
Bordered Shieldbug - found by chance in garden
Rustic Shoulder-knot
Magdalis armigera - uncooperative individual swept from Ulmus sp.
Broken Barred-carpet
Orange Ladybird
Flame Carpet
Red-necked Stint, River Warbler etc etc - no intention of driving all over the
shop for year ticks. Sulphur-bellied Warbler - meh.
The bleeding cat woke me up at 04:10 this morning. Half asleep I poked my head out into the barely lit garden and checked the trap expecting it too at least look promising given the conditions when I went to bed. Absolutely crap, almost nothing on it and likely nothing in it. It wasn't light enough to empty it anyway so I left it till 06:30. I was right, it was crap. The only good thing about the trap emptying session was this completely unexpected delight ...
I've not seen a Bullfinch here for months. There are usually two or three knocking about along the embankment through the winter, but none appeared on my feeders or were seen/heard last winter. I certainly don't see them after the early spring. This one was calling from the embankment, and by the time I'd grabbed my camera it was perched on a neighbours tree frustratingly backlit and was just a silhouette. It flew off and I thought that would be it, but it came back about 10mins later and I got a this slightly better effort. No sight or sound of it later in the day though.
Moth-wise the trap was so poor I can't believe it. And annoyingly after a very warm and sultry cloud-covered day it looks like it's clearing up a bit now. But I've got both traps set-up ready to at least better my chances. I potted up one of the Nephrotoma spp. 'Tiger Craneflies' to look at, and the only other thing in the trap I pointed the camera at was this immature Clubonia sp. - completely unidentifiable but quite smart looking for a tiny spider.
This afternoon I went for another mooch along Bramble Walk, the disused railway line near to Cosby. I spent most of time time thrashing hawthorn for very little reward, just lots more of what I'd already seen along there and no nice big longhorns or anything like a Bruchus sp. to look at. I used my net handle as a beating stick, and then put the net on it and swiped at some grasses and low vegetation on the way back. The handle, beating tray and me were absolutely yellow with hawthorn pollen by the time I got back to the walk entrance. I pointed the camera at a few bits, the P600 that is - not confident enough with the new camera to take it out on this walk and waste time trying macro work and knew there would be nothing worthy of the other end of the focal length. I've got a few bits in pots, and will share a few more shots in another post, but here's some hemiptera.
Miris striatus nymph
Red-and-Black Froghopper
Bordered Shieldbug
Really pleased to find this last one, and I'd forgotten how tiny they are after the only other one I've seen last year.
Blackcap giving it some this morning on an open perch
Okay, so it's not my best work - but you know, time, patience and other things that I generally lack.
Anyways, on Saturday I was poncing around in the garden in a new flouncy light orange T-shirt from M&S preparing for a family BBQ. I'd already noted that the shirt in the sun was apparently attractive to hemiptera, as I'd knocked away a couple of plant hoppers when I noted a small roundish black thing on my left nipple that looked worthy of effort. So I managed to keep it there whilst I dashed in and grabbed the nearest glass tube ..... which had unfortunately previously housed a moth. Once secured and checked under a hand lens, there in all it's generally dull blackness was my first ever Bordered Shieldbug. How's that for luck! It got bunged in the fridge and forgotten about until this evening, when I had no time to try anything but a couple of quick indoor shots with flash. I couldn't even be arsed to grab a leaf, and used a bit of white card - although bizarrely that seems to work okay for this one.
So here it is in all it's tiny moth-scale tarnished and slightly deshevelled glory.
