All The Young Juvs

Today was one that was constrained, in that I needed to complete some work around the middle of the day. So this morning I nipped over to Huncote Embankment with the aim of trying to photograph Odonata, and then this afternoon I've been out to Bradgate Park with Nichola.

This morning was warm enough, with good sunny spells but always some brooding clouds in view that in the end came to nothing.

The main plan was to point the camera at damselflies, and specifically to try and photograph Small Red-eyed Damselfly. I have seen this species before, years ago not long after first colonisation. We dropped into the Bluewater Shopping Center on the way back from a twitch, quite probably the Pallid Harrier in August 2002 but memory has gone hazy. I've never looked for or knowingly seen one since then, despite their rapid and widespread colonisation. And today was no different as to be honest the conditions were not great - either bright sunshine causing fervent activity or a cloudy spell when everything settled out of view or range. I think I may have caught one, but the angle is terrible and it's far from totally convincing. I was also confused by the apparent presence of (Large) Red-eyed Damselfly which I thought would be well over by now, but apparently isn't.

I think these shots are Red-eyed Damselfly followed by Small Red-eyed Damselfly based on the terminal segments, but I'll try again on a better day.

Also a few Common Darters around, and plenty of Blue-tailed Damsleflies.

I also spotted by chance what I think may be the first Orange Ladybird larva I've seen.

Later in the afternoon, we headed to Bradgate Park. Despite the reasonable weather and being slap bang in the middle of summer, it was a lot quieter than I expected it might be. All the better. Nice views, plenty of deer - albeit distant - and a few birds and bits whilst we wandered about.

These deer really were a long way off, at least 100 meters, probably more.

A walk around the outer perimeter of the ruins brought some plants and a new fly ....

After this shot I managed to pot what was clearly a robber fly, and it's now pinned and works through quite simply to Machimus cingulatus - though you can't see all features here apart from leg colouration.

There is plenty of fruiting Deadly Nightshade here if you have anyone that you think would benefit from some herbal remedy ....

I spotted a Purple Hairstreak a long way up in an oak, and also some galls on Walnut caused by the mite Aceria erinea ....

The main avian interest though came from a range of juvs ....

Confident and fully independent Stonechat

Confident to the point of cocky Goldfinch in a feeding flock with other juvs

Pathetic begging Reed Bunting that had barely fledged - no tail, no flight

Bugs and Buds

I've finally managed to crack a couple of hemipteran puzzlers that I've been mulling over all week. Both were swept and potted at Ketton Quarry on Monday, and both popped their clogs in respective pots before I could even attempt a photo. Luckily there were both big enough that they were not going to shrivel away to nothing in a couple of days. It's not often now that I find a bug and can't resolve it having gone through the British Bugs galleries, but both of these stubbornly refused to be identified until I had a lucky moment last night and a eureka moment this evening.

First up, this dark Mirid with bright red cuneus, bright green underneath and (although they fell off) longish 'Phytocoris like' hind legs. I could not pick out anything similar in the British Bugs galleries, then last night whilst flicking through Facebook I noticed a photo of the exact same bug on the UK Hemiptera group. Here's a lazy photo of my dead hind-legless bug ....

It's a male Closterotomus trivialis, which currently isn't featured on the British Bugs gallery. It was added to the British list as recently as 2008, when adults were found on a small number of cultivated Hypericum plants in a north London garden. They still don't seem to have spread; the NBN atlas maps is pretty devoid of dots - except there is one for Leics., a 2018 record from a garden. It must be spreading, and whilst info seems a bit sparse I wonder if the abundance of native Hypericum spp. at Ketton Quarry is relevant. Needless to say, it's a new one for me.

The other bug that has been bugging me is this; a smallish, entirely all dark and quite hairy thing ....

Earlier this evening I had one more trawl through British Bugs and realised why I was missing it: this is a macropterous form of Orthocephalus coriaceus, a widespread but local bug of grasslands. No VC55 dots on the NBN maps, and no previous records as far as I can tell. And again, new for me.

Great stuff. I seem to be quite lucky lately in that although I'm limiting the number of specimens collected to check out quite a good percentage of them have been new for me and significant for VC55.

Here's a few flower buds from the same visit to fill the page a bit ...

Yellow Bird's-nest

Deadly Nightshade

Hedge Woundwort

Bladder Campion

Common Spotted Orchid

And because I can, another Stenurella melanura - Ketton Quarry seems to be a good site for this longhorn in VC55 .....