Speeding Well

Not had much chance to do anything during the week for one reason or another, and today it's turned properly wet (which is not a bad thing really). I have mooched about in the garden on occasion though and found a couple of tiny speedwells growing in the unkempt lawn.

First up this which is new for the garden (at least in the sense of me noticing it!).

Numerous flowering spikes of Thyme-leaved Speedwell barely poking above the level of the grass and clover leaves.

The other is not new, and is growing in the same area that I've seen it before but it is very easy to completely overlook and I've not noticed it for a long while. Most of the flowers were a bit faded and past their best, but there are others to come.

Wall Speedwell

Finding both of these reminded me that I'd photographed a larger Field-speedwell in the garden in April that I'd forgotten to check out.

The flowers seemed a bit paler and less blue than I usually see, but checking the plant again this week the seed pods seem to confirm that it is just Common Field-speedwell (which is also new for the garden).

Seeing as I was pointing the camera at small plants in the garden, I thought I'd see if one of the smallest on the front driveway was flowering. It was.

Procumbent Pearlwort with pathetic tiny flowers

Also new to the garden this week; I was on the phone and staring out of the windows when a Little Egret flew over heading south. A quick check with Neil Hagley confirmed what I expected - he has seen them several times heading over here! I think his home office view is pretty much looking west so he has a better view of anything moving north-south or vice-versa. My office window faces north-east with a big flowering cherry in the middle of the view, so unless I'm actually stood at the window and looking out it is very easy to miss something heading above the line of the embankment. Still, another garden tick that had I been at work would never have been seen (like last years Hobby and the Lesser Redpoll in April this year; Red Kite and Raven would also be included had I not seen them several times since including over weekends).

There have been a few more hoverflies and bees in the garden, but it feels nothing like last year when I was hand-catching inconspicuous ladybirds etc. The heavy rains today and slight warming up over the next few days might make a difference. What won't help is that the verges around parts of the square were mowed yesterday, just when a load of grasses were starting to flower!

My IV chemo treatment has been stopped early to avoid permanent issues with hand and feet neuropathy, so the PICC line is coming out on Monday. The oral chemo will carry on for another three cycles but that's fine, no real side-effects from that. I expect that next week will be my last working from home so I will be trying to make the most of it. I've also got my first big 'test' of being away from home for a longer period next Saturday, as I've successfully acquired a ticket for the FA Cup final at Wembley. Will be very strange going back to a live football match - can't think of a better occasion for it. Hopefully the team will have woken up again by then ....

New Trichs

On Friday last week, I nonchalantly took a swipe at a number of 'winter gnats' dancing above my front garden conifer border. I've always ignored then, although I knew what I expected them to be. I potted a couple and a quick look at a male with a hand lens seemed to confirm my thoughts. Then, you know that thing where you pot a flimsy fly but then forget about it until it's way past its best? Yes, that. By the time I did remember it had long since thrown a seven and, unhelpfully, managed to hold its wings at a jaunty angle whilst the abdomen had shrivelled somewhat.

Completely pointless trying to pin it and almost impossible to look at properly with the microscope, but I saw enough to convince myself that it was indeed Trichocera regelationis as expected. I detached a wing to try and show the two key characters on that at least ....

Vein 2A short and strongly curved, vein r-m very slightly curved with a distinct cloud over it.

This is a ridiculously common species, so not surprising that I'm able to find one with virtually no effort at all.

The Zone

I nipped to Croft Hill again this evening. No high expectations at it was around 18:30 by the time I got there so aside from plenty of bumblebees not much going on. Still masses of flowering Ragwort, and ridiculously still a relative lack of Cinnabar larvae - I've seen a bigger mass on a single plant down the lane in the last week than I've seen here.

Still, there was some gold amongst the bees - almost literally in terms of colour ....

Volucella zonaria - by far the biggest hover to be seen and one I love to see

I also spied what I was certain was a new fly for me, so no dithering trying to get an 'on-the-flower' shot, I needed to get it potted and check it at home. Sure enough, I was right ....

Physocephala rufipes

I also stumbled, almost literally, on a female Emperor in the grass. I grabbed a quick shot before it made a quick escape.

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 .....

Sciuridae

Last night I had the moth trap and the camera trap out again, but I was in no rush to get up and check them this morning. In fact I had a very leisurely lie in ... no point in burning myself out.

When I did get up, I saw that it was a dull, windy and chilly day. Exactly as forecast. The moth trap was quiet with nothing new. The cam trap was quiet, with nothing nocturnal. The borders were quiet, with nothing flitting about. The feeders were busy, with the usual crew. The cam trap had caught some mammalian action, just not the improved spikey blob footage I was hoping for. I wasted some time fannying about with software to add a suitable backing track to a clip. I imagine the YouTube police will be after me for copyright infringement before long.

Is it really less than a week since this lockdown started ....

This week, I am listening to ..

The banging new release from The Prodigy at constant ear-bleeding volume in my car and on the PC. Invaders Must Die Omen

This week, I have mostly been listening to ..

.. Prodigy, so no surprises there then as that's what I said I'd loaded to the i-Pod last week! Ear-bleeding volume mandatory. Very brash, fast and angry it was too - Fuck 'em and Their Law etc. In complete contrast, although still on a dance based theme, I've just spent a couple of hours downloading some new stuff to listen to from here - I'll give an opinion next week but initial tasters sound pretty good.