Been a busy couple of days, up and down ladders and stairs painting the hallway and landing. Today I did manage to spend some time in the garden though. Late this morning as I sat out on a quick coffee break I nearly spluttered it all over the place as a Greenfinch briefly landed on the fence and then flew off. Yes, a Greenfinch! No camera to hand, and seemed highly unlikely I'd see it again. C'est la vie. Back inside for another few hours of soul-drenching hard graft delightful DIY and I was done for the day. Cameras ready and I grabbed a net. It was mid-afternoon and the sun was beating down by that point. I was being given the complete run around by at least three individual Merodon equestris that refused to settle for a shot and all evaded the net. And then I heard not one, but it sounded like a family party of Greenfinches. I couldn't see them as I got ready with the camera, and then two shot out of the embankment scrub and disappeared. But I could still hear one wheezing and trilling a bit. You may need to turn the volume up and ignore the wind/motoway noise .....
Eventually I could see a fat motionless silhouetted blob in the twiggery, and managed to get a poor shot that I've had to lighten to reveal the glorious green and yellow blob.
Otherwise it seemed that there was more activity than in recent days, though not much was settling. Perhaps the biggest insect surprise came when I nipped back into the kitchen to make another coffee and noticed that a fly buzzing around the window was not your average housefly ...
Tachina fera - a first for the house/garden
Another first for the garden was this, although it is only a sp. for now ...
Altica sp. - almost certainly lythri, but ....
And a couple of firsts for the year ...
Episyrphus balteatus
Green-veined White
Also some good larval news, or at least I am pretty sure that this is what it is.
Early instar Orange-tip on Cuckooflower seed pod
Less good news for one larva. I idly pointed the camera at a Blackbird and when looking at the image noted something hanging off the edge of its beak ..
A late posting, been busy chilling in the garden at the very dregs of dusk listening to my first Song Thrush of the lockdown period. I'm sure there have been other singing Song Thrushes, but I've not been making any effort to get up at the crack o dawn to try and hear one (moth trap either not out, not expected to have owt in and either way there were no fledglings about so predation risk low) and I've not heard one in the late afternoon / early evening. I've also been Hedgehog bothering with one in the garden both tonight and last night.
Busy working day today, so no time in the garden in daylight hours and it was gone 6pm before I headed out for a quick walk. I saw buntings .....
Yellowhammer
I also saw bunting .....
A number of houses around the estate, but particularly down the road I walk to get down the lane, have been decorated with red/white/blue bunting, pom-poms (!) and, of course, Union Flags. I know what it's for, and I know it's well meaning. But it really does look like a Brexiteers wet dream. One house only managed to adourn itself with a string of St George Flags, so clearly they either have no idea or believe that the Germans surrendered only to the English and forget the other Brits and allies.
Whilst out walking I saw and heard at least four Whitethroats (they've been around most of this week), a Lesser Whitethroat (not heard that this week) along with the Yellowhammers, Skylarks, Chaffinches, Linnets, Swallows, Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps. It was quite idyllic if you ignore the M1 a few hundred meters away. I've been trying to get a shot of one of the Whitethroats but they are not playing ball. I'll keep trying.
I had another look at my new favourite shieldbugs. Surprisingly a pair (the same pair?) were in cop in the same place, but with another in attendance and at least one other on an adjacent plant.
On the same Garlic Mustard clump were flea beetles. I've potted a couple to check properly.
