First Swallow's & some Flower Power the 5th &6th April

It was all looking  very uninspiring on Saturday when I suddenly noticed my first Swallow low over pasture heading for the paddocks where it performed for best part of an hour. On Sunday there was a single individual again on the south east edge of the paddocks , despite the mizzle. What a welcome sight !
By Monday at least 2 seemed to be settling in.
Otherwise there were no birding surprises but plenty of activity noted and heard, including this Yellowhammer back on territory.

A Common Carder Bee was my only invert addition on patch. Off patch.. A walk around Monkwood that afternoon produced a stunning but flighty male Orange Tip, as good an early date as you will get in this neck of the woods I reckon. There was a  glorious carpet of  Wood Anemone's , and  Primroses and Wood Spurge were abundant and spurned me on to flower bash the patch the next day.

Monkwood flowers

Back on patch.It's amazing the changes in just a week, but there was so much blossom all of a sudden. At ground level I recorded the following, and there is plenty more growing into a state I can hopefully identify soon. Here are the record shots of what was found and identified, it was far too windy for anything better !
Green Alkanet

Greater Stitchwort

Yellow Archangel

Common Stork's-bill

Hedge Mustard

Ivy Leaved Speedwell

Cow Parsley

Another surprising find while scrutinizing the deck, was some small yellow fungi. Quite unexpected for this time of year, but a welcome addition to the patch pan list was Yellow Field Cap.

Species Total  195

End the month flourish ! 29th &30th March

Plenty of Peacock butterflies on the wing , as well as Comma's, Brimstones and a few Small Torts.  I also had a White sp..it was either Small or Green Veined, but he went to ground and I just couldn't find him.
An early visit to the patch hoping for Wheatear instead yielded Red Legged Partridge, a year first, as was a noisy Blackcap the next day. So, 64 species of bird in the grid now this year.

Revisiting around 10.30, just as it was warming Saturday, I immediately came across new  inverts. This Tawney Mining Bee was warming itself

And this Scarce Footman Caterpillar was, I swear, the same one I photographed in November on the same fence post !

A section of Goat willow has been productive, and on the adjacent ivy I noticed this critter settle. Thankfully I was able to eventually get him with the superzoom. A Bumble Bee mimic Hoverfly called Eristalis intricarius

I hadn't managed any Hemiptera for the list up to this point, but a single Dock Bug and several colonies of Pied Shield Bugs got me off the mark.

Pied Shield Bug

Dock Bug

Fence posts are wonderful things. Also out catching a few rays was this beetle, Oulema melanopa

Plants. Hmm. Work in progress. I added Ground Ivy (which was very popular with the bees ) and Sweet Violet, a small cluster of scented flowers lurking in a sea of Lesser Celandines

Ground Ivy

Sweet Violet

Total 186

March of the list, more signs of Spring..

The lovely Spring weather continued to be both a pleasure to walk in, and a catalyst for some more nice observations 14-16th.
 Both Red Tailed  and  Tree Bumblebee were recorded feeding and hunting out a nest site.

Tree Bumblebee ( Bombus hypnorum )

The first Chiffchaff of the year was present on the 14th and 15th

The wild flowers so far this year have been great. The abundant Lesser Celandine is quite a sight and seems a good enough reason that I connected with not one but at least 6 Brimstone Butterflies ( a butterfly patch lifer) on Sunday 16th.

This coupled with double figures of the Small Tortoiseshells, Comma's and Peacocks made it feel more like summer than early spring. I even recorded a Red Admiral, another year tick !

I have watched at close quarters a pair of  Long Tailed Tits nest building for over a week now, I'm hoping to follow their adventures over the coming weeks.

This Spider was out basking, seems good for Agalenatea redii.

Finally a plant I was really please to find, I didn't know for sure if they were on the patch. Wood Anemone

23rd March

This and the Brimstones were especially pleasing, and with one weekend left of March, I can reflect that it has already been a great month, with some really pleasing records. A Wheatear would round it off nicely !

Species Total 175 

Orange Underwing Moth tops the Weeks finds !

Around  3.30pm Monday I picked up on what I believed was a moth species on the wing. Initially I was wandering if I was picking up more Small Tort's, but further observation revealed a jizz I knew had seen before. Two years ago I had seen Orange Underwing and Light Orange Underwing at Chaddesley. However, that was on a woodland ride, and this was on a bridle path on paddocks. The moths however stayed largely in a young plantation, which was fenced off. I eventually saw one through the binoculars settle a fair way away but I saw enough to be 99% certain it was Orange Underwing.
I was unable to get a record shot, they were just to flighty, appearing out of nowhere, giving me the runaround before vanishing into the ether. They are afternoon flying moths and I was resigned to spending a few hours at the site over the coming days if a record shot was to be procured.
I returned the following afternoon armed with a few litres of water.  This wasn't to glug while waiting, they like to come down to drink from puddles, and the area was puddle free. They roundly spurned my cunning plan. However, eventually I saw one critter settle about 25 yards away at the top of a young tree. Using the digital zoom I was just about able to grab a quick snap ! Suffice to say I'm delighted with this discovery, peak count c15.

Orange Underwing

And if that wasn't good enough, just as I was leaving , A Great Black Backed Gull drifted over lowish, showing very well against the clear blue sky. A patch lifer !
On Tuesday Morning the Bumble Bee list kicked off with an Early Bumblebee ( Bombus pratorum)
Nearby I spotted 3 tiny ladybirds. These were another Ladybird lifer, this time 24 Spot Ladybird

24 Spot Ladybird

Other interesting species identified this week.

Zebra Spider  

Roe Deer
This was pretty mega to be honest. I flushed it whilst walking the set aside adjacent to the wood.

Nursery Web Spider
Buff Tailed Bumblebee ( Bombus terestris)
Agonopterix hercliana ( Micro moth )
Honey Bee ( Apis mellifera )
Goat Willow ( Salix caprea)
Finally, whilst walking today, I heard a a swarm of bees buzzing. Looking up, the Goat Willow held several hundred Honey Bees, quite a sight. The tree also held several Butterflies and a Buff Tailed Bumble Bee.

Species Total  168

Adders of the Wyre

A rare away half day from the patch of late ! A nice morning in The Wyre Forest the other day observing Adders and Common Lizards. A pleasure and a privilege.

The Sunday that Spring stormed the patch !

Spring had threatened a bit on Saturday, but the strong southerlies damped things down. A Linnet was the only addition to the year list.
Sunday however was the real deal, with the temperature peaking at 18° C. I couldn't wait to get out there !

It took exactly 5 minutes to see the first butterfly, a Comma, which I nearly tripped over. It settled down at a sensible distance.

By the end of the day, I had added Small Tortoiseshell and seen 3 Peacock's, this one was  the most obliging.

I'm doing well with Ladybirds, today 2 Pine Ladybirds were seen, only the second time I have seen this species. 7 Spots were abundant.

And on a little patch of Coltsfoot, a Marmalade Hoverfly..double tick !

A great session in the sun was rounded off by this Drinker Moth Caterpillar

Elsewhere I saw a nice male Brimstone on the wing. 4 butterflies seen on March 9th !
What a great day

 Patch Species  Total 157

Moths on the March

Although mothing has been limited, at least what has turned up have been new species so far this year.
This trend continued when I attempted a bit of impromptu patch mothing the other evening.
Driving through the patch I noticed a few moths in the headlights. So, I pulled over for 5 minutes and shone my beam into an open area next to some trees.
Soon there were some mothy critters about and after a couple of failed attempts, a decent sized moth settled a few yards in front of the car and was promptly potted.
When I go home, it turned out to be another new moth, The Engrailed. ( moth returned next morning ). .

The Engrailed

So, what else have I squeezed out ?... Common Rough Woodlouse

  Hairy Curtain Crust, a species I had forgotton about.Bluebell ( stems poking through leaf litter ) Whilst mooching through the leaf litter, I uncovered a White-legged Snake Milipede

And finally, a worm that keyed out seemingly ok, Red Head Worm

Red Head Worm, Lumbricus rubellus

Just waiting for Spring to kick in a bit now. Fungi has gone over, most plants still a bit early to ID with any certainty, birds static and Invert opportunities still limited. Should be a Chiffchaff in the next couple of weeks. Not inclined to get into Moses and Lichens now til after autumn !
Patch Pan List Total 149
                                                                ................

A session with the MV Garden Trap on  1st of March yielded another single catch, but again a new species, and a rather apt one...March Moth.

March Moth, right on time