Moths and some Hare raising additions

A brief afterwork visit on the 21st was principally to do a bit of netting with my new sweep net, to see if I could nab a few moths. As I pulled up, a Brown Hare showed very nicely for a minute until it sloped away as I exited the car. Still, its always good to get a new mammal tick, they are hard to come by.
The mothing produced Brown Silver line, Silver Ground Carpet, Red Twin Spot Carpet and Grey Pug ( a lifer). So a very productive 30 minutes. Just imaging what I could bag if I ran my trap...thats for the future ?

Over the weekend, I managed a bit more wandering. I swelled the moth list a little more. Common Carpet and a couple of Micro's, Pammene aurana, and  Alabonia geoffrella ( lifer too).

Just call me Geoff

The first Beautiful Demoiselles were recorded on 4th May, think I forgot to mention it. They are a bit more numerous now and a bit more relaxed, so here is one from this weekend.

New Hemiptera species, a smart Rhabdomiris striatellus

An attractive Wasp beetle, there was a mini emergence of these.

Other Coleoptera, stalwarts Malachius bipustulatus, and Cantharis Rustica also chalked up whilst in beetle mode. 

The plant list to ID grows evermore. Large and Small White Butterfly belatedly added 

Total 256

Cuckoo headlines a solid update to the patch

So, another weekend, and a few snippets of time dotting over the patch, not the amount of coverage I was hoping for, but the returns have been pleasing...
So, up first, Bird news, and a Cuckoo was calling on the evening of the 16th, causing me to drop the new sweep net I was trying out and dash off to try and locate it. I did locate it to a bit of private woodland, but couldn't get eyes on it, however the following morning I had one go over low about 300 yrds way from that spot ( as the Cuckoo flies). A patch lifer so quite pleased.
 The same morning was my first encounter with any Swifts this year, so the bird year list creeps up to 72, 7 more needed to beat last years total of 78, although that was my entire patch, not the section I'm focusing on this year, still, 80 was my target at the start of the year.
It all turned out to be quite interesting, as I found new species that from groups I'm especially interested in.
Saturday morning saw a a patch lifer drop in in the form of a ♀ Broard Bodied Chaser, interestingly a further 3 females were seen by me on Monday, close to a mini fishing pond, a few hundred yards away from the 1st site.Here is the original find..

Staying on the Odonata theme, I had singles of both Common Blue and Azure Damselfly on the 19th.

Azure Damselfly

Common Blue Damselfly

The other outstanding invert action over the weekend was adding 3 species of ladybird to the list that day.2 Spot  Ladybirds seem to have suddenly appeared, I was wandering if the Harlequins had seen them off, but I saw a few examples over the weekend.  Cream Spot Ladybird was another patch lifer, a species I've only had in my garden previously.Again , I noted a few of these, along with an increase in the already recorded 14 Spots.
The Sweep net came up trumps though yielding me a  22 Spot within a matter of minutes, a Ladybird lifer. Unfortunately after ID 'ing it, I lost it, they are bloody tiny !!..so no pic

Prior to the Cuckoo commotion Friday, netty had nabbed a moth lifer, Rivulet, as well as helping me pin down Silver Ground Carpet.

Rivulet

And finally, plants, I always save the best til last...seriously, they are winding their way into my interest, so they should, I've spent enough on flower ID books !..My lack of experience in this area means I have to drip feed them in,the 'to do pile is quite long.. but making it onto the list now is Common Vetch, Red Clover, Pineapple Weed..more to come when I can be arsked have the time..

Pineapple Weed, I think,...smells like pineapple, quite interesting

Species Total...241

Easing Back, a few recent highlights

Other commitments, weather and mild patch fatigue have seen me spending less time on the patch panlisting since the last post.
Hopefully most of the blockers are nearly resolved, and a small investment in a sweep net has been made.
On the 5th May there was a Willow Warbler near the fishing Pool, a rare patch bird in my experience and a welcome addition.

 So far, Kestrel, Garden Warbler and Lesser Whitethroat elude me, as does Swift at the time of writing still.
A nice addition today was my first Hobby of the year, which passed over the pool heading towards Hurcott.

Galls.
A couple of new galls were spotted. Firstly, these Current Galls are nice, but not actually a new species, as they are caused by the same organism that causes Common Spangle Galls, but by the sexual generation.

Current Gall on Oak leaf

These, however these are a new species, I found them on Sycamore, caused by the mite Aceria Cephaloneus

Galls on Sycamore caused by Aceria Cephaloneus

Right, next some inverts. A predictable faithful, but first of the year, Common Froghopper

Vine Weevil

I've got quite a few flowers to finalize ID's on, and the weather wasn't really very good for pics, so I will hold back on them, but one that greatly surprised me was finding Cowslips on a roadside verge, never seen them before on the patch, but then again I've never looked as hard...Total 229

Cowslips

Redstart a great start to the weekend

Having identified a little bit of the patch as a potentially good spot for picking up a migrant or two, I was more than very pleased with myself when it did just that at the start to the Easter break. Whilst scanning the hedge line out popped a stonking male Redstart. He proceeded to work up and down the hedge and then actually flew over to me and showed in the tree next to where I was stood for a while. The header photo is my hastily taken record shot.

Now while all this was going on, a few yards away a Wheatear popped up in the adjacent field on  some sheep shite. .Again, a hastily grabbed record shot, but who cares, what a patch 20 minutes !

This coupled with the arrival of my first Whitethroat and House Martins of the year gave a birdy boost to the patch pan list.

The first Speckled Woods of the year have made an appearance too, as have some Nettle Tap Moths.

Speckled Wood

Lurking on a nettle also was this Phyllobius pomaceus.

This solitary bee was enjoying a Dandelion, those with far more knowledge than me tell me it is Andrena ( melandrana ) Nitida

Oaks really rock. Not only are they chuffin  at the moment  with micro's but I also picked out my first Oak Apple Gall of the year, caused by the wasp Biorhiza pallida  and close by, an Acorn Weevil

Oak Apple Gall

Acorn Weevil ( used to be in The Clangers )

Finally the plants, its a love hate thing but they are growing on me.I'm grateful help is at hand.

Wood Avens, Mares Tail, Garlic Mustard and Ribwort  Plantain are welcomed onto the patch pan  list, which now stands at......

219

Orange Tips it over 200

Couple of weekends ago there were plenty of Brimstones, and a single Chiffy. This weekend Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps were very well represented, and Swallows were settling in rising numbers.The first patch Orange Tips were in good numbers also, mostly male.

♂ Orange Tip

Another Butterfly species also made an appearance in slightly lesser numbers, namely Green Veined Whites, including this pair who got straight down to producing some more of the species.

Green Veined Whites

Sunday was excellent on the invert front and other new species from the lepidoptera  representatives came in the form of two species of Micro moths.

Eriocrania subpurpurella

Incurvia masculella

On the Ladybird front,7  Spots were everywhere. There was the occasional Harlequin too. It was nice to find my second 10 Spot, looking a bit more mature than the one I had in February.

10 Spot Ladybird

Even better, this 14 Spot Ladybird was a patch lifer nad the XXth Ladybird Species so far this year.

14 Spot Ladybird

The Hoverfly species Helophilus pendulus   was another year tick for me

As was this Crab Spider Misumena vatia

In among the nettles were a few Green Shield Bugs,

Green Shieldbug

And finally,  the plant  Groundsel tagged on for good measure.As ever , a few species being ruminated over for later, but with no target in mind, I was pleased to finish the weekend with such a nice selection.

Total Species 209

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