Wolves vs Bees

Sunday saw the delivery of a new moth trap (WatDon Heath trap) three days late due to Parcelforce's uselessness, and even then delivered to the wrong address - lucky, I suppose, they got the correct street!!

Monday was a catch up with old friends over lunch within earshot of the young, but now, fledged Peregrines. A brief earlier visit to the hidden corner of the Bishops Gardens was mostly unproductive with just a Pammene spp micro moth but enlivened when a monster rose in front of me blundering around at eye level about twenty feet away. WTF(!!) was my immediate reaction before reality set in - a fine male Stag Beetle, the first I've  encountered in years. I prayed it would land, photogenically on a nearby log but it chose to crash into a bush whereupon it vanished. As it happened I'd made a rookie error leaving my camera settings from the previous day's flash set-up so if it had posed any photos would have been hopelessly underexposed. 

Tuesday was Beewolf day and I wasn't disappointed with many fine specimens carrying Honeybee prey back to the tunnels. Decent supporting cast with all three skippers, Small Copper and plenty of Marbled Whites and Meadow Browns. Also Cerceris rybiensis, Hedychrum spp, plenty of Pantaloon Bees, Meadow Grasshopper, Gymnomerus laevipes, Capsus ater (a Mirid bug) and several robber flies, ID'd by Obsidentify as Golden-tabbed but awaiting expert opinion from either FB or Irecord - this species was found by RA recently at nearby Stroud.

Noisy Nuthatches, one still-singing Reed Warbler and one/twos of House Martin, Swift and Mediterranean Gull were the only birds of note. Even the ubiquitous Red Kites were nowhere to be seen.

Wednesday's brief local walk saw the arrival of the first flush of Gatekeepers, all pristine, plus at least ten Astata boops on the fence rail and still singing Reed Warbler.

After Thursday's blood test a quick look around the bottom, east and west sides of the park saw the first Ringlets out of ten species of butterfly with a single (sadly un-photogenic) Silver-washed Fritillary the best of the bunch. Flowering Privet held the only hovers, mostly Eristalis tenax. Lady's Bedstraw and Self-heal noted amongst the many hundreds of orchids. The now-gone-over Ox-eyes were devoid of insect life. The Lesser Whitethroat is still singing from the same patch of scrub for its third week; Skylark, Yellowhammer and a couple of Marsh Tits were heard-only songsters whilst a Mistle Thrush flew overhead. 

Moth trap out but timer malfunctioned; only noticed the lamp hadn't come on when awoken by a Fox crashing around outside the patio at 03:40 !!

Below Gatekeeper, robberfly, Beewolf with prey, Pyrausta despicata, Self-heal, Ringlet

PB and local

The moth trap was disappointing with just Small Magpie, Eudonia mercurella, Common Plume and Red-barred Tortrix new for year and the totals going to 5/191/40.

Despite an earlier start it seems impossible to avoid traffic at Chichester!!

An early look at PB heathland produced another Rhagium fasciatum, half a dozen Rutpela maculata, the first Ruddy Darter of the year and many buzzy Little Flower Bees plus several Ammophila sand wasps.

On the reserve two, possibly three LRPs of which one was a juvenile, one eagle, point blank views of the recently regular Great White Egret and a heard-only Green Sandpiper; some of the gulls still have small chicks.

This splendid Dryad's Saddle on a cut stump in the cafe garden.

Finally a look for the recently seen and presumably nesting Spotted Flycatchers drew a blank although two large groups of students in the area didn't help. A Treecreper was obliging and, judging by the number of calls, from nearby were successful breeders.

Mostly housebound for a Parcelforce delivery which needless to say didn't arrive!!

So just local stuff above  Astata boops, Essex Skipper,  Comma and Small Tortoiseshell.

Several Reed Warblers with calling birds near the library and south side reed patches.

Out where the sky's been cleared by a good hard rain...

A post-Sainsburys walk around the park, in cooler and windier conditions after last night's storm was quiet with a few calling Marsh Tits and a rattling Lesser Whitethroat, the first I've  heard for some weeks, from the west side; and just a couple of Slow Worms in the usual spot. Plenty of the two common orchids but last week's Bee Orchids had vanished.  Rather more Lady's Mantle and Viper's Bugloss today but too windy for any (obvious) inverts.

Back home the usual route saw the same butterflies in the same quantities as recently but with last week's Marbled Whites replaced by Red Admirals. 

Notable insects were Daerocoris flavalinea, Amblytes armatorius, Osmia caerulescens, Sicus ferrugineus, Eristalinus aeneas, Ectemnius dives, Leafcutter Bee spp, Black-tailed Skimmer and an Emperor Dragonfly which gave me the run around but never settled for a photo. A hunting Kestrel was the only bird of note.

Moth trap out tonight with a quieter and (hopefully!!) dry forecast.

At last some butterflies

 Saturday saw a drop in temperatures, more light cloud cover and a little rain.

Locally the Reed Warblers were quiet after last week's breeding success of at least one pair. Last week a lone bird, or possibly a new arrival, had curiously moved a few hundred yards away from reeds and into roadside scrub more suitable for Blackcaps and garden birds. Cettis are typically vocal but no obvious sign of youngsters.

A couple of unidentified Leafcutter bees were perching on the pond's handrail along with a Zebra Jumping Spider species.

The butterfly path has been completely empty and parched for weeks but today twenty or so Essex Skippers were on the wing along with slightly fewer Meadow Browns and at least three Marbled Whites.

A little later a Peregrine was circling off to the north, the first here for sixteen moths.

Moth trap out tonight and hoping for no rain, at least not before 6 a.m.

Big Es at PB and other stuff

Below a random selection of 'stuff' during late spring and the start of a (so far) very hot summer, with a dearth of bees, wasps, diptera, butterflies etc.

My mothing so far this year is summarised as 2/78/28 with highlights of NfG/T Cream-spot Tiger and Green Oak Tortrix; the later being caught by their dozens in better placed coastal trapping sites. 

And so it was a nice surprise to arrive early at PB yesterday in an attempt to avoid the worst of the heat to find Paula starting to clear a trap for a visiting school party. Most of the moths (100-200 of 50+ species) were, unsurprisingly, new for the year with the usual favourites of Elephant ( first of the big Es) Hawkmoth, Small Elephant and Poplar Hawkmoths, Buff-tip, Pebble Prominent, Cinnabar, Pale Tussock etc etc. 

The temperature by now  ensured that moths were wide awake and pinging out of the trap; micros were left unidentified. Being there four hours earlier would have been nice!!

Further out on the reserve a long gabfest with the Wednesday crew whilst watching a Great White Egret and one of the eagles (big Es two and three!); the latter trying to rob a kite. Once again I managed to miss one or two of the 'plastic' storks by about a minute!!

Nightingales were good value greeting me on arrival in the road as I crossed the speed hump and later, presumably the same bird, attending to a recently fledged juvenile adjacent to the art trail signage. Hobby was the only other notable species.

This Large Skipper was only the second this summer and only Meadow Browns amongst a handful of butterfly species being in double digit figures. 

A Downy Emerald, sadly not MJ's Brilliant Emerald from a few weeks back, was patrolling the dipping ponds.

Apart from audible Field Crickets, lots of Little Flower Bees and several Cerceris rybiensis other inverts were hard to come by.

So, below:-

Large Skipper, Great White Egret, Dark Arches, Green Oak Tortix, Fairy-ring Longhorn Beetle (Pseudovodinia livida), Five-spot Burnet Moth, Bee Orchid, Wasp Beetle (Clytus arietis), Volucella zonaria, Cardinal Beetle (Pyrochroa serraticornis), Ornate Brigadier (Odontomyia ornata), Volucella bombylans, Briony Mining Bee (Andrena florea), Rhagium bifasciatum, Grass Snake, Dotted Beefly (Bombylius discolor), White Helleborine, Shelduck with five of ten ducklings on a very flat sea at Hill Head, Rutpela maculata, Nightingale by Art Trail signage.

And a further random list of stuff.

Plants

Common Spotted Orchid 

Southern March Orchid

Early Purple Orchid

Pyramidal Orchid

Rosy garlic

Mouse-ear Hawkweed

Viper's Bugloss

Hedge Mustard

Red Clover

Wild Privet

Hairy Plantain 

Bird's Foot Trefoil

Diptera

Tachina fera, Gymnosoma rotundatum, Musca autumnalis, Phania funesta

Bees

Grey-backed Mining Bee (Andrena vaga), Andrena chrysosceles, 

Nomada goodeniana, Nomada fabricius, Nomada flava

Osmia bicolor, Osmia caerulescens, Osmia bicornis

Sphecodes spp

Wasps

Ectemnius app, Ancistroceros app, Cerceris rybiensis, Ammophila spp

Birds

Grasshopper Warbler

Ring-necked Duck

Sparrowhawk