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
