Picking up Simon from Heathrow

Nice Jay crossing the A21 by the "high" Bridge on the outward journey, and a Buzzard circling over the Downs escarpment by the A22 on the way back.

Trosley again

Looking for the Ectemnius I still failed to get very good pictures, but they were improved on yesterday by getting closer! A quick sequence in which the wasp came close enough to be photographable, but I was a bit rushed and didn't do a very good job.

However one of the insects I saw today definitely had a golden-haired clypeus, as seen below. It was also possible to see the long hairs on the mesonotum, so it could have been Ectemnius cavifrons.

From Ardea:

The easiest to use is Yeo and Corbet Solitary Wasps, Naturalist Handbook 3, it's also fairly cheap - try Amazon or other. For female ID you need to get a clear view of the shape of the clypeus (basically upper lip) which you can only see well from the underside of the head, against the light. The clypeal hairs obscure the shape from the front. WIth your photos, long Mesonotal hairs, golden clypeal hairs = either lapidaries, ruficornis (scarce), cavifrons and sexcinctus.

The large black beetle laying eggs in the dead horsechestnut trunk might have been the Large Black Longhorn, Stictoleptura scutellata, I wait to have it confirmed or denied on iSpot.

Trosley Country Park

Trosley is a superb example of complex woodland structure, with trees of a multitude of species, ages and form. There are upright monoliths, fallen monsters (some with daughter trees springing up along their fallen lengths), tall lanky uprights, coppiced stools, seedlings, etc.

Below the Visitor Centre there are two Horse-chestnut monoliths, literally on their last legs. There are excellent fungal brackets, apparently of at least two different species, and also great opportunities for wood-attacking wasps such as Ectemnius.

The female above (sting fairly clearly seen at the rear in some of the other photos, and no knobbly antennae as in most males) might be Ectemnius cavifrons, one of the commoner and larger species. There appeared to be no yellow on the abdominal stergae, a supporting feature separating this species from E. sexcinctus in Yeo and Corbet. 

Washington WWT

We had a good time at the WWT centre, and even Paula said she liked it.

Feral pigeons, male chasing or following female, who can ever tell?