Damp meadow

A short walk down to the damp meadow by the River Bourne demonstrated once again the great diversity of flowers there, with plenty of Hawkweed, Bristly Oxtongue, Fleabane, Ragwort,  Mayweed, Birds-Foot Trefoil, Meadowsweet, Mint, Knotgrass and a small yellow trefoil of some sort, all in full flower. Last year there were plenty of Common Blue butterflies, but I didn't see any today. There was however a minute skipper, possibly an Essex Skipper, although I could not get around to looking at the underside of its antennae tips.

The other Lepidopteran seen - apart from the usual grass plumes - was a Shaded Broad Bar, Scotopteryx chenopodiata (confirmed almost instantly on ispot).

There was also this odd fly, plunging its proboscis deep into the flower throats of this mint head

Not much variety in the hoverflies, but particularly good for Sphaerophoria scripta, 

together with some Episyrphus balteatus

and a couple of Eristalis tenax.

and there was one of the very common (this year at least) Myathropa florea.

On the way down by the side of the footpath beside the large OSR field, I found a nice Syritta pipiens, so recognisable by its size, shape and jizz. you can see the rear tibiae colour pattern slightly more clearly in the second photo.

The Lady Baggot Drive

I walked more locally today, Lady Baggot's Drive in the morning and Glocaenog Wood in the evening after collecting Nain from hospital. It was dry enough in the morning for a few photographs, but too wet in the evening to even get the camera out of the car. The evening walk was still really enjoyable, as these are really good woods that I don't know well enough - really promising for future visits!

Along Lady Baggot's Drive, the path I know best, there were quite a few flowers out, with the remaining spring flowers merging into the up and coming summer ones.

It was nice to see what I took to be Hedge Bedstraw, Galium mollugo ssp mollugo) L,  along the track. This is one of the most robust and upright bedstraws, and my favourite in the genus by far. I will need to check that I am not confusing this plant, the Great Hedge Bedstraw, with the Upright Hedge Bedstraw, Galium mollugo ssp erectum, now perhaps more correctly known as Galium album, which is found a bit further East, on the limestone.

The description of the species and two subspecies follows. A perennial herb with stout stock, decumbent to erect, 4-angled, glabrous or pubescent stems, 25-120 cm, ± branched, not blackening when dried. Lvs 8-25 mm, 6-8 in a whorl, linear to obovate, mucronate to cuspidate, 1-veined, glabrous or pubescent, rough on the margins with stout, forward-pointing, ± appressed bristles.

Infl a terminal panicle of rather lax cymes. Corolla white,tube very short, lobes 4, cuspidate. Fr glabrous, rugulose, blackenng when dry, fr stalks divaricate.

ssp mollugo: Fl stems weak, decumbent or ascending, diffusely branched (mostly >45°), swollen below the nodes.Lvs to 25 mm, obovate, oblanceolate or rarely linear, cuspidate. Fls 3 m diam in a panicle with spreading branches. Fr 1 mm; basal infl branches strongly divaricate in fr.

ssp erectum Syme: Fl stems ± erect with erect branches (mostly <45°) and linear lanceolate, mucronate lvs. Fls 2.5-5 mm diam in a narrow panicle with ascending branches. Fr 1.5-2 mm; basal infl-branches ascending in fr.

Next comes the flowers of the common figwort - note the anthers protruding from the throat.

This is maybe the second Yellow Archangel I have seen this year - well attacked by leaf hopper by the look of it!

and here is one of the commonest plants along the path, Herb Bennet, Geum urbanum. 

Followed by the commonest, Herb Robert, Geranium robertianum, with a hoverfly, Rhingia campestris on the flower behind!

Dene Park escapes the thunderstorm!

It was very hot today, with gathering thunderstorms which just missed Hadlow and Dene Park. It was lovely in the late afternoon/early evening up in the wood, with excellent birdsong from song thrushes, blackbirds and robins in particular. There were quite a few insects around, including this moth welcoming me to the car park. I am sure this is a very common one:

Also in the car park grassland was the "Black-Hearted Flower Beetle" Cantharis rustica.

It is about time I looked in a bit more detail at birch trees, the genus Betula. They are so reliant on seed distribution that the new seed heads are out, before the old ones are completely finished!

So, next, something entirely new to me, a Birch Leaf Roller. This was very difficult to tie down, as initially it looked as though it ought to be due to a beetle larva, but now I think it must be due to a Lepidopteran larva, by counting the number of legs!

I was now in the first woodland ride and came across another Nomada bee species, dark and orange!

Deeper in the wood, feeding on the nectar from the cow parsley, Anthriscus sylvestris, I found this odd looking fly. There is a tiny, tiny beetle with it! This is the largest of the UK species of Dance Flies, Empis tessellata, as identified by Ophrys on ispot. ID characteristics include the striped hairy thorax, brownish wings and black femora. It is probably quite a common fly, but likely to be significantly under-recorded generally in the UK.

As always there were the difficult hoverflies, usually the small and black ones. This ought to be a female Platycheirus albimanus, quite a moderate size, with grey spots just visible in the second photo, at a wild guess!

This next one is much easier because of the triangular yellow spots on tergite 2, Melangyna cincta.

Pseudopanthera macularia, the Speckled Yellow moth, exactly where it ought to be, on a fairly open woodland ride

The oak trunk turns up trumps

It was just a little bit warmer this afternoon, and there were a few more insects out. There were quite a few things basking and exploring on the trunk of the aspen tree just by the access path, including this noon fly, Mesembrina meridiana. Note the shiny thorax and yellow feet as well as the orange wing patches.

A bit further along there were insects on the hedge parsley as well, starting with this male Epistrophe eligans. I have now seen several of this species around the access trail, as well as my first one at RSPB Tudeley car park at the start of April.

and this is probably Eupeodes luniger, the commonest of a number of very similar species.

Next I found an oak apple type gall, that had developed on the tip of a twig:

and there were a lot of insects on the oak tree trunk - this has finally come up trumps! Most obvious were several common wasps, Vespula vulgaris, wandering over the rough surface.

and here he or she is, highly magnified, disappearing underneath a ledge of bark!

And then his or her head appeared from under the other side of the bark scale:

This photo was taken a little later, and might, or might not, be the same insect.

There were also some small Andrena bees. There were several insects, perhaps not of all the same species. This is a better than usual sideways view of one of the individual bees, a male I assume (all the insects I saw were I think males).  White moustache, whitish hairs under reddish hairs on the thorax, slightly shiny back to the front sections of the abdomen. Silvery orange hairs on the legs, a bit variable. The other pictures show more or less the same features, from different angles.

And here was this rather smart fly, a bit like a blowfly.

and this other familiar fly with an orange abdomen. According to Ophrys this could be Phaonia subventa a common fly, as suggested by its wing venation and colour pattern. How lucky I am to be able to use ispot!

and finally my second sighting of an Eristalis intricarius. Would it be fanciful to think it might be the same individual of a few weeks ago, perhaps having changed colour over the intervening period?

Just shows what a little sunshine can do!