A very different day. Fine and sunny again but with a very brisk NE wind which, combined with low humidity, made it feel very fresh. As a result many fewer insects were around and the local House Martins stayed away until early evening when they were perhaps returning to their roost sites. No butterflies were noted. The overnight wind and heavy rain had destroyed all the spider-webs.
The best bird sighting was perhaps the Song Thrush that, for the first time this year, spent about 15 minutes singing loudly from a tree-top in a neighbour’s garden. Put paid to my hearing any distant Pheasants calling at the time.
New for my garden list today were just:
- a Common Carder Bumblebee (
Bombus pascuorum)
- a Lucilia caesar-type (
Greenbottle)
The full list of today’s sightings:
Birds
Grey Heron, Common Buzzard, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Herring Gull, Feral Pigeon, Wood Pigeon, Magpie, Jackdaw, Rook, Carrion Crow, Blue Tit, Great Tit, House Martin, Wren, Starling, Blackbird, Song Thrush, Robin, Dunnock, House Sparrow, Greenfinch, Goldfinch
Bees
Andrena scotica (mining bee)
Tawny Mining Bee (
Andrena fulva)
Common Carder Bumblebee (
Bombus pascuorum)
Hoverflies
Tapered Drone Fly (
Eristalis pertinax)
Common Drone Fly (
Eristalis tenax)
Chequered Hoverfly (
Melanostoma scalare)
Notable flies
Lucilia caesar-type (Greenbottle)
And the usual few images
A fine portrait of my local male Blackbird – in almost the same place and same pose as I photographed yesterday what I assume is his partner.
Here is the Song Thrush in full song – you can almost see what it had for breakfast! He seemed quite unfazed by the Magpies bring more sticks to their nest within a few feet.
The ‘scruffy-look’ is typical of a Common Carder (Bumble)bee (Bombus pascuorum)
Here is another specimen doing its ‘Tarzan’ bit hanging by one leg.
This Andrena scotica mining bee was prepared to brave the chilly conditions.
A smaller, slimmer bee with noticeable white facial hair. It seems to be another male Tawny Mining Bee (
Andrena fulva). Note in this view the antenna look to have narrow bands.
Surprising what a change of view does. The bee turned around and now looks rather tubbier and the antenna look unbanded.
Now this is odd. I assumed this was a bumblebee sp. but there are none with both tawny thorax and abdomen and it has to be a female Tawny Mining Bee caught at an angle that foreshorten it. One web-site suggests that females average smaller than males though the illustration in my Chinnery Collins Guide to Insects shows the female distinctly larger than the male. Help!
Only a Tapered Drone Fly (
Eristalis pertinax) but a different view and showing just how hairy these insects are – necessary for them to undertake their important role as pollinators.
I generally don’t attempt to identify flies as I see at least six species of ‘black flies’ of varying sizes that are too hard (boring ..?). This ‘greenbottle’ is at least different. It is likely
Lucilia caesar, the most common greenbottle. There are several similar species and I seemed to have misplaced the microscope I usually carry in my pocket ...
Just to prove I ignore ‘black’ flies here is one! A very tiny one but I have no idea about its identification. At least it was different.
(Ed Wilson)
