“How am I doing after more than a week of lockdown? How are we all doing? I am busy on the computer and in the garden. Also finding time to look at the wildlife in and from the gardening, venturing out for a weekly shop.
Here is a log of what I have seen over the weekend and a selection of photos, all from within the confines of the garden.
Friday 03 April 2020
Two highlights today
- my first Goldcrest of the year in the garden
- both a male and a stunning female Tawny Mining Bee (Andrena fulva)
A brief sunny spell in my shaded garden produced a few different bees and flies, mostly new for this year
The log today of things seen in and from the garden:
Birds
Canada Goose, Grey Heron, Common Buzzard, Lesser Black-backed Gull,
Feral Pigeon, Wood Pigeon, Collared Dove, Magpie, Jackdaw, Rook, Carrion Crow, Goldcrest, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Wren, Starling, Blackbird, Robin, Dunnock, House Sparrow, Pied Wagtail, Greenfinch, Goldfinch
Insects
bumblebee sp.; Tawny Mining Bee; Mason Bee sp -
Osmia sp. Common Drone Fly;
probable fly sps:
Calliphora vicina;
Pegomyia hyoscyami;
Phaonia rufiventris
And a few photos:
A few more shots of the local
Feral Pigeons. The bird on the right is the ex-Racing Pigeon with the bands on its leg.
One standing up straight. This with a lot of white flecks in the wings.
Two very different birds. Good gloss on the neck of the left hand bird – one that is a typical ‘blue morph’ bird.
The Feral Pigeon formation flight.
This one with asymmetric white areas in the wings ....
... and here joining the formation team.
A Wood Pigeon steps out.
A male trying hard to gain the attention of his intended.
She does not look impressed.
Unfortunately a pair of Magpies has built a nest high up in a tree in next door’s garden – too high to attempt to dissuade them. Here are a few photos of this terror. In this picture we can see the difference between the matt black on the head and back and the black on the wings and tail that glosses blue when the light is right.
And here is that blue sheen. It can also look green at some angles.
Here is a shot of one stretching out to land on a TV aerial.
One of the local Jackdaws flies by, scowling at me from its pale eye.
One of the local Blue Tits searching for food.
One of my noisy Wrens creeps along the fence.
My garden is largely shaded and designed for ‘low maintenance’ and accordingly has few flowers to attract insects. During the late morning sun an array of insects appeared to bask on leaves of a Cherry Laurel (Prunus laurocerasus). The undoubted highlight was this quite splendid female Tawny Mining Bee (
Andrena fulva)
This looks like a male Tawny Mining Bee.
This seems to be a Mason Bee –
Osmia sp. The long antennae confirms it is a bee and not a hoverfly. The strange oval eyes are typical of this group. Most do not normally fly until May.
One of the flies I found. I think this is
Calliphora vicina. It is closely related to the blow-fly with the delightful scientific name of Calliphora vomitoria. The latter species shows a yellow collar.
The slim shape of this insect hints at a soldier fly sp. but the hairy scutellum suggests otherwise. The small orange area at the base of the wing indicates this might be the root-maggot fly
Pegomyia hyoscyami. This identification must be considered very tentative.
This seems to a Phaonia rufiventris fly. The ventris certainly looks rufi!
This leaf mine in a Holly (
Ilex sp.) leaf is from the
Agromyzid fly
Phytomyza ilicis. The adult fly is almost never observed unless hatched from a leaf placed inside a container.
An ‘evening’ view of the moon which shows its waxing side. Mornings at the lake I only ever see the full or waning moon.
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Saturday 04 April 2020
Less sun and more wind today so no insects seen other than swiftly passing unidentified bumblebees.
New bird species.
None. Perhaps the most unusual was two Cormorants flying NW over the house and apparently nothing to do with the usual commute to or from Aqualate
The log today of things seen in and from the garden:
Birds
Canada Goose, Mallard, Cormorant, Grey Heron, Sparrowhawk, Common Buzzard, Lesser Black-backed Gull,
Feral Pigeon, Wood Pigeon, Collared Dove, Magpie, Jackdaw, Rook, Carrion Crow, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Coal Tit, Wren, Starling, Blackbird, Robin, Song Thrush, Dunnock, House Sparrow, Greenfinch, Goldfinch
Just a few images today
Most Common Buzzards I see are in the far distance over open ground. This one made a rare passage overhead.
A Wood Pigeon silhouetted against the sunrise.
Another ‘on a TV aerial’ shot – one of the local Jackdaws.
A different bird on a nearby roof.
Here is my ‘back-garden’ male Blackbird with the speckled front and brown in the wings.
And the ‘front-garden’ male Blackbird which, despite the deep shade, shows that more typical all-black adult male plumage.
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Sunday 05 April 2020
A better day with a lot of, at times rather hazy, sun and pleasantly warm temperatures. The downside was a brisk wind whipping across the garden making some insects hard to identify as they shot past in the wind.
Highlights of the day were:
- the arrival of House Matins back on territory around the estate mid-afternoon. Four days earlier than I noted last year
- among a plethora of insects that I did manage to identify were several Dark-edged Bee-flies (Bombylius major). Not rare but a species I regard as a harbinger of Spring and as far as I can recall the first I have seen in the garden.
The log today of things seen in and from the garden:
Birds
Canada Goose, Grey Heron, Sparrowhawk, Common Buzzard, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Herring Gull,
Feral Pigeon, Wood Pigeon, Magpie, Jackdaw, Rook, Carrion Crow, Blue Tit, Coal Tit, House Martin, Wren, Starling, Blackbird, Robin, Dunnock, House Sparrow, Greenfinch
Insects:
The following were new for the year:
Common Green Shieldbug (
Palomena prasina)
Dark-edged Bee-fly (
Bombylius major)
Tapered Drone Fly (
Eristalis pertinax)
Marmalade Hoverfly (
Episyrphus balteatus)
Cuckoo bee sp., probably
Bombus barbutellus
Common Wasp (
Vespula vulgaris)
Stretch spider sp. (
Tetragnatha extensa?)
tiny beetle sp.
others
Blue Mason Bee (
Osmia caerulescens)
Garden Spider (
Arameus diadematus)
plus several things that I may or may not be able to ID later
The images for the day:
An unfortunate chimney in the way: I have included this to show the underside wing-tip pattern of Magpie.
The local Wood Pigeons are hard to photograph in flight. The shoot over and stop alarmingly quickly. When they take off they shoot off equally quickly. Here one departs, twisting its tail as it avoids the local vegetation.
Here is one of the Dark-edged Bee-flies (
Bombylius major) warming up in the sun on my fence. The long proboscis is entirely used for accessing nectar as this fly hovers in front of flowers. It cannot sting. Within 10 minutes these (there were three) had gone and I failed to find any the following day.
Another view of this splendid insect.
This bee, also warming up on the fence, is rather a puzzle. With a orange collar and white ‘tail’ with a buffy edge it looks to be easy. Many such species are separated by the position and number of orange bands on the body. This shows none. I suspect it is the Cuckoo bee sp.
Bombus barbutellus, known to be on the wing in April. Cuckoo Bees escape detection to lay their eggs in the nests of similar-looking Bumblebees.
Not sure about this small, tapered bee with proportionately long antenna. The flowers are those of my inherited Cherry Laurels (
Prunus laurocerasus). It is likely one of the mining bees (
Andrena sp.).
I think this is a male Blue Mason Bee (
Osmia caerulescens). Males are not easy to separate from the similar Red Mason Bee (
Osmia bicornis). It is the body colour of the less-hairy females that gives these species their vernacular names.
Later in the day I found what could be the same species and a specimen that seems to have been visiting many flowers and is now covered in pollen.
And another. Doesn’t help me resolve the ID puzzle.
The ‘taper’ is not visible here but the pale front legs separate this Tapered Drone Fly (
Eristalis pertinax) from the Common Drone Fly.
This small hoverfly with the large red eyes is a Marmalade Hoverfly (
Episyrphus balteatus). Back-lit like this shows how hairy these insects are.
A splendid Common Green Shieldbug (Palomena prasina).
Not an easy beetle to photograph. Tiny and running up the white plastic surround of a door frame. There is a web site illustrating many of the hundreds of UK beetle species but it is a bewildering array and it is hard to pinpoint the exact species. The closest seems to be one of the
Latridiidae – minute brown scavenger beetles but I am far from sure.
Still quite small at this time of year is this Garden Spider (
Arameus diadematus). All spiders grow throughout their lives and periodically shed their exoskeletons to do so.
This is also a orb-web spider and one of a number of stretch spider sps. (possibly
Tetragnatha extensa?). They often lie along the spine of leaves where they are well camouflaged.
The moon is indeed waxing.
(Ed Wilson)
