Well its been a while in the making but the night of the 3rd saw my 300th macro species for the garden in the form of the Dark Spinach pictured right. Also on the 3rd my 100th micro species for the garden was trapped - Hypsopygia costalis or Gold Triangle - and my 101st - Dioryctria costalis. I am slowly getting to grips with the micros' now and know that if the conditions are calm and warm there are going to be plenty of them about so better get the pots lined up! Mothing has been pretty quiet over the past week with clear cold nights and a bright full moon resulting in only 22 moths of 8 species being trapped on the night of 27th July, truly appalling, but things have now picked up again with the 3rd producing a total of 104 moths of 40 species.
The weekend saw me wandering around Hankham and Manxey as well as Horse-eye and Down in pleasant enough weather. Bird wise things were very quiet with the only sign of return migration being a couple of Sand Martin mixed in with the Swallows at Rickney. Buzzards were much in evidence with birds recorded all across the levels and 4 together were soaring over Herstmonceux on the evening of the 3rd. Bird highlight though were the small party of Crossbills that chipped there way over the garden early on the 2nd as I was sorting through the moth trap. Dragons comprised Brown Hawker at Downash along with the commoner blue damsels on Hankham and Down but no sign of any Small Red-eyeds despite searching. The Water Plantain pictured right was out on Hankham on the morning of the 1st.
In fact the levels were so quiet on the 2nd that I resorted to pottering in the garden in an attempt to get the Pan species list up. Top of the garden potter was the fly Sicus ferrugineus pictured at the top of the page. First things first - this creature isn't winning any beauty competitions - it looks singularly unpleasant with its brown and yellow colouration and unusual posture. Secondly if you have buddhist leanings better hope you are not reincarnated as an insect, this particular fly is a parasitoid of Bumble-bees, all of which is rather unpleasant... Other additions to the garden pan list were the fly Neomiya viridescens, and hoverfly Eristalis pertinax, along with the spider Steatoda grossa pictured above. This species is one of the "False Widows" that cause periodic hysteria in the press and whilst it looks quite intimidating (for a beast about an inch across) its bite is unlikely to cause much more discomfort than a bee or wasp sting unless you are unfortunate enough to be allergic to the venom.
In fact the levels were so quiet on the 2nd that I resorted to pottering in the garden in an attempt to get the Pan species list up. Top of the garden potter was the fly Sicus ferrugineus pictured at the top of the page. First things first - this creature isn't winning any beauty competitions - it looks singularly unpleasant with its brown and yellow colouration and unusual posture. Secondly if you have buddhist leanings better hope you are not reincarnated as an insect, this particular fly is a parasitoid of Bumble-bees, all of which is rather unpleasant... Other additions to the garden pan list were the fly Neomiya viridescens, and hoverfly Eristalis pertinax, along with the spider Steatoda grossa pictured above. This species is one of the "False Widows" that cause periodic hysteria in the press and whilst it looks quite intimidating (for a beast about an inch across) its bite is unlikely to cause much more discomfort than a bee or wasp sting unless you are unfortunate enough to be allergic to the venom.
No comments:
Post a Comment