26 Mar 18

Pennsylvania Castle Wood, St Andrew's Church, Church Ope Cove, Penn's Weare, The Cuttings and Bumpers Lane.

Another glorious day and my walk today took me through Pennsylvania Castle Wood, St Andrew's Church, Church Ope Cove, along Penn's Weare, doubling back through the Cuttings and home via Bumpers Lane.

A few highlights this afternoon with a Siskin over, 3 Wheatears (a male, 2 females) close to the WWII Pill Box along Penn's Weare, 5 Wall Lizards, several Syrphus torvus hoverflies, a Green Shield Bug (Palomena prasina), 3 Wolf Spiders, a Comma butterfly and a Yellow-legged Mining-bee (Andrena flavipes).

Other than that there were lots of House and Blue Bottle Flies, as well as several White-tailed Bumblebees. A came across 1 Honey Bee and a similar looking bee which was slightly smaller. I don't think it was an Ivy Bee, the bands on the thorax didn't look yellow enough.

Here are a few images from today:

A few Wall Lizards out today in the grounds of St Andrew's Church

Here's another.......

.....and a juvenile.

Hopefully I've got this right a Green Shield Bug, Palomena prasina

My first Comma of the year

This is a member of the Mining bee family.........

........and is Yellow-legged Mining-bee (Andrena flavipes)

Yellow-legged Mining-bee (Andrena flavipes)

This is the hoverfly Syrphus torvus, which is one of the early hoverflies to be out in the Spring. More on this hoverfly Here.

There were 3 spiders on here. One ran off bottom right.

The one that ran off.....

.....far left.....

....and top. They are Wolf Spiders of the Pardosa family, though which species is difficult to tie down

This side of the WWII Pill Box were 3 Wheatear.

And before they went their separate ways I managed on group shot.

These 3 Wheatears had me working out their ages and sexes, which is why I slowed the video down a bit. I'm thinking from left to right - 1st Summer male, adult female and adult male.

I'm going with a 1st Summer male.

This is a male........

.....and same bird.

Adult male and female Wheatear.

Birds Recorded: 5 Fulmar, Shag, Cormorant, Buzzard, Kestrel, Herring Gull, Great Black-backed Gull, Wood Pigeon, 8 Meadow Pipit, Dunnock, Robin, 3 Wheatear, Blackbird, 1 Goldcrest, Long-tailed Tit, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Wren, Magpie, Carrion Crow, Jackdaw, House Sparrow, Chaffinch, 1 Siskin and Goldfinch.

Also 5 Wall Lizards, 1 Comma butterfly, 1 Honey Bee, Common Drone Fly, 10+ Syrphus torvus hoverflies, White-tailed Bumblebees, 3 Wolf Spiders, a Green Shield Bug and a Yellow-legged Mining-bee (Andrena flavipes)