Another glorious day and hopefully long may it last. Another visit to the meadows today and an extraordinary sight of Six-Spot Burnet Moths taking over the Meadow. Its not often you can say that moths outnumbered the butterflies during daylight hours, but today that seemed to be the case. They were everywhere.
Other moths seen were Garden Grass-veneers, a Carnation Tortrix and a Silver Y
Still a lot of butterflies about and some new Peacocks about with 4 pristine looking individuals. A make no apologies but along with a few Six-Spot Burnet photos below I also took a few of the Gatekeepers whose numbers never seem to dip. I must have seen 20+ along with good numbers of Meadow Browns and Ringlets. The number of Marbled Whites has really dropped off and the best I could record was 9.
Always good numbers of bees here especially Red-tailed Bumblebees, Honey Bees and Common Carders. And I'm now noticing a few Large Meadow Mining Bees.
As the sun came out so did the hoverflies, with the most numerous being the Marmalade hoverfly and today closely followed by Common Drone Flies. The latter were in good numbers along the Buddleia Run in the Meadow. A Mimic Bee Hoverfly (Volucella plumata) showed briefly but didn't stop.
Still plenty of Common Red Soldier Beetles on the umbellifers and today I came across 2 Common Green Shieldbug nymphs and a Tiger Cranefly
Here are a few images from this morning:
The Buddleia "Run" alongside the Meadow.
It was certainly a magnet for the wildlife with a Dead Head Fly.........
.........Common Green Shieldbug nymphs.......
...........and another. Plus.........
..........a Tiger Cranefly and.........
.........Meadow Grasshoppers.
Not to be outdone this hedgerow was full of Ringlets.
And another.
And now a few photos of the many Gatekeepers here.
Sometimes you just get lucky and that sit still long enough to get a good close-up.
Still a few Marbled Whites, but numbers dropping right off.
A Meadow Brown
A female Common Blue and.........
...........the male.
I was going to show a few photos of these Six-Spot Burnets........
.........but decided on just a couple plus.......
........this dreadful one of an individual in flight. My next project to get a decent one in flight.
If I've got these all right this one........
.........this one...........
..........and this one are all Garden Grass-veneers.
Oh, okay one more Six-Spot Burnet.
A very hairy bee.
A Common Green Capsid on Knapweed.
And now this.
Whatever it is, it is full of eggs.
Well odd and it felt quite furry.
Note: Apparently not a second Brood of Brown-tail Moths, as these will hatch, pupate and emerge as moths next year.
Birds Recorded: Herring Gull, Wood Pigeon, Collared Dove, Dunnock, Blackbird, 2 Chiffchaff, Great Tit, Wren, Magpie, Carrion Crow, Jackdaw and House Sparrow.
Butterflies Recorded: Large White, Green-veined White, Ringlet, Meadow Brown, Gatekeeper, Marbled White, 4 Peacock and 2 Common Blue
Moths Recorded: 8+ Garden Grass-veneer (Chrysoteuchia culmella), 1 Silver Y (Autographa gamma), Carnation Tortrix (Cacoecimorpha pronubana) and dozens of Six-Spot Burnet moth (Zygaena filipendulae).
Bees Recorded: Honey Bees (Apis mellifera), Common Carder (Bombus pascuorum), Red-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius), Garden Bumblebee (Bombus hortorum) and Large Meadow Mining Bee (Andrena labialis)
Hoverflies Recorded: Marmalade Hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus), Long Hoverfly (Sphaerophoria scripta), Dead Head Fly (Myathropa florea), Common Drone Fly (Eristalis tenax) and a Mimic Bee Hoverfly (Volucella plumata)
Craneflies Recorded: Tiger Cranefly (Nephrotoma flavescens)
Bugs and Beetles Recorded: Swollen-thighed Beetle (Oedemera nobilis), 2 Common Green Shieldbug nymphs (Palomena prasina), Common Red Soldier Beetles (Rhagonycha fulva) and 2 Common Green Capsid (Lygocoris pabulinus)
Slugs and Snails Recorded: White-lipped Banded Snail (Cepaea hortensis) and a Garden Snail (Cornu aspersa)
Grasshoppers and Crickets Recorded: Meadow Grasshopper (Chorthippus parallelus), Common Field Grasshopper (Chorthippus brunneus) and a Great Green Bush Cricket (Tettigonia viridissima)
Moth Eggs Recorded: Brown-tail Moth
Today's Sightings Here.
Today's Sightings Here.
Bugs and Beetles Recorded: Swollen-thighed Beetle (Oedemera nobilis), 2 Common Green Shieldbug nymphs (Palomena prasina), Common Red Soldier Beetles (Rhagonycha fulva) and 2 Common Green Capsid (Lygocoris pabulinus)
Slugs and Snails Recorded: White-lipped Banded Snail (Cepaea hortensis) and a Garden Snail (Cornu aspersa)
Grasshoppers and Crickets Recorded: Meadow Grasshopper (Chorthippus parallelus), Common Field Grasshopper (Chorthippus brunneus) and a Great Green Bush Cricket (Tettigonia viridissima)
Moth Eggs Recorded: Brown-tail Moth
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On this day..........
2018Today's Sightings Here.
2017