A day, not to dissimilar to yesterday, with wall to wall blue skies and plenty of sunshine. The only difference was that the north-westerly we had yesterday has now veered around to the south-east, making it feel pretty chilly at the cove.
Main highlights today were two Chiffchaffs and a presumed pair of Rock Pipits at the cove.
No "white" butterflies seen, but instead I came across a Comma and two Peacocks.
Still plenty of bees, wasps, hoverflies and flies about, with a few Celery Flies seen for the first time this year.
Birds Recorded:
1 Sparrowhawk
1 Buzzard
Herring Gull
Wood Pigeon
2 Rock Pipit
Dunnock
Robin
Blackbird
2 Chiffchaff
Long-tailed Tit
Great Tit
Blue Tit
Wren
Carrion Crow
Jackdaw
Starling
House Sparrow
Chaffinch
Goldfinch
This female Sparrowhawk was.........
After a few seconds she was off up the island.
One of the "resident" Buzzards over Rufus Castle
There were a couple of Chiffchaffs about this afternoon. This one......
........was picking off insects, as made its way along bushes and trees at the back of the cove.
Reptiles Recorded:
Wall Lizard
Yep, another Wall Lizard basking in the sun.
Butterflies Recorded:
2 Peacock
1 Comma
There were no Large or Small Whites seen today, instead there was this Peacock and.....
........another rather worn individual.
A Comma soaking up the sun in the Pirate's Graveyard.
Bees Recorded:
Honey Bees (Apis mellifera)
Buff-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus terrestris)
Red-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius)
Common Carder (Bombus pascuorum)
Early Bumblebee (Bombus pratorum)
Grey-patched Mining Bee (Andrena nitida)
A Grey-patched Mining Bee in exactly the same spot I saw it yesterday.......
.............at the top of Pennsylvania Castle Wood.
Wasps Recorded:
3 Common Wasp (Vespula vulgaris)
A Common Wasp on an Alexanders.
And another one on a Sycamore Leaf.
Hoverflies Recorded:
Marmalade Hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus)
Common Dronefly (Eristalis tenax)
Tapered Dronefly (Eristalis pertinax)
Chequered Hoverfly (Melanostoma scalare)
Dead Head Hoverfly (Myathropa florea)
Hairy-eyed Flower Fly (Syrphus torvus)
Vagrant Hoverfly (Eupeodes corollae)
A Dead Head Hoverfly
And my first Vagrant Hoverfly this year.
Flies, Craneflies, Gnats and Midges Recorded:
Muscid Fly (Phaonia subventa)
Celery fly (Euleia heraclei)
Dark-edged Bee-fly (Bombylius major)
A Celery Fly
This individual is an aberrant orange-brown morph
Dark-edged Bee-fly
Here it is having a brush up.
Bugs and Beetles Recorded:
1 Bloody-nosed Beetle (Timarcha tenebricosa)
4 Common Green Shieldbug (Palomena prasina)
There are a few more Common Green Shieldbugs beginning to appear now.
Spiders Recorded:
spider sp.
A spider sp. Time to get my spider book out, but finding this one out Britain's 680 species might take awhile.
Empoasca vitis
There were many of these leafhoppers flying about.
I believe they are Empoasca vitis
Mystery Insect
Hmm!!
Ted:
A touch of deja vous. Ted on lookout duties again.
And nope, not the same photo from two days ago. Ted just likes standing there when we go for our walks.
Ships Today:
This is the British Oil/Chemical Tanker "Stolt Guillemot" on its way from Rotterdam to Stanlow. More on this vessel Here.