21 Jul 23

Old Quarry Lane and Wakeham Meadows

It was one of those days where showers were always threatening. But at least Ted and I managed to get a walk in before one of those showers blew in on the brisk southwesterly.

There were a few highlights, the first being 14 Swifts heading south over Wakeham, 10 species of butterfly including 3 Painted Lady's and a Yellow Shell moth.

Birds Recorded:
Herring Gull
Wood Pigeon
Collared Dove
14 Swift
Dunnock
Blackbird
Wren
Magpie
Carrion Crow
Starling
House Sparrow
Chaffinch
Goldfinch


Butterflies Recorded:
10+ Large White
5 Small White
2 Green-veined White
8 Meadow Brown
20+ Gatekeeper
3 Red Admiral
3 Painted Lady
1 Peacock
1 Holly Blue
2 Common Blue

A Green-veined White looking very green in the light.

A Meadow Brown with a second very small white spot in the black dot. Only when I was processing this photo did I realise that there was a very small green caterpillar middle left.

Here is a Gatekeeper with typically............

..........a single white spot on a black dot on each of the lower wings.

And here is a Gatekeepers without the lower white spots.

A Red Admiral

One of the three Painted Lady's in the meadow.

A Holly Blue on the brambles

And a Common Blue

Moths Recorded:
Yellow Shell (Camptogramma bilineata)
Silver Y (Autographa gamma)
Six-Spot Burnet moth (Zygaena filipendulae)

A Yellow Shell

And a Six-Spot Burnet moth

Bees Recorded:
Honey Bees (Apis mellifera)
Buff-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus terrestris)
Red-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius)
Common Carder (Bombus pascuorum)

All the Red-tailed Bumblebees I keep finding appear to be males.......

Here's another male on Common Knapweed

A Common Carder and a male Swollen-thighed Beetle bottom right.

Ichneumon Wasps Recorded:

Ichneumon sp

Ichneumon sp

Hoverflies Recorded:
Marmalade Hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus)
Dead Head Hoverfly (Myathropa florea)
Hornet Plumehorn (Volucella zonaria)

Pied Hoverfly (Scaeva pyrastri)

A Hornet Plumehorn (Volucella zonaria)

A head on view of a Pied Hoverfly (Scaeva pyrastri)

Flies, Craneflies, Gnats and Midges Recorded:

Parasitic fly (Eriothrix rufomaculata)

Lesser Golden Knapweed Fly (Chaetorellia jaceae) 

A Parasitic fly (Eriothrix rufomaculata). A fly I keep finding on the umbellifers.

And a Lesser Golden Knapweed Fly (Chaetorellia jaceae)

Bugs and Beetles Recorded:
Common Red Soldier Beetle (Rhagonycha fulva)
Swollen-thighed Beetle (Oedemera nobilis)

On the left a Common Red Soldier Beetle and on the right a female Swollen-thighed Beetle

Another female Swollen-thighed Beetle and.......

.............here is a male Swollen-thighed Beetle.

Caterpillars Recorded:
caterpillar sp

A caterpillar sp.

Plants Recorded:

Honeysuckle (Lonicera periclymenum)

A Honeysuckle (Lonicera periclymenum) in flower.

General Shots:

A shower heading my way.

Ted

And Ted wondering whether we should be heading back home before the rain falls. Well he could be thinking that!!

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Wakeham

When we got home from our walk there was a Hummingbird Hawk-moth (Macroglossum stellatarum) on one of the Buddleia in the back garden.