10 Sep 23

Old Quarry Lane and Wakeham Meadows

It was a really muggy day today and in fact as I type this up, the sea fog has just crept onto the island.

A least the sun was out for my walk, with the main highlight being 3 Chiffchaff calling from the Sycamores along Old Quarry Lane.

Birds Recorded:
2 Buzzard
Herring Gull
Wood Pigeon
Collared Dove
Dunnock
Robin
Blackbird
3 Chiffchaff
Great Tit
Blue Tit
Wren
Magpie
Carrion Crow
Jackdaw
Starling
House Sparrow
Chaffinch
Linnet
Goldfinch


Butterflies Recorded:
Large White
Small White
Green-veined White
2 Speckled Wood
1 Meadow Brown
2 Red Admiral

A Speckled Wood

Moths Recorded:
Silver Y (Autographa gamma)


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

A Common Carder Bee on a Teasel (Dipsacus fullonum)

And a very pale looking Common Carder on Common Ragwort (Jacobaea vulgaris)

Wasps, Ichneumon Wasps, Parasitic Wasps and Gall Wasps Recorded:
Common Wasp (Vespula vulgaris)

The Common Wasp nest is still very active by the meadow and has a visitor. Middle right there is a Wasp Plumehorn (Volucella inanis), waiting to enter the nest. Once in it will lay its eggs and when they hatch the larvae will eat the wasp's larvae. More on this hoverfly here.

A Common Wasp on Ivy (Hedera helix)

Hoverflies Recorded:
Common Dronefly (Eristalis tenax)
Marmalade Hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus)
Wasp Plumehorn (Volucella inanis) - See wasp nest above.

A Common Dronefly on Common Ragwort

Flies, Craneflies, Gnats and Midges Recorded:
#1 - cranefly sp.

#2 - fly sp.

#1 - cranefly sp.

#2 - fly sp

Bugs and Beetles Recorded:
Swollen-thighed Beetle (Oedemera nobilis)

This is a female Swollen-thighed Beetle on............

......................Common Ragwort

Crickets and Grasshoppers Recorded:
Dark Bush-cricket (Pholidoptera griseoaptera)

Slugs and Snails Recorded:

White-lipped Banded Snail (Cepaea hortensis)

A White-lipped Banded Snail (Cepaea hortensis)

General Shots:

Wakeham meadow to the left of the fence.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Wakeham

A few weeks ago I put a few apples next to the compost heap. Over the past few days I noticed that one by one they were disappearing. So last night I set up the Trail camera to see what was taking them. As I suspected it was a Fox, though on this occasion it didn't take any. The camera will back out tonight.