18th June - Cold wet morning again which seems to have upset the Honey Bee nest, not too sure whats going on there. a few Bumblebees around the scattered Foxgloves, not much else no Butterflies, no Dragonflies a couple of Cinnabars seen , one caught up in a spiders web.
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Western Honey Bee nest |
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Cinnabar |
Elderberry trees are in flower and looking very spectacular, Foxgloves giving a splash of colour and the Ox-eyed daises in full flower around the glades.
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Elderflower. |
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Foxglove |
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Ox-Eyed Daisy |
On the birding front, not much to report, a male Kestrel seen hovering over the glades, a Green Woodpecker on one of the Telegraph poles and the Common Whitethroat near Ashenbank Pond.
15th June - Bright sunny morning brought a few Butterflies
out today, a single Speckled Wood,
single Red Admiral and a single Small Heath,
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View over the Glades |
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Small Heath Butterfly |
Three or four
Cinnabars in the long grasses but no Burnets
seen yet.
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Cinnabar |
Plenty of bird song again in the woodlands, Blackbird,
Robin, Chiffchaff, Blackcap still difficult to catch sight of them, four
Swift's were hawking high over the glades.
A Newt of sorts was seen in the muddy waters of Two ponds,
not the expected Great Crested Newt probably a Smooth Newt.
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Smooth Newt ? |
Quite a few Swollen-thigh Beetle Oedemera nobilis on the Ox-eyed daisies'
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Swollen-thigh Beetle |
Lots of Wolf Spiders seen today basking in the sun with their egg sacs in tow, I believe these are a type called Spotted Wolf spider
Pardosa amentata , very small no more than 10mm and very fast when they decided to move. These are females carrying the egg sac.
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Spotted Wolf Spider |
8th June - Warm sunny
morning with lots of birdsong, but few sightings, I did manage to capture an
image of one of the Common Whitethroats that's taken up residence around
Ashenbank pond though.
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Common Whitethroat |
A few Bee sightings this morning with Carder Bee, and plenty
of activity around the Western Honey Bee nest.
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Carder Bee |
I have been searching for a sighting of the Nursery Web
Spider with Egg sac, but no luck as yet although I did manage to disturb a Wolf
spider with an egg sac, the heavily cropped image for record purposes only.
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Wolf spider species |
No Butterfly sightings still , but I did manage to see a
Cinnabar Moth resting on a blade of grass.
At Ashenbank pond amongst the overgrown vegetation, Yellow
Flag Irises and some Ragged Robin.
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Ragged Robin |
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Yellow Flag |
Lots of plants covered in froth from the Spittlebug
7th June - Temperatures warming up, but still no Butterflies on show during my early morning walk, the woods are alive with bird song, just can't see them though. those few birds that did reveal themselves included Magpie, Robin, Common Whitethroat(2), Blackbird a very poor showing.
A few Foxgloves are beginning to flower.
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Foxglove |
A Red Tailed worker Bumblebee was the only one on show this morning.
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worker Red Tailed Bumblebee |
This minute fungi , no bigger than a pin head was breaking out along some deadwood, will be interesting to see how it develops.
Best sighting of the day goes to a gorgeous female Broad Bodied Chaser, unfortunately the wrong lens on the camera, and I could just not get close enough for a record photograph of this first Dragonfly of the year for this site.
1st June - 6th June -
It always strikes me as strange when you walk through some excellent
habitat and see very little in the way of wildlife, but here we are in June,
bird sightings are noticeable by their absence at the moment, there are still birds to be heard, the alarm
call of a Blackbird as it rushes through the undergrowth, a Song Thrush or two
searching through the leaf litter for a meal,
Chiffchaffs well hidden, only their distinctive call giving away their
presence, Great Spotted Woodpeckers are still to be heard calling high up in
the treetops. Wren, Robin, Jackdaws and Woodpigeons seen most mornings and a
Common Whitethroat has been seen around Ashenbank pond, the occasional Ring
necked Parakeet seen flying over the glades.
Bee sightings have not been that good either, but
temperatures have been relatively low recently.
The Honey Bees can be seen
entering and leaving their nest site, a few Carder bee sightings, and the
occasional Garden Bumblebee, Tree Bumblebee,. Red Campion seems popular with the Bee's
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Garden Bumblebee |
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Tree Bumblebee |
Butterflies have been non-existent this last few weeks,
hopefully this will improve as the weather forecasters are predicting some
warmer weather.
A few interesting insect sightings have been made, a subject
I know little about, so I try to learn a little about each new insect sighting
that I make.
There seems to be a large number of Labyrinth spider webs in
both the woodlands and the glade areas that have appeared over the last few
days, the funnel effect giving their identity away.
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Web of the Labyrinth Spider |
I have been keeping
an eye out for a female Nursery web spider in the hope that I can get a
photograph of one carrying its egg sac, but no luck so far.
A few more Cardinal
beetles have been seen, strangely the Black headed variety, which are suppose
to be scarcer are more numerous than the Red Headed.
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Red headed Cardinal Beetle |
A Common Black ground Beetle Pterostichus melanarius was seen in the grass.
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Black Ground Beetle |
This distinctive black and yellow insect gave me a few
problems with identification, I eventually pinned it down to a Sawfly species,
a wasp mimic, with no common name, only its Latin name of Tenthredo maculata common along hedgerows apparently.
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Tenthredo maculata |