June Diary !

 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.

Western Honey Bee nest

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.

Elderflower.

Foxglove

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,

View over the Glades

Small Heath Butterfly

 Three or four Cinnabars  in the long grasses but no Burnets seen yet.

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.

Smooth Newt ?

Quite a few Swollen-thigh Beetle  Oedemera nobilis on the Ox-eyed daisies'

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.

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.

Common Whitethroat

A few Bee sightings this morning with Carder Bee, and plenty of activity around the Western Honey Bee nest.

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.

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.

Ragged Robin

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.

Foxglove

A Red Tailed worker Bumblebee was the only one on show this morning.

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

Garden Bumblebee

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.

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.

Red headed Cardinal Beetle

A Common Black ground Beetle Pterostichus melanarius was seen in the grass.

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.

Tenthredo maculata