Mostly about insects

A fine sunny morning. Dave joined me at 08.45 and we headed to the last known location of the Grasshopper Warbler. Sadly we were too late (either in the day or in the week) and no sound was heard.

My attention quickly turned to insects. It is now Skipper time and the increasingly worn Large Skippers have been joined by a new hatch of Small Skippers. The site also gets Essex Skipper and so I took lots of shots hoping to find one, but we eventually concluded we were recording only Smalls.

Small Skipper

The key features shown here are that the black tips to the antennae, though prominent, do not wrap around to the underneath, and also this male has a relatively long black scent line which is not parallel to the forewing. All very tricky.

As a relief from the Skippers we saw plenty of easy butterflies, including the first Gatekeeper among lots of Meadow Browns, plenty of Marbled Whites, and a few Small Tortoiseshells, Large Whites, and Small Heaths. I also got a shot of the underwing of a Comma.

Comma (showing the eponymous punctuation-mark)

 Dragonflies were also everywhere.The first half dozen Brown Hawkers of the year all failed to settle, while I did get shots of Four-spotted Chaser, Broad-bodied Chaser, and this male Black-tailed Skimmer.

Black-tailed Skimmer

Various blue damselflies were present with Emperors and Common Darters. However, my best "what on earth is that?" moment was provided by this beastie.

Volucella pellucens

The good old Internet gave me its name and added that they are a fairly common and widespread hoverfly. Pretty impressive though.

Another impressive insect which now occurs quite commonly here is Roesel's Bush-cricket.

Roesel's Bush-cricket

It's another indicator of a warming planet. Ten years ago they were restricted to the south coast, but they soon advanced in range and once here they became plentiful.

So did we actually see any birds? Well yes, we got one notable species for the time of year in the form of a juvenile Grey Wagtail. Unfortunately I failed to get even a record shot before it flew towards Netherstead Farm and was seen a few more times in flight. The flashes produced only three Green Sandpipers and three Teal. The pool still contains at least one Little Grebe, while a young Great Spotted Woodpecker posed nicely to have his picture taken.

Great Spotted Woodpecker