Friday September 16 - The tricky stuff

 This morning I changed my plans, and found myself attempting to twitch a first for Morton Bagot. Not a bird, a dragonfly. In fact strictly speaking not even a dragonfly, a damselfly. On Wednesday Sam MacVie identified a Willow Emerald damselfly in bushes close to the gap in the hedge through which we watch the nearest flash. The species has been on the radar for a few years having spread from the continent into south-east England about ten years ago, and then slowly expanding its range north and west. They appeared in Warwickshire about three years ago, and looked a good bet for the patch.

Anyway, Sam got the spoils, while I got a frustrating morning which was a little too cold, a little too windy, and not sunny for long enough. I didn't see it. Instead I totted up four Stonechats, a Whinchat, and four Green Sandpipers before switching my attention to insects.

My dragonfly tally was about half a dozen Common Darters, and some Hawkers (probably both Southern and Migrant if only they'd settled). 

So that's three scarce insects known to have occurred at Morton Bagot but not seen by me; Willow Emerald, Lesser Emperor dragonfly, and Brown Hairstreak butterfly.

While hanging around, staring into bushes, I got to reflect on the debate about whether the Obsidentify app is a good thing or not. Most naturalists seem pretty positive about it, but a few dissenting voices see it as leading to bad habits like not bothering to research an identification. 

I think I'm in favour of it. I took this photo of what I assumed in my ignorance would be some kind of potter wasp. In fact the app led me to the hoverflies.

Two-banded Wasp Hoverfly

Many insects cannot be safely identified from a photo, but the app can cut through pages of uncertainty and get you close to an identification. The Two-banded Wasp Hoverfly is not a scarce hoverfly (a wasp mimic), but I'd never heard of it.

A huge gap in my knowledge is plants. I can do a few of the easy ones, but the majority are just "flowers". Point the camera at them and you still end up nowhere because you don't know which bit of the plant is the diagnostic bit. However, the app will narrow it down. 

Autumn Hawkbit

In this case the app led me to the Hawkbits, part of the bewilderingly complex daisy family. I went home and read up, discovered that I needed to see the way the stem meets the flowerhead, went back and photographed it from underneath, giving me an identification of Autumn Hawkbit.

So I foresee a project for the next few years, to finally crack plants. The Obsidentify app may be my pocket-sized expert getting me passed the initial hurdles that have always knocked me back.

Common Darter

Fortunately I do know some stuff, the yellow stripe down the legs of the above leading me to yet another Common Darter.