This morning Dave and I were joined by Mike Holley as we strolled around Morton Bagot trying to find birds but inevitably getting distracted by insects.
The birds were pretty much the usual fare, with the first returning Green Sandpiper the most notable arrival. The breeding season remains in full swing with plenty of newly fledged Whitethroats catching the eye along with Lesser Whitethroat carrying food and all eight duckling Shelducks still present with both parents. Also in the flash field were the usual Lapwings, Avocets, and Little Ringed Plovers.
As for insects, there was nothing new except possibly for a hoverfly Chrysotoxum bicinctum which to be honest I may have identified before. They are evidently quite common and, unusually for a hoverfly, easy to separate from other species.
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| Two-banded Wasp Hoverfly C bicinctum |
The fact that I'm not sure whether I've seen one before demonstrates the value of list making.
Definitely new for the year were the moths Latticed Heath, and Yellow-banded Longhorn, the damselfly White-legged Damselfly, and the dragonfly Ruddy Darter.
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| Latticed Heath |
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| Yellow-banded Longhorn Nemophora degeerella |
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| White-legged Damselfly |
Finally there was good news regarding the supposed eggers. I came across them again as I was driving home so stopped to ask them what they were doing. They satisfied me that they had just been dog-training, and so I explained that the area they had been accessing was not appropriate as it was a wildlife area.
Oh, and I put the garden moth trap out overnight and caught 45 moths of 16 species. Only four were new for the year; Elephant Hawk-moth, Buff Ermine, Green Oak Tortrix and Bee Moth.
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| Elephant Hawk-moth |
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