Just three members turned up for this morning’s work party. However, all the proposed tasks were carried out: removing large areas of Cleavers, cutting the butterfly transect paths and removing some vegetation around the Hide Pond to enable recording for the Dragonfly transects.
There was time at the end to enjoy the site’s wildlife; the umbillifer plants and flowering brambles were alive with invertebrates.
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- Marmalade hoverfly
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- Myathropa florea
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- Volucella inanis
Butterflies: Comma, Red Admiral, Gatekeeper, Meadow Brown, Ringlet, Large White, Green-veined White, Small White, Small Skipper, Large Skipper, Speckled Wood.
Moths: Udea Lutealis, Brown China Mark, Narrow-bordered 5-spot Burnet, Yellow Shell, Mother of Pearl, Shaded Broad-bar.
Dragonflies: Brown Hawker, Southern Hawker (male and female), Emerald damselflies, Azure damselflies, Blue-tailed damselflies.
Hoverflies included: Marmalade Hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus), Platycheirus rosarum, Cheilosia illustrata, Erstalis nemorum, Myathropa florea (the one with the Batman markings!) and the rather splendid Volucella inanis.
Other invertebrates: Noon Fly, Red-tailed bumblebee, Buff-tailed bumblebee, White-tailed bumblebee, Golden-bloomed Grey Longhorn beetle, 7-spot ladybird, Harlequin ladybird, Soldier beetle, wasp, a fruit fly – Chaetostomella cylindrical? (https://www.ispotnature.org/communities/uk-and-ireland/view/observation/734703/a-fruit-fly), ensign fly – Sepsis sp.
Plant gall causers on Oak: Common spangle galls (Neuroterus quercusbaccuarum asexual generation), Oyster-gall (Neuroterus anthracinus asexual generation), Pea gall (Cynips divisa asexual generation).
Birds: Kestrel, Wren, Goldfinch, Blackbird.
Toad. A Brown Hare was seen in the field opposite the entrance.