Wednesday, 27 April 2011

Warblers and Bumblebees of the garden variety

Not very warm today, in fact it didn't really get sunny until the afternoon and that northerly wind was still a bit cold. Again 3C overnight so I gave the trap a miss again. It's forecast the same tonight but I think I better give it a try.
So this morning was spent wandering around the fell with a jumper and fleece on. A few butterflies were on the wing today, so better than yesterday, but only Orange-tipsSmall Whites and Peacocks.

Female Orange tip on it's favoured flower, Cuckoo-flower

A few more hoverflies were in the sheltered spots and I picked up two new for the year,  Melanostoma mellinum and one of the Sphaerophoria species, a  rather short bodied one. I also picked up my final Bumble Bee of the six common ones, Bombus hortorum, the Small Garden Bumblebee.
There has been an influx of Garden Warblers overnight as I had six individuals singing on my walk about and spent a wee while trying to get a few photos of them and some Blackcaps.

Garden Warbler 

Blackcap
Flora wise, I also found a couple new ones for the year, with a mass of Marsh Horsetail by the pit pool and a fair size clump of  Yellow Archangel (Lamiastrum galeobdolon ssp. argentium) nearby under the hedge. This is the garden escape form which is increasing dramatically in the wild and is starting to becoming a nuisance. The wild variety used to occurs in Lumley Woods many years ago but I believe it's extinct there now.

Yellow Archangel

On the fell Bitter Vetch, that acid loving legume was in flower making it three new ones. I also picked a few sprigs of some of the willows and will have a go (unsuccessfully, probably) at identifying them later.

1 comment:

  1. Great set of pics, Keith. Good luck with the mothing tonight. I`m gonna have a go with the lamp & net.

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