A dozen bits and pieces

Not much more than a list today as only a few photos despite it being 9C and beautiful bright spring day, My main camera I usually carry around with me had to stay indoors as the outer cover became detached and I left it sticking together with a bit of superglue, which should do the trick.

A good day for raptors with 4 Common Buzzard, 2 Kestrel and 2 Sparrowhawk seen over the fell. There's been a serious increase in Chiffchaffs overnight as I counted 18 singing during my walk around.

Chiffchaff - not too bad considering this was with a macro lens

Picked up a dozen bits and pieces including my first Seven-spot Ladybird at long last.

Seven-spot Ladybird 

Also got my third Bumble-bee of the year, a large Red-tailed but only the one and that was in the garden. A single Buff-tailed was also seen and lots of Tree Bumblebees feeding mainly on the sallows.

Tree Bumblebee (Bombus hypnorum).
This one was feeding low down, unlike most of the others whiuch were high up in the sallows.

If you look at the Mostchatel picture from the previous post you can see that some of the leaves are covered in blackish/ dark brown spots. This is a rust fungus  Puccinia adoxae and tends to deform the leaves and sometimes the whole plant. It is apparently common in places where this plant grows. I also found another rust fungus - Uromyces junci on Hard Rush

Uromyces junci on Hard Rush

251. Bombus lapidarius (Large Red Tailed Bumble Bee)
252. Eristalis pertinax (a hoverfly)
253. Lamiastrum galeobdolon subsp. argentatum (Garden Yellow-archangel) - a well-established escape
254. Scilla siberica (Siberian Squill) - ditto
255. Oxalis acetosella  (Wood-sorrel)
256. Myosotis arvensis (Field Forget-me-not)
257. Hyacinthoides non-scripta  (Bluebell) 
258. Coccinella septempunctata (7-spot Ladybird)
259. Arianta arbustorum (Copse Snail)
260. Arion ater (Large Black Slug)
261. Uromyces junci (Rush Rust)
262. Puccinia adoxae (Moschatel Rust)


I've got a few Bryophytes and a spider to id and 2 days of warm weather forecast so with a bit of luck .