Linacre Butterflies - 14th September 2024

 At this time of the year, whenever the sun comes out, I like to get down to Linacre to see if there are any insects about, just in case it's the last sightings I get this year! Yesterday was such a time, with lots of sun and temperatures of 20 degrees. I wasn't disappointed, with 8 species of butterfly seen, along with two dragonflies, a few bees, craneflies, hoverflies and a wasps' nest!

The butterfly species were: Red Admiral (5), Comma (2), Peacock (2), Speckled Wood (7), Large White (2), Green-veined White (3, including a pair attempting to mate) and, best of all, a Small Copper (my first record of the year!).

Small Copper

Small Copper (and friend)

Other species seen were: Migrant Hawker (2), Brown Hawker (1), Red-tailed and Common Carder Bumblebees, Eristalis hoverflies and 1 Marmalade Hoverfly. 

Whilst walking along the bank below the top reservoir, I came across a hole, approximately 1/2m deep, with several hundred wasps flying around it! I peeped in, very carefully (!) and could see the remains of a wasps' nest. I couldn't get a great photo, so I'm not sure if they were Common or German Wasps, but, whatever species, it was great to see. Presumably, the nest had been discovered and dug out by a Badger, or a Honey Buzzard (only joking!!).

Wasps' nest

Linacre Insects - 22nd July 2023

 It stopped raining for an hour this afternoon (!), so I popped down to Linacre to see what was about. I only walked around the bottom reservoir, before the rain started again, but I did manage to spot a few insects and birds.

Insects seen were: Meadow Brown (3), Green-veined White (1), Marmalade Hoverfly, Volucella pellucens (3), Cinnabar Moth caterpillars,  Silver Y moth (2), Soldier Beetles , White-tailed, Common Carder and Red-tailed Bumblebees, and Common Blue Damselfly (1m).

Silver Y Moth

Cinnabar Moth caterpillar

Birds seen were: House Martin (c20 - 30 feeding over the middle reservoir), Swift (2), Grey Wagtail (1 juvenile), Cormorant (1), Mandarin Duck (8; 1 female with 7 good-sized ducklings) and Little Grebe (2; 1 adult and 1 juvenile, on the middle reservoir).

Little Grebe (chick)

Linacre Insects - June 2018

This is my first post of 2018 about the insect life that can be found at Linacre. I had a visit on 1st June when it was a lovely sunny day. I spent some time walking around the ringing site and then walked up to the top reservoir.

During the visit I recorded 3 species of damselfly: Blue-tailed, Common Blue and Large Red. The first 2 species are common around all 3 reservoirs, whilst I only saw 2 Large Reds, 1 by the boardwalk around the top reservoir and 1 in the ringing area.

Large Red Damselfly

I also saw 2 species of Volucella hoverfly, Volucella pellucens and Volucella bombylans, along with 3 other species of hoverfly: Episyrphus balteatus a.k.a. Marmalade Hoverfly, Eristalis nemorum (a dronefly sp), Helophilus pendulus and Myathropa florea.

Volucella pellucens

Volucella bombylans 

Butterflies seen were Common Blue (3 males in the ringing area), and a single Peacock (1 in the ringing area). Moths seen here were Cinnabar Moth (1) and Silver Y (1).

I was down again on Saturday (16th). The weather wasn't so good, so the number of insects was smaller. New species included Red and Black Froghopper, Straw Dot (moth), Yellow Shell (moth) and Black Snipefly.

Black Snipefly

Linacre Insects

I've had a couple of sessions down at Linacre this week looking at the insect life.

Butterflies were well represented with Red Admiral (6+ in the ringing area), Peacock (8 in the ringing area), Meadow Brown (2), Gatekeeper (2), Speckled Wood (1), Comma (2), Common Blue (1) and Large and Green-veined White.

Red Admiral

Hoverflies were also around with Volucella pellucens (a.k.a. Great Pied Hoverfly), Volucella inanis, Drone Flies (Eristalsis sp), Cheilosia illustrata , Leucozona glaucia, Marmalade Hoverfly and Myathropa florea (a.k.a. Batman Hoverfly due to the distinctive marking on the thorax).

Myathropa florea (male)

Dragon and Damselflies seen were: Common Blue Damselfly (dozens, including many pairs copulating), Blue-tailed Damselfly (2 males), Southern Hawker (1) and Brown Hawker (2).

Bees included: White-tailed, Red-tailed, Common Carder, Honey and Tree.

Cinnabar Moth caterpillars were seen as were 3 Yellow Shell moths.

Yellow Shell

Linacre insects and flowers

At this time of the year the birdlife at Linacre can go quite quiet, so, whilst walking around on Sunday, I also started to look around at the flowers that are coming out and some of the insects that live on them. Some of the species I didn't recognise, so I put them on iSpot and got a few new names. Here are a few pictures.

Red and Black Froghopper

 

 

Marmalade Hoverfly

 

Red-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius - male)

 

Early Bumblebee (Bombus pratorum)

 

Marsh Snipefly (Rhagio tringarius)

 

Marsh Orchid species

 

Common-spotted Orchid