Lindrick Common - 20th June 2020

This spring has seen a lot of warm, dry weather and above average temperatures. As a result, butterflies seem to have been emerging earlier than usual, so I decided to go to Lindrick Common a couple of weeks earlier myself.

When I arrived, it was obvious that they vegetation hadn't kept pace with the butterflies and there were only a few flowering plants. The butterflies, however, were all present in good numbers, with 10+ Marbled Whites, 15+ Dark Green Fritillaries and at least 15 Silver-studded Blues (all but one being male). The temperature was around 20 degrees, so the Whites and Fritillaries were all pretty active. The blues, on the other hand, were the most confiding I've ever known, and posed, beautifully, with open wings.

Marbled White

Dark Green Fritillary (underwing)

Dark Green Fritillary 

Silver-studded Blue

Other species seen whilst there included my first Ringlets of the year, along with several Meadow Browns, 1 Large Skipper, and, best of all, a day-flying moth called a Burnet Companion, which was a lifer!

Burnet Companion

Three species of orchid were out, namely Bee (1), Pyramidal (c.15) and Common Spotted (c.10).

Linacre WeBS - 28th June 2020

After a week of temperatures in the high 20s, this month's WeBS walk was a pretty chilly affair, with 12 degrees and a strong, cold wind! All in all it was pretty quiet, with very little to get excited about.

Totals were: Mallard (109, including just 1 obvious duckling), Tufted Duck (16 - all adults), Moorhen (6 adults, including 1 bird sitting on a nest, but no young), Coot (10; 7 adults and 3 well grown young), Mandarin (9 adults and 1 brood of 10 ducklings), Grey Wagtail (4; including 2 juveniles). As I said, nothing too exciting, and no grebes, cormorants or gulls!

Moorhen on nest

After walking around the reservoirs, I had an hour in the ringing site, looking for any insects. As you can imagine, given the cool weather, it was quite quiet again, but I did manage to spot my first Linacre Ringlet of the year, along with one male Common Blue Damselfly and 3 species of hoverfly (yet to be identified).

Ringlet

Linacre Nestboxes - This Year's Totals

With the easing of the lockdown restrictions, I've been able to get down to Linacre to monitor the nestboxes again this year for the BTO's Nest Record Scheme.  As it turns out, it's been a pretty good season, with a total of 156 pulli of 4 species ringed.

As always, the two most numerous species using the boxes were Blue and Great Tit, with 109 and 35 pulli ringed. One pair of Nuthatches used a box and raised 4 young, whilst Pied Flycatchers had 2 broods, one of which fledged 8 young. Unfortunately, the second brood of Flycatchers were predated. One other species also built a nest in the boxes this year, a Wren. The pair laid eggs, but they didn't hatch.

8 Pied Flycatcher pulli

Blue Tits ready to fledge

Middleton Top - 13th June 2020

Since lockdown eased, Jayne and I have decided to go and visit some places that we've drived past for years, but have never actually stopped at. One such place is Middleton Top, near Wirksworth.

We parked up, and walked along the old railway line in the direction of Parsley Hay. As we walked along, we began to notice a profusion of bees, and it wasn't long before we spotted our first butterfly of the day, a pristine Small Tortoiseshell. In total, at least 12 were seen, possibly more, and were presumably, newly emerged. Along the walk, we also saw one Small Heath, one Small Skipper , 2 Chimney Sweepers (day-flying moth) and three Meadow Brown.

Chimney Sweeper

There were also many hoverflies, including a new species for me, Leucozona lucorum.

Leucozona lucorum

When we got back to the Visitors' Centre, we noticed a small nature reserve called Redhills Quarry, and had a short look around. The first thing Jayne spotted was a family of Redstarts flying around the bushes. In total, we saw 2 fledged family groups and 1 pair feeding young!

Redstart

We also had a couple of Common Blue Butterflies and, what I think is a Potter Wasp, possibly Ancistrocerus scoticus.

Lathkill Dale - 6th June 2020

Jayne and I went for a walk along Lathkill Dale today. The weather wasn't great, with strong winds and lots of cloud, but we did get a few spells of sunshine which brought out a few insects.

Birdwise, it was quite quiet, but we did manage to see and hear 4 Ravens (family party perhaps?), and, best of all, a pair of mating Spotted Flycatchers! Other birds seen were: Jackdaws, Crows, Blue and Great Tit, Mallards, Mute Swan (1 pair with 5 cygnets), Grey Heron, Swallow, Swift, House Martins (20+), Blackcap, Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler, Moorhen and Coot (2 broods).

A few insects were seen in the sunnier periods, including my first Chimney Sweeper moth of 2020, male and female Common Blue Butterflies, one Speckled Wood and a Volucella bombylans hoverfly.

Common Blue (male)

Common Blue (female)

Volucella bombylans (bumblebee mimic)

Linacre Insects - 30th May 2020

I was down at Linacre this morning, checking the nestboxes and ringing some of this year's pulli (more on that in a future blog). With the temperature being around 19 degrees whilst there, I also managed to get some good insect records, including a new species for me at Linacre.

Insects seen today were: Large Red Damselfly (1 male), Common Blue Damselfly (c5 males), Blue -tailed Damselfly (1 male, the first Linacre record of 2020), Broad-bodied Chaser (1 female, my first Linacre record since 2014!), Swollen-thighed Beetle, Red and Black Froghopper, Cinnabar Moth (1), Silver Y moth (1), Silver-ground Moth (1), a long-horned moth, Nemophora degeerella, bees including Tree, Red-tailed and Common Carder,  and a couple of yet-to-be identified micro moths.

Broad-bodied Chaser

The new species was Britain's largest species of Crane fly, Tipula maxima. It was very big indeed! Apparently, it can have a leg span of up to 100mm.

Tipula maxima

Linacre Update - 20th May 2020

I had a walk around Linacre with my nephew, Luke, on 20th May. The weather was warm and sunny and we got some great views of some of the insects and birds, including one species last reported in 2011!!!

I'd better start with the bird not recorded since 2011 - SPOTTED FLYCATCHER. Our last sighting was back in June 2011 (see here). This year's sighting was in a different part of the woods that I don't normally visit, so it's possible it has been present in previous years and not spotted.

Spotted Flycatcher

Insect wise it was also a good visit. The first sighting was a Wall Brown. This was very nice, as I had my first Linacre record of this butterfly last year. Next up was a Green Shieldbug, followed by a Small Copper, a Dingy Skipper (my first sighting since 2014!) and a Speckled Wood.

Wall Brown

Dingy Skipper

Wednesday's trip was also the first time in 2020 that we were able to record any damselflies, with two species seen: Large Red and Common Blue. These two species are recorded annually at Linacre, but this visit was the first time that I've actually seen Large Red Damselflies ovipositing (egg laying) on site. One pair was seen laying eggs in vegetation on the bottom reservoir. Exuviae of this species, and of Common Blue Damselfly were also found for the first time. The Large Red exuviae were in the ringing site, and the Common Blue (1) was found on the top reservoir.

Large Red Damselfly