29/4/17

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Yet again another great day for birding as well as insect searching. To start off the day I managed to run into a Male Sparrow Hawk approaching the patch which was i nice kick start to the long day ahead as i needed to check the more unwatched areas of the reserve. First off it was a walk along the bridge where I then spotted the 2 Coot adults and the 2 coot Chicks as well as a calling Reed Warbler in one off the trees just above the water. When i go on the walks i usually just look at the things which catch my eye and i managed to spot a beautiful Leucozona Lucorum a type of hoverfly resting on a bramble leaf.
Leucozona Lucorum(image by Luke Anderson)
Soon after that another little creature caught my eye which was a Dolerus aenus which is a very common sawfly but interesting never the less as well as another species of sawfly which i am unable to identify as of yet.
Dolerus aenus(image by Luke Anderson)
Unknown(image by Luke Anderson)
For a while i then turned to bird watching where all together 8 Whitethroat were singing and a few pairs were flying around which they will most likely breed. Stupidly I soon decided to walk into the nettles to look for some insects and manged to stumble into a Ichneumon Wasp but i couldnt get a photo for further ID. Lucky thought there were many Nettle Weevils out and about and the colour on them is amazing. Deeper into the nettle bed there was a pair of 7-spotted ladybirds mating and a 3rd wheeler in the background and slightly further away there were  Rhinoocus Pericarpius mating as well.
rhinoncus pericarpius(image by Luke Anderson)

Next is was to walk along towards the mainlake with much to my suprise the Common Sandpiper from last week had stayed put around the lake.
Common Sanpiper(image Luke Anderson)
Soon after I walkes up the left hand side of the lake and heard about 4 Reed Warblers calling and i manged to spot one so i took my camera out and it then decided to fly deeper into the reeds. For those who do not go of path often on a walk you can find many amazing secret spots on th moss and thats were i went to next. It is a long stretch of dry grassland were i spent about 2 hours just sitting there. While i was there i did look through some of the flowers and found about 2 Dicytna on what i believe is a buttercup.

 Dicytna(image by Luke Anderson)
While lying in the grass/meadow I sat up and found a little Tingidea aka Lacebug with some really nice markings.
Tingidea(image Luke Anderson)
In the 2 hours sitting in the sun I watched a pair of Chiffchaffs flying around and altogether there were about 14 Chiffchaffs iclueding the pair. As well as seeing a pair of Greenfinches around the gorse bushes and around 10 Goldfinches near them. When leaving i picked up my coat and noticed something big and green on it and it turned out to be a large Drinker Moth Caterpillar with very distinctive markings.
Drinker Moth Caterpillar(image by Luke Anderson)
Finaly walking back and nothing much was about apart from a little grebe on the Mainlake which was a nice suprise as well as a Halictus Rubicudus a species of bee which i had seen before but i was unable to ID them at the time.
Halictus Rubicudus(image by Luke Anderson)
























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