various trips to various places. Finding out that insects are in their own way every bit as hard to find and identify as birds. who knew?
A visit to
Canvey Wick , a
buglife reserve in West Canvey, an old oil container site now left to go wild for plants and most significantly bees. I went hoping to see the rare Shrill Carder Bee. There were quite a few bees but only one that fitted the bill. I was quite happy at the time it was a Shrill Carder Bee but on getting home and comparing the photo to the book I can't see any reason why it isn't just a Common Carder Bee queen. No obvious orange tail (although I thought at the time it had one) or brown band. And as digital photography is now the only acceptable evidence of sightings then this one just has to pass unidentified.
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| No idea what this is ... not a corn cockle as it has a very different thick-leaved plant structure. |
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| A Darter. It seems to have black legs so is a female Ruddy Darter? |
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| Not sure where I saw this one, but it looks like a brown-form female Common Blue Damselfly so is really very common. |
Hatfield Forest Wall Wood in a desperate hunt for decent butterflies, but came away empty handed. A nice Fallow Deer, and what I thought was a Hornet on close inception was clearly not one - the head was all wrong. I think it is
Volucella Zonaria, the
Belted Hoverfly. Scarce up to the 1940's, now quite common in the south.
A visit to Portland Bill in bright sunshine with some cloud. Some spectacular colours ...
At this time of year the Lulworth Skipper is a significant local species and with some guidance from the jobs I located one in the field between the jobs and The Pulpit. The main id feature seems to be its monumental dullness. Plain brown. None of that flashy bright-orange seen in other skippers.
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| Lulworth Skipper |
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| more flashy Small Skipper |
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| lots of dense webs in the brambles, all with tubes with a spider sat at the base. |
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| a number of these post flowering ... an alum of some sort? |
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