Blog Postings

The postings will be introductions to each of my life lists. The lists themselves will appear in the side margin. I shall do some postings about particular localities and there will also be postings to provide updates every time I add a new species.
Please note that I am not qualified in any aspect of natural history - there will therefore be occasional (or, apparently, in the case of the hoverflies, a lot of) errors.

Sunday 26 September 2010

Beefsteak Fungus

 

This is another fungus from my visit to Arrowe Park on 25th September - The Beefsteak Fungus (Fistulina hepatica).


Why do so many people - who would probably never pick or damage a flower - feel the need to destroy every fungus they see? So often in public parks there are damaged fungi everywhere and certainly not all can be blamed on the squirrels.  At least in this case it enabled me to positively identify them and to demonstrate why they are so called.

Sparrowhawk

 

I've seen plenty of Sparrowhawks over the years but despite poor light and a window in the way I got my best photos of one on 25th September.

Saturday 25 September 2010

Rooting Brittlehead

 
I don't have a complete list of the fungi I have photographed.  I must sort them out some day.  In the meantime I thought I would put some of the recent ones on this site.  


These are the Rooting Brittlehead ( Psathyrella gracilis).  They were in Arrowe Park, Wirral, on 25th September.

Friday 3 September 2010

Jersey Tiger

 
I briefly saw a Jersey Tiger skip past in the car park at Otter Nurseries last year.  This year one came into the garden at Frog End.

Thursday 2 September 2010

Autumn Green Carpet


Autumn Green Carpet
 A third new species from the moth trap at Frog End.

Setaceous Hebrew Character

  

The Setaceous Hebrew Character was another new species for me when we ran the moth trap at Helen and Ian's.


The Purple Clay is a species that I ave previously recorded but which  do not seem to have a photo of.

Wednesday 1 September 2010

Cypress Pug

 

One of the species that appeared in the moth trap at Frog End, Exeter,on 29/30th August was the Cypress Pug.  A resident species, it was first recorded in Britain in 1959 in Cornwall.  It has now spread at lest as far North as Rugby and is well established along the South Coast.

Thursday 1 July 2010

A Psyllid

 

There are not many major families of British insects of which I have never photographed a representative but when I found a Psyllid (one of the Jumping Plant Lice) on an Oak leaf at Thurstaston on 30th June it proved to be a first from that family. Which one it is I do not know though it may be a Trioza species..

Saturday 26 June 2010

Phlyctaenia coronata

 

I found a new garden inhabitant today - the micro-moth Phlyctaenia coronata (not the similar Phlyctaenia stachydalis).

Family: Crambidae, Subfamily: Pyraustinae.

Wingspan 22-26 mm.

Fairly common throughout England and Wales, and also Ireland, this easy to recognise species is often attracted to light.

The larvae feed on the young leaves of Elder (Sambucus nigra), Lilac (Syringa sp.) and Bindweed (Convolvulus sp.) all of which can be found in our garden. The adults can sometimes be disturbed during the day from the foodplant.

June to July is the main flight period, and the larvae hibernate during the winter, pupating in the spring.

Thursday 14 January 2010

Fieldfares & Redwings



Two new bird species were added to the garden list on 13th January as Fieldfares and Redwings came into the garden to drink at the ponds.

Friday 8 January 2010

Pied Wagtail



The snow brought a Pied Wagtail to The Willows. A new bird for the garden species list.