A reasonable catch of moths included a satellite, new for the season. This is one of the species that emerges from a pupa in the autumn, flies for a while then hibernates and flies again in the spring. This means that they might survive as adult moths for well over six months. It gets the name from the small white dot that lies beside the larger orange spot on the wing, this larger spot is also sometimes white.
As well as moths there were several other insects including another species of burying beetle, this time an all black species called Necrodes littoralis. Actually this is not really a burying beetle in that it does not feed on buried carcases, or indeed bury them as many other species do.
There was also a spectacular parasitic wasp, Netelia testaceus, it is an ectoparasite of moth larvae. I was not able to coax it off the egg boxes in the trap, but this did mean that I got a rather good shadow as well as the wasp.
A cancelled meeting in the afternoon was actually an opportunity, I managed to make a start on cutting the sight lines through the reeds, well actually reedmace and reed sweet-grass. I actually got Jim and Michelle out of the office as well and they cut some of the willows that obscured the view and cleaned the outside of the windows. We are almost ready for the bitterns now, although today all we managed was to hear water rail calling.
There were not a lot of reports from around the reserve today, although the great white egret was again watched near the Goosander hide.
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