Although still sunny, today was a good bit cooler, especially in places exposed to the rather stiff north-east breeze. Overnight it was mild again and the moth trap was quite busy, included in the catch was a
chocolate-tip, pictured below.
There was also my first hawk-moth of the year, a
poplar hawk, I upset it a bit trying to get the picture and it went
into threat posture showing the spots at the base of the hind-wings, not quite as spectacular as the "eyes" of the eyed hawk-moth, but
possibly still enough to surprise a predator.
There are a number of schemes that aim to monitor populations of different insects by the walking of a regular route. The best know are the butterfly transects, but recently similar projects have been started to look at dragonflies and bumble-bees. Today I decided to do my April bumble-bee walk, the route takes about 45 minutes and in all that time I encountered only one bumble-bee!. Had I been doing a dragonfly walk I would have had two species of dragonflies and five species of damselflies to record, including my first
broad-bodied chaser of the year. I also saw a good range of
hoverflies including the
Helophilus trivittatus pictured, it is the largest of three similar species that are all found on the reserve.
I also have a late insect report from yesterday, a species of click-beetle, but not the common brown one, this was mottled and rather wider, I managed to identify it today. Although not a rare species it is a new reserve record, it is
Agrypnus murinus.
Birds of note were rather few, a
common sandpiper on
Ibsley Water first thing seemed to be new as none were reported yesterday. Late in the afternoon it seems that a few
swift and
house martin had arrived, with a handful of each over
Ibsley Water. A
willow warbler near the Centre was also new in since yesterday, but will probably be gone tomorrow as this area is not really willow warbler habitat.
There was also my first hawk-moth of the year, a poplar hawk, I upset it a bit trying to get the picture and it went into threat posture showing the spots at the base of the hind-wings, not quite as spectacular as the "eyes" of the eyed hawk-moth, but possibly still enough to surprise a predator.
There are a number of schemes that aim to monitor populations of different insects by the walking of a regular route. The best know are the butterfly transects, but recently similar projects have been started to look at dragonflies and bumble-bees. Today I decided to do my April bumble-bee walk, the route takes about 45 minutes and in all that time I encountered only one bumble-bee!. Had I been doing a dragonfly walk I would have had two species of dragonflies and five species of damselflies to record, including my first broad-bodied chaser of the year. I also saw a good range of hoverflies including the Helophilus trivittatus pictured, it is the largest of three similar species that are all found on the reserve.
I also have a late insect report from yesterday, a species of click-beetle, but not the common brown one, this was mottled and rather wider, I managed to identify it today. Although not a rare species it is a new reserve record, it is Agrypnus murinus.
Birds of note were rather few, a common sandpiper on Ibsley Water first thing seemed to be new as none were reported yesterday. Late in the afternoon it seems that a few swift and house martin had arrived, with a handful of each over Ibsley Water. A willow warbler near the Centre was also new in since yesterday, but will probably be gone tomorrow as this area is not really willow warbler habitat.
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