Tuesday 19 August 2014

Space Oddity - David Bowie

Firstly the Bad News, as heading for Parley Court Farm this morning I stopped to check out a report Dave had given to me over the weekend. Unfortunately, it was accurate in every detail, they have
'back-filled' the Hurn Gravel Pit. I know, from reliable sources, that it was a pre-requisite that on completion of gravel extraction the whole site had to be transformed to it formed state. Nothing to be done about it, particularly as the die is cast, but on the up side there was still a single Little Ringed Plover and a few Lapwings remaining there.
 It will be interesting to see what returns to the area next year.
Of note from the Moth Traps this morning was
BLAIR'S MOCHA
which is the 300th Macro Species for the year on the farm.
 GARDEN CARPET
of no great value but looked so pristine it was thought worthy of inclusion.
Attached to the side of one of the traps an unknown
  SPIDER Sp Nursery 
(looks lie the young have already vacated?
Back to the weekend for the remained of the photographs and
MERRITOWN HEATH
is now in full bloom
with the LING and BELL HEATHER contrasting sharply with
Gorse and Pine alike.
While there is much to be seen among this herbage it seems to be
the small 'stand' of Aspen Trees that attract or supports the most
diversity
 BRONZE SHIELDBUG (nymph)
which should look like this
 BRONZE SHIELDBUG
in short time. (Wiki Image)
 BROWN HEATH ROBBERFLY
 A particularly 'dark'
 DRONEFLY
 FIELD GRASSHOPPER
 GREAT BLACK SLUG
 GREEN SHIELDBUG
 HARLEQUIN LADYBIRD LARVAE
which could eventually turn out like either one of these two
 contrasting
 HARLEQUIN LADYBIRD
 HEDGE CRANESBILL
 ICHNEUMON WASP Sp
SPIDER
Tetragnatha extensa
Two plants I have been mistaking for Redshank
 PALE PERSICARIA
and
 
 RED GOOSEFOOT
 PEGOMYA Sp
SPINY SHIELDBUG
Picromerus bindens
(from Wiki) is a carnivorous species of Shield Bug in the family Pentatomidae. A large (12 to 13.5 mm long) and distinctive predatory shieldbug, which has unmistakable thorn-like projections on the front of the pronotum, a prominent plate-like structure that covers all or part of the thorax of some insects.
 ADULT 
of the above
 SPANGLED GALL
(unknown type)
 Unknown species of
Pardosa
SPIDER
John Gifford has come up trumps, Big Time, again as I have never 
seen most of the creatures above let alone have the ability to identify them.
THANK MATEY!
Also outstanding from the last Post was, during our little party on Friday evening Dave looked to the heavens to see the International Space Station cutting through the late evening sky. For those Readers based in Dorset the following may be of interest:-
It Is seen every day but best next bet seems to be Tuesday (today) evening at 21.31. Should appear from the West and go SSE, will be on view for 4 minutes in case you want to get the camera ready! It was really bright when I saw it last night, quite impressive. I was amazed to read that it is 260 miles up and travels at over 17 000 miles an hour, that's just under 5 miles per second!
Entry            Pageviews
United Kingdom
                   567
United States
                   289
Germany
                   134
Russia
                   119
Brazil
                     26
Estonia
                     26
France
                     25
Canada
                     10
Ukraine
                     10
China
                       4