June Is Bustin' Out All Over - Carousel

Mostly overcast with a light NE'ly breeze taking the edge off of a 16°C+ temperature, it was just about ideal for my kind of wandering about. Counts of Moths from the traps were down on recent days and with failure of one of the 'timers' numbers were even lower. However, with c7 species of Hawk-moth between them who's complaining - more of that another day. The day did get a lot warmer and sunnier so OK for the holidaymakers as well!

Best of today's bunch otherwise and notable was

 BUTTONED SNOUT

our second of the year and a creature that survives on the Hop alone.
We have spent sometime looking, but as yet have not located any.

As the year progresses if it is here at all it should be quite obvious?

 YELLOW SHELL
first of the year,

 BROAD-BARRED WHITE
new to the property,

 again a First for the Year

 BUFF ARCHES

 SPRUCE CARPET

 CYPRESS CARPET

 RUFOUS MINOR

Likely overlooked in the past but an addition to the Property List today.

 Another addition to the Year List was the tiny immigrant

CREAM-BORDERED GREEN PEA

a Macro (one of the generally 'larger' Moths).

However, in the same trap and quite easily confused with the 

former the Micro

GREEN OAK TORTRIX
other Micros today included both

 PYRAUSTA AURATA

and

UDEA OLIVALIS

and finally from the traps the

Whirly-gig type Beetle

ILYBIUS FULIGINOSUS

On an adjoining property c2

EGYPTIAN GEESE

are still in residence.

BANK VOLE

unfortunately engaged in the Long Sleep found on the farm.

Up at Merritown Heath adjoining Parley Court Farm,

June is Bustin' Out all Over

BELL HEATHER

 A plague to Farmers the prolific growing

 COMMON CLEAVER

HEATH SPEEDWELL

Young growth of

HEDGE BEDSTRAW

with the more mature plants form a 'carpet' covering.

MARSH STITCHWORT

SMALL HEATH BUTTERFLIES

now on the wing.

BLACKBIRD

singing as the sun sets.

Finally, when, like some, you get to thinking 'Moths are Boring'

take a look at a creature like this. The pattern and colouration, on

an Insect no bigger than a House Fly.

HYPERCALLIA CITRINALIS

From a larvae specimen taken from

The Burren in northwest County Clare, Ireland,

and nurtured to adulthood. 

Once again a helping hand in the ID department from John Gifford was both helpful and educational.

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There's a Place For Us (Somewhere) - PJ Proby

Another lovely sunny day yesterday, with decent temperatures continuing overnight, with some cloud cover, resulting in the best catch of the year so far this morning. There is still some investigation ongoing but thus far we have identified 67 species of Macro. Here are a few of them:-

 ELEPHANT HAWK-MOTH

 SMALL ELEPHANT HAWK-MOTH

 GREEN PUG

 BORDERED WHITE
always perch with folded wings, however this morning we tried putting
this one under glass and was, from time to time, obliging.

 SALLOW KITTEN

 CORONET
new to the property.

 7-SPOT LADYBIRD
Later (much) in the day a few hours were spent at that fine
Nature Reserve that is Blashford Lakes, Hampshire.

 CUT-LEAVED CRANESBILL

 AZURE DAMSELFLY
and with the main target of the day being 'young' birds
it was rewarding to see

 LAPWING

 fledglings plus a couple of distant yet recently hatched

 BLACK-HEADED GULL

COMMON BLUE DAMSELFLY

 Opening the viewing port at the Goosander hide another youngster

 this time a
MALLARD

developing its 'dabbling technique.

adult
LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL
followed by extremely mobile young

 GREAT TIT

 and

LONG-TAILED TIT

 With a little stealth and seemingly in no hurry a juvenile

 LITTLE GREBE

 was foraging among the water-weed.

 Just thought this FERN looked rather nice giving the area
a bit of a sub-tropical feel.

 On the Ivy Lake
BLACK-HEADED GULLs
are still incubating eggs, a little disappointing as it was thought

that these and the COMMON TERNs on the man-made rafts

 might have had young by now.

 LONG-STALKED CRANESBILL

and
LONG-STALKED CRANESBILL with
RED-TAILED BUMBLEBEE

 My first
MEADOW BROWN
of the year.

 PERFORATE ST JOHN'S WORT
followed by a very lucky find just before leaving.
Wikipedia states that

 Xanthogramma pedissequum

 is an uncommon European species of hoverfly. Little is known of its
larval stages, it has been found in nests of the ant Lasius niger,

and in with the root aphids Forda formicaria and Trama sp.

Another 'first' for me to end another great day at this very special place.

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