DST Leconfield, Sunday 27th April 2025

A spare day today saw me abandoning the local patch to help Tim and a few others carry out another bioblitz at the army school of transport site at Leconfield in my home county of East Yorkshire.

Today's forecast was a favourable one, with some good temps into the early 20's, the only down side was a bit of a nagging breeze which made looking for insects a bit of a pain.

To start with, some nice birds were seen as we wandered around this huge site and included such niceities as Red Kite, Great-white Egret, Stonechat and a lovely female 'Greenland' Wheatear. The Stonechat taking a certain dislike to the Wheatear as we watched them both.

But today the main focus for me was attempting to find and photograph as many insects as i could find and hopefully add some new species to the impressive, ever growing list of species already recorded on this superb site.

A decent selelction of Hoverflies were found today and included some unidentifiable to species level, but at least one which i found was possibly new to the site, Pipiza luteitarsis.

Other nice species seen included Xylota segnis, several Epistrophe elegans, Eristalis pertinax and Helophilus pendulus.

Shieldbugs put on a pretty decent show also, with a nice find in the form of 3 Woundwort Shieldbugs and several Green and Hairy Shieldbugs were also found.

One smart beetle was found, a predatory Ground Beetle species, Poecilus versicolor, this lovely copper coloured insect certainly drew attention when i found it.

A  few Butterflies were seen while i was on site, with the best going to a handful of Dingy Skippers which were found in a few new areas for the site, which was encouraging as the last few springs havn't been great for the earlier occurring species.

Hymenoptera were also well represented today and species included Common-carder Bee, Tree Bumblebee, Buff-tailed and White-tailed Bumblebees and Orange-tailed Mining Bees.

Several Nomada individual insects were seen, but getting photos of these skittish insects was another thing.

Today was another enjoyable visit, with lots of scope to find other new species for the site.

The following are a selection of photos from the day.

Male Orange-tailed Mining Bee

Female Pipiza luteitarsis

Female Helophilus Pendulus

Female Eristalis Sp - Either Eristalis Arbustorum Or Abusiva

A Resting Dingy skipper

Male Cheilosia Sp. Probably Berganstammi

The Diminutive Woundwort Shieldbugs

Female Xylota Segnis

Female Pipiza Sp. 

Hairy Shieldbug

Empis tesellata

Poecilus versicolor

Green Shieldbug

Female Eristalis Pertinax

Male Epistrophe Elegans

Male Syrphus Sp.

Speckled Wood

Crowle Moor NNR, Friday 18th April 2025

A visit to Crowle today primarily to look for Odonata, saw some nice sightings during the day, in the not ideal, cloudy conditions.

Thankfully the few sunny spells i experienced, had the desired affect and some nice insects were seen along with some lovely birds also. 

Highlights from the avian world included a decent count of 44 species, with the best sightings going to my first Garden Warbler of the year, which gave lovely views with patience. As i have said before, i love these chunky Sylvia's with their lovely liquid song, such subtly beautiful birds. Other sighting's went to 23 singing male Wiilow Warbler, 4 singing male Cetti's Warbler, a singing male Tree Pipit, 7 singing male Whitethroat and a cracking male Stonechat.

The best of the insects in the brief sunny spells went to a favourite which i see here, Sericomyia lappona, or White-barred Pond Fly as it has been renamed. This is a classic spring insect and seems to be quite regular here and is a proper stunner, usually found nectaring on its favourite flowers, either Dandelions or Buttercups.

Another nice find went to another Hoverfly, Chalcosyrphus nemorum or Small Leafwalker as it has been renamed. This is only the third time i have found this species, with 2 other records from Messingham Sand Quarries. It is a species which mainly frequents damp Alder Woodland and the times i have found it, it has been basking on tree trunks and leaves in the spring sunshine.

Other insects seen included Giant Cranefly, a lovely little Spotted Brown Lacewing sp., several Bumblebee species which included Buff-tailed, White-tailed and Common-carder Bee.

Highlight from the world of Lepidoptera, was a brief encounter with a male Emperor Moth, I'll get a photo of one, one of these days.

A surprise encounter with a small herd of 9 stag Red Deer, was really nice to see, as they are not so often encountered in the open in the daylight hours.

A nice visit today and perseverance with the weather certainly paid off.

Spotted Brown Lacewing sp.

Giant Cranefly, certainly living up to it's name.

Common Carder Bee.

Chalcosyrphus nemorum - Small Leafwalker

Sericomyia lappona - White-barred Pond Fly

Red Deer Stags.

North Lincolnshire, Sunday 13th April 2025

With the prospect of a fairly decent forecast today I decided to visit a couple of local sites to see what i could find.

After meeting up with Dave and Andy at Messingham Sand Quarries first, we wandered around the reserve in varying amounts of sun trying to find any insects and the outside chance of finding a Large-red Damselfly perhaps, also.

As we walked a few summer visiting migrant birds were seen and heard, which included my first Common Tern and Reed Warblers of the year, along with a Blackcap cleverly mimicking a Crossbill, which had me fooled briefly and at least 6 Willow Warblers, with displaying Common Buzzards overhead.

A few insect finds included a couple of new species for me in the form of Micro Moth species Phyllonorycter ulmifoliella a species which its caterpillars mine Birch leaves. A colourfull little species which reminded me of Horse Chestnut Leaf Miner.

Another tiny Moth found by Dave, was Dyseriocrania subpurpurella a member of the Eriocraniidae family of Micro Moths. It mines the leaves of Oak trees creating a distinct bloth mine.

My first Mayfly species was also seen today and was another new species for me, or at least the first time i have attempted to ID memebers of this family of aquatic insects. It is known as Cloeon simile or Lake Olive, one of our more diminutive species found in the UK.

A nice selection of Hoverflies were seen and included several undidentifiable Syrphus and Cheilosia species and also some which could be ID'd to species which included Eristalis intricaria or Furry Drone Fly, Epistrophe elegans or Spring Smoothtail, Eristalis pertinax or Tapered Drone Fly and Platycheirus scutatus or Many-tufted Sedgesitter. The latter was the first i have positively identified to species level, so was a new confirmed species for me.

After enjoying my morning with the lads, they headed home and then i travelled over to site number two for the rest of the day to spend it with a species i hold in high regard, Woodlark.

I managed some lovely views of this gorgeous species and it was really great to hear their melancholy song overhead in that spiralling song flight, just fantastic to watch and hear.

After enjoying these beautiful heathland songsters, it was back home before the promised rain was to arrive. 

A cracking day out and about.

Heathland Habitat.

Male Eristalis pertinax - Tapered Drone Fly

Cheilosia sp.

Cheilosia sp.

Female Eristalis intricaria - Furry Drone Fly

Female Syrphus Sp.

Dyseriocrania subpurpurella

Female Epistrophe elegans - Spring Smoothtail

Phyllonorycter ulmifoliella

Upper Derwentdale, Sunday 6th April 2025

A free day for us both to be able to get out together walking, saw Tracey and myself heading for Fairholmes car park between Ladybower & Howden Reservoirs in Upper Derwentdale in the Peak District. 

We had planned to complete a circular route staring from Fairholmes, then along the western edge of Derwent and Howden Reservoirs, up to Slippery Stones and it's famous, old packhorse bridge and then back along the eastern shore of both reservoirs and back to the car.

The walk takes in some lovely scenery, being more akin to somewhere in Scandinavia rather than northern England.

To start the weather was pretty cold, with a cool northerly wind, but by late morning it was much warmer and pleasant conditions for walking.

A noticeable feature on today's visit was the fairly low water levels, obviously due to the low amount of rain we have been experiencing of late.

Very few birds were seen today, apart from a few Crossbills chipping overhead, but the scenery certainly made up for this and it was nice for us to get out together again for a wander.

The following are a selection of my favourite photos from our day in this beautiful part of the Peak District.

Derwent Dam, Derwent Reservoir.

Derwent Reservoir.

Howden Dam.

Howden Reservoir.

Howden Moors.

Slippery Stones.

Trace & Myself At Slippery Stones.

The Old Packhorse Bridge At Slippery Stones.

Ridge Nether Moor

Trace & Myself, Derwent Reservoir.

Derwent Reservoir.