D.I.Y. stops Play.

Finally finished my D.I.Y project, revamping the kitchen, time to update my blog on the few wildlife sightings  I have managed over the cold weeks of March and April.

The moth trap was cleaned up and brought out for its first run of the year at the end of March, I didn't expect to catch much, but a few new species for the garden list in the form of a single Small Quaker,  Clouded Drab, also a couple of Hebrew Characters, a Pale Mottled Willow a few Common Quakers and a nice looking Early Grey.

Early Grey

Nothing too exciting, but two new additions for the Pear Tree Garden list bringing this up to 86 species.

Strangely on a much warmer night in April, a second outing with the Moth Trap produced exactly nil.

On the Butterfly front, a single Brimstone Butterfly was seen passing through the garden, out and about I have seen Red Admiral, Peacock, Large White, Green Veined White, Orange Tip.Brimstone.

Peacock

Large White

Green Veined White

I have been looking at some of the smaller wildlife reserves on the internet which to be honest I did not know even existed, hopefully to observe some new species of Butterfly not seen before, in particular the Grizzled Skipper, Silver Spotted Skipper, Adonis Blue, Heath Fritillary to name a few, we will see how successful as the year proceeds.

Garden Birds have been much the same, a few surprises, first Greenfinch of the winter finally turned up on one of the sunflower seed feeders , a very rare occurrence of late, A Blackcap was observed singing from one of the garden trees on the odd occasion the sun has been shining  which was nice to see in the garden, maybe one of the wintering birds.

Another surprise was the Heron revisiting my garden pond and removing two of my fish, both of which I was particularly fond of. Suffice to say nets now in position so he shouldn't be back, hopefully.

The pair of Robins nesting somewhere in the Garden, seen daily with the male still feeding from my hand, the female has not overcome her wariness of me though.

My first Hedgehog sighting was seen the other night whilst walking the dog, looked pretty lively and healthy.

I have manged a few short visits to some of our local inland lakes in the hope of finding some breeding Great Crested Grebes, I wanted to get a photo of the juvenile grebes riding on the adults back.

I did find one pair at Sevenoaks wildfowl reserve with a single chick on its back, but too distant for a photograph, just a record shot as a reminder.

Not sure how I feel about Herons now after the garden marauder episode, nice to see, but not in the garden.

Grey Heron.

With no luck with the juvenile grebes here I decided to call in at the lakes at Dartford, the Grebes were found quite easily but again no sign of any juveniles.

Great Crested Grebe

As I walked around the lakes, I was confronted with the strange view of a number of Terrapins basking on a floating log near the edge of the lake, what surprised me was the sheer numbers of them.

I'm not sure if they are all Red- Earred Terrapins but some of them were.
They are voracious eaters of almost anything they find in the lake, I'm surprised that the local fishers of these lakes have not tried to remove them, probably not an easy task. They can live up to thirty years, it was thought that it would be too cold for them to lay there eggs in the lakeside banks our winter climate being to cold for them to incubate. and then they would die out naturally.
They may have to think again.

Red-Earred Terrapin.

Finally a new Bee sighting found on the banks of the lake, my first thought was that they were Tawny mining Bees, but these were smaller and a closer look at the photograph revealed red hair on the hind legs of some of the Bees, I believe these to be the Buffish Mining Bee, not particularly rare but the first time I have come across them.

I think all the above Buffish Mining Bees are female.

These were all seen in a cordoned off area warning of a honey bee nest close by, all investigating holes within the banks of the lakes.

 The Photograph below shows a different  species which I am not sure about as yet, could be either a cliff Mining Bee  Andrena thoracica, but these usally found around coastal sites and cliffs, not inland lakes, so probably not,  the other option could be the Andrena nitida - The Grey-patched mining bee. which looks very similar to the Bee in the photograph although the grey patches are missing ?  or could be something completely different, I'm no expert, more research required.

With help from the UK Bees, Wasps and Ants facebook group confirmed as the female Grey- patched
Mining Bee  andrena nitida

And to finish off, I have found for the first time in the garden lawn a 'volcano' like burrow of a mining Bee which has to date not been seen.

Hopefully I can get out now and enjoy this years natural offerings with the hope of seeing something new. ( Buffish Mining Bee and two new garden moths is a good start)