No Flies On Me

Spring got underway with vengeance this week as I took a week off. Three visits to the patch saw a few additions but mostly fairly standard stuff. New peak counts of Great Black-backed Gulls and Gannets hardly alleviated the standard but it was great to get stuck in. At Barmston I am currently on 75 species and 85 points which is the highest score at this stage since 2013. Additions included Teal, Canada Goose, Coal Tit, Sparrowhawk, Buzzard, Lesser Black-backed Gull and a brace of Shelduck north. The Shelduck were the 9th patch record whilst the Canada Geese were a second patch record. madness.

Syrphus torvus

Yesterday I took the girls to South Landing ostensibly to do some rock-pooling although the tide was a little high to actually get anything done. We pratted about on the beach and in the woods where they played Jake and the Neverland Pirates as I looked for inverts and flowers. My first Red Campion of the year and plenty of Alexanders which were plastered in blowflies. I managed a couple of lifers with a hoverfly, Syrphus torvus, which was identified by its eye hairs! and a greenbottle mimic, Eudasyphora cyanella with its stripey thorax. 

Eudasyphora cyanella

We went to Bempton for the annual, show the girls the Puffins trip, which was very successful as Isabelle demonstrated she could use binoculars and we saw all the nesting species including great views of loads of Puffins. All round a lovely day.

Spring Loaded

I took the girls on an amble round the village yesterday as the temperatures hit a soaring 17c. Absolute bliss and Isabelle wanted to do a little biological recording so we took her notebook out and recorded what we saw.

After a couple of queen Buff-tailed Bumblebees from Cumbria earlier in the week marked my first bees of the year, a brace of White-tailed Bumbles were pottering about the station gardens. Also present were my first Hairy-footed Flower Bees Anthophora plumipes with males zipping all over the place. Small Tortoiseshells were very much in evidence and there were Colt's Foot and Common Field Speedwell Veronica persica growing in the disturbed ground.

Common Field Speedwell

As we ambled on we saw loads of singing birds and plenty more butterflies including a couple of Peacocks. There was a brief Eristalis sp. Drone Fly on a Dandelion. Lesser Celandines were everywhere and a handful of Buttercups were still hanging on. It was fabulous to be out. Earlier in the day I found the Firethorn Leaf Miner on the Pyracantha in the garden which was new. Earlier in the week I had found Orpine Sedum telephium in a hedgerow in Cumbria and Hart's Tongue Rust Milesina scolopendrii which means five new PSL ticks taking me onto 1075.