Mostly Things With Wings...

RSPB Rainham Marshes 3rd-6th July & some garden time on the 8th!

Monday saw me trapped at ‘work’ until late evening which was a pleasant bonus but the rest of the week saw steadily climbing temperatures that made the normal working day a bit of a struggle at times.  There was no air movement and the humidity was incredible and as such visitor numbers were once again low.

With one thing and another I managed to spend a little of every day popping in and out of the Wildlife Garden and the main flower raised bed is now in full bloom with Lavender, Achillea, Verbena, Salvia and Knautia. As such is has been a magnet for insects throughout the day and it all started with a bang on Tuesday when Jerry Hoare discovered a Bee Beetle down there.

He took some pictures and ambled back into the centre to tell us – I will admit that I abandoned my post to Paul and headed that way and twenty minutes later this stunning little beast reappeared.  I have long wanted to see one of these chafers and when Frank Toloi found the first for the site on the Mullein on the river wall several weeks ago my hopes were raised.

It showed well to nearly all the staff and volunteers during the day and was seen in the same spot for the next two days which pleased those who made the effort to come and look for it. Stuart Read very kindly pointed out that this is not the British Bee Beetle which has a far more northerly distribution but a Continental coloniser called Trichius gallicus.

Continental Bee Beetle -Trichius gallicus.

Continental Bee Beetle -Trichius gallicus.

Continental Bee Beetle -Trichius gallicus.

Seven species of bumblebee were recorded around that one bed with Bombus vestalis – the Southern Cuckoo Bee surprisingly being the commonest species present followed by B humilis – Brown Banded and B pratorum – Early. All the B terrestris types were feeding on the Eryngium in the car park.

Bombus vestalis - Southern Cuckoo Bee

Bombus vestalis

Bombus vestalis

Bombus vestalis - Southern Cuckoo Bee

Bombus hypnorum - Tree Bumblebee

Bombus pratorum - Early Bumblebee

Bombus humilis - Brown-banded Carder - Jerry Hoare

Willughby's Leafcutters – Megachile willughbiella, were nectaring and collecting pollen underneath and I saw a couple scissoring out sections from Dog Rose to take back to my bee houses on the entrance arch. There were several smaller bees too including a chunky little greyish one and another with yellow markings if you got really close. Jerry has narrowed this one down to Hylaeus dilatatus.

Hylaeus dilatatus

Hylaeus dilatatus

Even the prolific Wool Carder Bees - Anthidium manicatum were venturing out from the Horehound Herb bed to nectar here.  I challenged Lee Spence to get a flight shot for me which he successfully managed...

 

Wool Carder Bees - Anthidium manicatum

Wool Carder Bees - Anthidium manicatum- Lee Spence

Several Hoverfly species were present including Volucella zonaria, Myathropa florea, Episyrphus balteatus and plenty of Syritta pipiens with their swollen thighs while spiky bummed Phania funesta were noted especially on the Achillea amongst the Lucilia Greenbottles and equally punky Tachinid, Eriothrix rufomaculata. 

Syritta pipiens

Syritta pipiens

Phania funesta

Phania funesta

Eriothrix rufomaculata

Butterflies did not want to be left out and all three Whites were present along with Meadow Browns, Ringlet, Gatekeeper, the three Skippers, Comma, Peacock and Red Admiral.  The Whites tend to get passed by but are equally beautiful in shades of cream, pale yellow and magnolia. Silver Y moths have been evident on the east coast in the warm spell and they were also a daily feature of the bed.

Green-veined White

Small White

Large Skipper

Comma

Common Green Shieldbug nymph

I did several mornings of pre-work path widening and as usual managed to encounter wildlife while I dripped and puffed.  The wonderful little Picture Wing Fly - Terellia tussilaginis that lives on Burdock was seen on each plant where they would sit at the tip of a leaf and waggle those wings. 

Picture Wing Fly - Terellia tussilaginis

Eristalis intricaria and Volucella pellucens were the two commonest Hoverflies and both would stare me out at eye height before buzzing off. A fine Southern Hawker was found patrolling the woodland loop trail and on Thursday the same amble gave superb views of an overly active male Blue-eyed Hawker patrolling the path before the Bus Stop.  Neither stopped for even a second in the extreme heat.

Stunning shot of the Blue Eyed Hawker

Chicory was in full flower with electric blue flowers following the sun and unopened Hawksbeard flowers showed off their red undersides.  I tied some of the taller Hogweed plants in the Cordite loop back to keep them off the path and from being snipped and was pleased to find only my second Melangyna compositarum / labiatarum hoverfly there along with several plump Graphomya maculata with amazingly long mouthparts.

Chicory

Hawksbeard

Graphomya maculata

Graphomya maculata

Graphomya maculata

Most Ragwort plants now have Cinnabar moth cats and several Narrow Bordered Five Spot Burnets were on the wing.

Cinnabar moth cat

Yvonne Couch found the first Emperor moth cat of the season and brought it back for a show and tell session before releasing it into the garden where it headed off probably to pupate. I suspect there will be more over the next few weeks of this funky cat with super sticky feet!

Emperor moth cat

Back at the centre I caught the third ‘indoors’ Hybomitra ciureai horsefly of the summer and as I released it to take some pics I realised that I had let her out right next to an enormous Tabanus autumnalis with those amazingly huge green eyes.

Hybomitra ciureai

Tabanus autumnalis

Tabanus autumnalis

There have been birds too but I never made it round again after Monday but still managed to get a glimpse of the remaining immature Spoonbill, a max count of 51 Little Egrets, superb Marsh Harrier action and the start of some wader passage with three smart Ruff taking the plaudits on the rapidly dwindling Purfleet Scrape.

Five tall ships came up on Tuesday for a few days up the City and as usual were well appreciated...

Iris

Gulden Leeuw

Gulden Leeuw

Thursday was a Flying Ant Day with colonies erupting all around the reserve and with that came a swirling mass of Black-headed Gulls and Starlings before the Swifts cottoned on to what was happening and descended to join the throng.

The sky was full of birds...

Ants on the move

I have already taken you on my Kentish Tour for yesterday but today I have amused myself in watching the solitary bees using the various ‘houses’ that sit on the back of my property.  My dad made them for me by utilising the catering size bean tins that I save from work and stuffing them full of different sized bamboo and small fir cones. There has not been that much action till the last few days and I was determined to get some images to see if I could identify the species involved.  One was a big Leafcutter which with help ‘we’ sorted out as Willughby's Leafcutter - Megachile willughbiella but the small one was far trickier and I am currently not good enough to fathom them out. Thankfully, the joy of social media and the UK Bee & Wasp FB group leapt to the rescue with Tim Strudwick identifying it as the quite scarce Large Headed Resin Bee  - Heriades truncorum.

Large Headed Resin Bee  - Heriades truncorum.

Large Headed Resin Bee  - Heriades truncorum.

Large Headed Resin Bee  - Heriades truncorum.

Willughby's Leafcutter - Megachile willughbiella

Willughby's Leafcutter - Megachile willughbiella

Willughby's Leafcutter - Megachile willughbiella

Willughby's Leafcutter - Megachile willughbiella

Willughby's Leafcutter - Megachile willughbiella

I even got a shot of an even tinier Parasitic Wasp waiting outside the bamboo holes to make its move and on a similar note, I had not seen any Coelioxys species till yesterday  and although I was aware that they cleptoparasitise Leafcutters, I was not expecting to then see a couple investigating the colony.

Parasitic Wasp

It has been far too hot today to stay long outside but with the weather set fair I feel like the next week may seen another post heavy with insects in the making...