I was up the garden early this morning to give things a good
soak before another day of blistering heat really got going. Speckled Woods and Meadow Browns were already
up and about and the Meadow Rue was covered in happy Episyrphus balteatus. The Mother Marsh Sow Thistle is especially
vigorous this year and so robust that it has not even needed staking. At the moment the first flowers awaiting opening
are just over ten feet up. My two main plants are nearing ten years old now.
I still have seedlings that I grew last year for re-homing
should anyone want to take on this nationally rare and very imposing wetland monster! Please do ask.
Despite being my day off I had a 10am LotF meeting but once
that was done I decided to head out for some Ranscombe Insectology. It was already showing 30c so I lazily drove
up the road and made my way into the woods.
I started my making my way down alongside the railway which
was a riot of colour with swathes of lilac Field Scabious and yellow Lady’s
Bedstraw through the fence. I was
looking for Andrena hattorfiana and saw one with glowing pink pollen baskets
but i was too slow to catch a shot of
this large bee.
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I did wonder of this was a dark Andrena hattorfiana but I think it ia too hairy and may be a dark Honey. Adviced accepted!
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Honey Bee on Marjoram
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Field Scabious
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Down at the Green Bridge the Scabious was lacking the bees
but did have its own Longhorn Moth with many male Nemophora metallica air moshing
along to their own inner ‘Nothing Else Matters’. Whether the lady longhorns like
the lads penchant for heavy metal is unknown?
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| Nemophora metallica |
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| Nemophora metallica |
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| Nemophora metallica |
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| Nemophora metallica |
Common and Ruddy Darters hawked from the coppice edge and
Wild Basil and a very vibrant Red Clover were seen. Meadow Browns and Ringlets were prolific and
I found two Brown Argus, a Common Blue and several Marbled Whites but is was so hot that not
much was landing.
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Red Clover
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Wild Basil
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Musk Mallow
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Saw this large Ruby Tail last year - must look it back up!
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Brown Argus
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Episyrphus balteatus - there were hundreds
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Ruddy Darter
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Sicus ferrugineus
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There were a couple of Six Spot Burnet Moths on the Scabious
too and an Agapanthia villosoviridescens flew in before clambering up to the
top of a stem while a Paracorymbia fulva was on a Wild Carrot head but too far
off for a good shot. This is the second
time I have seen this scarce Longhorn Beetle here.
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| Six-spot Burnet - Zygaena filipendulae |
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| Tawny Long-horn Beetle - Paracorymbia fulva |
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| Golden Bloomed Long-horn - Agapanthia villosoviridescens |
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Hairy Shieldbug
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I fought my way into Head Barn Wood and then along the edge
of Clay Pond Wood where White Admirals and Silver washed Fritillaries were duly
added to the growing butterfly list but as usual nothing stopped. There were banks of flowering Old Man’s Beard
and banks of Creeping Thistle where many ‘Whites’ danced and tussled with
Marbleds, Commas and Browns. All three
Skippers darted around and Rutpela maculata Longhorn Beetles were regularly seen moving
from the field margins to the surrounding trees. An immature Wasp Spider in the grass was my first of the year and I am not sure that I had seen one at Ranscombe before either?
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| Old Man’s Beard |
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Scarlet Pimpernel
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A Spurge
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Creeping Thistle
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Dancing Whites
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| Brimstone |
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Large Skipper
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| Wasp Spider - Argiope bruennichi |
Migrant, Blue-eyed and Southern Hawkers were seen as I
approached Birch Wood Corner but I did not carry on around the edge as usual
and cut into the woods and up to Five Throws.
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Ruddy Darter
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Female Blue-eyed Hawker
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Pungent Sweet Chestnut flowers
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The Small Balsam with its pale yellow flowers was in the same spot as
last year and the clearing as I came up the gravel hill had at least one Silver
Washed Frit patrolling the Thistles and eventually it stopped long enough for
an atmospheric shot.
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| Small Balsam |
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| Small Balsam |
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| Silver
Washed Frit |
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| Silver
Washed Frit |
The bee banks on the other side of the path were quite
literally buzzing and I could hear the Anthophora bimaculata before I got
there. They seldom stop but every now
and then you would see those big pale green eyes before it would dart off
again. There were two other similar
sized bees present but I have set my tame bee bods on the case.
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| Anthophora bimaculata |
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| Anthophora bimaculata |
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not sure yet!
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| not sure yet! |
Like the woodland edge there were many Rutpela maculata drifting
around but another flying Longhorn caught my eye and I followed it until it
landed. It was a fare way off but I
managed a couple of pics before it ambled off.
I suspect it was the scarce Black Longhorn – a large old woodland
species and I could see the small yellow spot on the scutellum in my pics.
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| possibly Black Longhorn - Stictoleptura scutellata |
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You can see the yellow scutellum spot in this one. I think the golden bloom may actually be sawdust
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A Robberfly landed on me with its lunch but moved to a more
suitable spot to continue its liquid libation.
I think that they reddish leg sections make it a Common Awl.
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| Common Awl Robberfly - Neoitamus cyanurus |
I got distracted by a couple of large blotch mines on a
Sweet Chestnut and found a solitary Cinnabar moth cat on some Ragwort. Let’s hope there are more to come.
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| Cinnabar |
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Possibly a Sawfly rather than a Moth
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On reaching the main woodland ride I was going to turn right
and head back down to home as it was uncomfortably hot but I decided to go left
for a short way and was very glad that I did.
I reached a spot where I had had Silver Washed Frits before when a
chance glance straight up produced four big pied Butterflies battling around an
Oak canopy. I had found a Purple Emperor
Master Oak! I tried to find a little
shade to watch and over the next 30 minutes I saw at least four males and a
larger female cruising around.
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| Purple Emperor |
They did not come down at all but I did not care, it was
just great to discover this iconic and much overlooked species so close to
home. Most of Ranscombe is Sweet
Chestnut with patches of old Oaks, Hornbeams, Ash and Limes and the main path
is a good spot to find these other trees.
I seems like the Oak may actually sit at the high point of this section
of the wood and you can actually see it on Google Maps. I have not heard of the species being seen
here before but it is not overly surprising either.
One of the males regularly returned to the same leaf on the
side of the Hornbeam at about 40 feet up and gave chase is any other males
appeared. Even the imposing Brown Hawker
that was using the ride was given serious grief and seen off if it ventured too
high.
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| Purple Emperor |
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Brown Hawker
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From here I did start to head back only stopping by one of
the wooden benches to watch a colony of Cerceris rybyensis busily going in and
out of their burrows. One had caught a
small bee which was not quite fully paralysed and was causing it a few
navigational issues as it tried to make a straight line back to its burrow.
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| Cerceris rybyensis |
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| Cerceris rybyensis |
While watching this, a beautiful female Gymnosoma rotundatum
appeared and spent some time admiring the view.
I first saw this fly species here last year and it certainly lives up to its
name.
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| Gymnosoma rotundatum
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| Gymnosoma rotundatum
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Speckled Wood was seen on the way back making it a very respectable
twenty-one species for the walk with a male Banded Demoiselle near the
railway becoming another new Odonata species for my Ranscombe lists.
I was glad I decided that a walk in the sun would be good
for the soul...
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