A quick post-breakfast pop down the road to have a look at
Holborough Marshes where I saw the Early Marsh Orchids last year. I was almost too late before but too early
this time with nothing but a hybrid leaf rosette with Common Spotted – or so I
was told by the only other person I saw all morning!
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| An interesting Orchid rosette |
It was not a wasted excursion by any means and started with
a fine fluffy Fox that appeared in front of me twice in as many minutes. I
actually assumed they were different animals but seemingly not.
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| Fox |
I followed the crystal clear stream down towards the Medway
to the spot where we stood for that pesky Nighthawk two autumns ago. The vegetation
was verdant and warming in the mid-morning sunshine and was full of life with
plenty of hunting Azure Damseflies and the odd scarlet and green Large
Red. I was surprised to not see anything
larger.
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| Azure Damselfly |
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| Large Red Damselfly |
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| Large Red Damselfly |
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| Cow-wheat |
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| A fine Harts Tongue Fern pushing through |
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| Starwort I think |
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| Pond Sedge |
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| Amazingly tall Garlic Mustard plants |
Brimstones, Small and Green-veined Whites, Peacocks and a
couple of immaculate Red Admirals scooted around and Speckled Woods danced in
the shadows. There were a few flies including a bristly Tachinid but it was too
far for a photo but there were a few Epistrophe eligans hovering below the
Sallow overhangs.
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| Green-veined Whites |
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| Brimstone |
Scorpion-flies patrolled the Nettles and I found a single Araniella
spider curled under a leaf along with a 14-Spot and 7-spot Ladybird and loads of tiny Dark Bush Cricketlets.
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| 14-spot Ladybird |
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| Dark Bush Cricketlet |
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| Arianella sp |
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| Scorpion-fly |
A Cuckoo was giving it large but stayed just out of view and
I was very surprised not to encounter any Nightingales given the proximity of
New Hythe but there were plenty of songsters to compensate with Blackcaps,
Whitethroats, Song Thrushes, Reed and Cetti’s Warblers and Reed Buntings but
the star voice went to the Garden Warbler, three of which were merrily bubbling
away deep in cover.
It was high tide down on the river and there was a little breeze
picking up so I dropped back into the scrub and immediately heard a male Turtle
Dove purring from just a few yards away. The habitat is perfect but I suppose I
just assume nowadays that there simply won't be any so this one was a joy to
hear. He even came out and did a little
display circle before disappearing into the back of an Oak. In all those 2000 miles I walked in 2020 in
and around the Medway I never got a sniff of this enigmatic species but
Holborough was literally a quarter of a mile beyond the furthest point I even
walked south from home – Peters Village bridge so perhaps they were here all
along.
I retraced my steps alongside the stream and ventured into the
next meadow where a bank of Creeping Buttercups distracted me for the next 40
minutes and some quality Hoverating ensued.
In that time I logged:
Myathropa florea
Epistrophe eligans
Sphaerophoria sp – but possibly not S scripta
Melanostoma scalare
Platycheirus albimanus
Platycheirus rosarum – a new species for me
Parhelophilus sp – pesky things
Helophilus pendulus
Cheilosia variabilis
Cheilosia impressa
Cheilosia sp – a smaller species without the yellowy wing
bases
Tropidia scita
Episyrphus balteatus
Eristalinus sepulchralis
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| Helophilus pendulus |
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| Helophilus pendulus |
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| Parhelophilus sp |
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| Parhelophilus sp |
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| Cheilosia variabilis - the Vulcan Bomber of the Hoverfly world |
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| Cheilosia variabilis |
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| Cheilosia impressa |
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| Tropidia scita - with work out thighs |
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| Eristalinus sepulchralis |
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| Eristalinus sepulchralis |
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| Platycheirus rosarum - at least six seen |
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| Epistrophe eligans |
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| male Sphaerophoria sp - wings feel level with the abdomen tip |
There were plenty of other inverts too with a few more flies, several Nomada
flava and Nomada goodeniana, a large Andrena, Bombus pascuorum and several nice spiders
with richly coloured Pisaura mirabilis, several unidentified Tetragnatha, a very
stripy Wolf and a tiny Misumena vatia.
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| f Nomada flava |
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| m Nomada flava |
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| Graophomya maculata |
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| Sepsisdae sp |
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| Andrena bee - could it be A nitida? Help please! |
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| Pisaura mirabilis |
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| Pardosa prativaga - A stripy Wolf |
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| Misumena vatia |
Darkening clouds were now doing their best to obliterate the
blue so I headed for home.
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