Monday 9th. May 2011

Just stayed local today , visiting three sites , and lucky I didn't go further afield . Spring Park Pond was sunny but very windy , and consequently no Odonata were found , but searching the Bramble patches , 2 males were found , sheltering from the wind . The Cercopsis vulnerata looked very snug side by side . The wind was no better in the small , normally sheltered meadow , where Common Blue , Orange Tip and all three Whites were recorded , including a very fresh female , pictured . A single Small Copper ab.caeruleopunctata also made it to the notebook . But it wasn't all peace and tranquility , as a few metres away , this fly was tucking into it's breakfast . Only other interest found were two specimens of the moth Brown Silver-line .

A quick look along a bridleway below Biggin Hill Airport , produced two Cinnabar moths , my first sightings of the species this year .
On to the LWT site at Salt Box Hill , where the two Dartmoor ponies are still resident and apparently likely to be there for the next 2/3 weeks according to the grazier who I happened to run into on site . That means that the promised light over winter grazing is going extend up to almost mid Summer . I lost my cool with him again and had to walk off . I had recorded nine species on the transect , but they were all in small number apart from Brimstone (7) and Dingy Skipper (5) . The ponies obviously don't like Bittersweet/Solanum dulcamara , as since the clearance work , it has sprung up all over the site . I then recived a call from Carol to say she had just dropped a slab on her foot whilst tidying the patio , so I headed straight home . Carol's foot had a very large bruise on the instep and obviously very painful . Plenty of ice for the foot and tea for the patient and we have managed to reduce the swelling . Hopefully , with a good night's sleep , it should feel better in the morning . If not , it's no volunteering for me , back to head cook and bottlewasher . And finally , some help please with a wasp type insect that I found 4 days ago , but still haven't managed to identify . I thought at the time it could be a Nomada sp. but cannot find it there . Many thanks to ShySongbird/ShySongbird's Twitterings for returning my sanity by identifying the insect as a Sawfly , Tenthredo celtica . I shall sleep tonight now .