Sunday 20th. May 2012

Playing catch-up again , as I got out for a couple of hours yesterday morning , but didn't get the chance to post in the evening . The weather was reasonably good as I arrived at High Elms to do the full butterfly transect , almost barmy compared to some recent days . Things looked promising as I

headed for the Conservation Fields , finding Small Heath warming up along one path , and then

finding a Grizzled Skipper posing and showing it's underwing , just as I entered the first field . But the good start came to an abrupt halt , as the unfenced and fenced Conservation Fields failed to

produce another butterfly of any species . Just one day flying moth , my first Burnet Companion of the year , a very flighty individual , was the only thing to get into the viewfinder before I crossed the lane and headed towards Burnt Gorse . Disturbingly , still no more Orange Tip eggs were found on the Garlic Mustard alongside the path , but the one I posted last Saturday was found , still intact .

Also found in the same area , a mating pair of the white marked shield bugs , Eurydema oleracea , identified by Phil and ShySongbird , when I found the red marked specimen . I didn't find any

specimens with yellow markings , but did come across another mating pair , one with the red and the other with the white markings , I wonder if the offspring will have pink markings ? In the sunny glade where two paths meet , a guaranteed spot for Speckled Woods , I didn't find a single one . On the wing in their place though , were a large number of very energetic Ichneumons . It looked as if they had just hatched out and were enjoying their new found ability to fly . I think they are Netelia

testacea , and so mobile , that I had to focus on these leaves with a fast shutter speed , and wait for them to arrive . I have found them singly before , but never in a mini swarm . I arrived at Burnt Gorse , just in hazy sunshine , but it was disappearing fast . The Wayfarer trees produced just one

Green Hairstreak , and could well be the same individual I found last visit . Whilst looking for

others , a male Brimstone came to rest a few metres away , looking pretty fed up with the weather . Another Grizzled and five Dingy Skippers , including a darker marked female , made it into the book along with a male Orange Tip , and singletons of Large and Small White , before the last of the sun and a drop in temperature . I'm hoping that the rise in temperature this week will revive what has become a very sad butterfly season , with unknown consequences  for next year . By the five bar gate , a pair of Flesh-flies / Sarcophaga carnaria , didn't

even notice that the sun had gone in , they had other things on their minds . Heading for the Orchid Bank , I might just as well put the notebook away , as apart from two more Dingy Skippers on the Bank , not another butterfly was seen on the way back to the car park . While on the Orchid Bank , I checked on the Fly Orchids found last visit , and it would appear that I was not the only one who

found them , as the stems had been nibbled off , probably by rabbits . A search around did find

another two specimens , each of them with just a single flower opened . The walk back to the car was fruitless as I said for butterflies , but the lust growth of vegetation alongside the paths did turn up a

few things of interest , like a large , black ladybird , with two large and two small red spots , another variation of the Harlequin Ladybird . Like last visit , the red and black theme continued with the

froghopper Cercopsis vulnerata , and the soldier beetle Cantharis rustica . I was just in time to catch the Goatsbeard / Jack-goes-to-Bed at-Noon / Tragopogon pratensis , a member of the Daisy family ,

before it got it's head down . Back home around the pond , it obviously wasn't too chilly for a pair of

the hoverfly Helophilus pendulus , to be doing what needed to be done .