Friday 20th. July 2012

Between things to do and the weather , the last two days have been a case of getting out when possible , but not too far , so the local Commons fitted the situation nicely . Still waiting for real butterfly weather , which hopefully arrives on Sunday , the day Kent BC are coming to High Elms for their visit , hedgerows and Bramble patches seemed to hold most of the interest . I started off yesterday looking for Purple Hairstreaks , but the weather soon put an end to that , but in the glade ,

my first Small Copper for quite some time , albeit passed it's sell by date , nectaring on Ragwort . Moving on to the other Common , a Bramble patch had me scratching my head , when I found some

small green Cricket type insects , with a bold black dorsal line . This was obviously a male , but even when I found a female , identified by the rather lethal looking ovipositor , I still wasn't sure what I

had been looking at . My insect field guide was no help , but on Googling 'green cricket with black marking , it became apparent that they were juvenile Coneheads , of which there are two species , Long-winged and Short-winged . As they were not fully grown , they didn't sport wings , so identity was down to ovipositors . The S-w species has an ovipositor that curves upwards , and the L-w species has a straight one , so the puzzle was solved . Strange thing was that I looked at lots of

Bramble bushes in the area , and just the one had this species on it . The same bush had both male

and female Roesel's Bush-criket , and both were willing to pose in the open , and in one of the few sunny spells . Only other interest found was a Nursery Web Spider that was guarding her newly

hatched young .
This morning , before the sun got blotted out by the cloud , I tried again for the PHs , in the glade with the Ash tree . I was just about to give up on any shots , although I did see 3/4 specimens up high . Then , the tell tale zig-zag flight of a Hairstreak crossed the glade and landed on some Bracken

on the other side . It was very twitchy , constantly on the move , and always with wings closed . It

flew a few times , but I managed to follow it , and eventually it opened it's wings , but the light was in the wrong direction , and the topwings looked a dull brown . A few frustrating minutes passed , a few

more moves , and finally with the light in the right direction , the reason the species gets it's name . A few seconds later it was gone , and this time I didn't see where it went . On one of the stands of

Bracken , another Crab Spider , yellow this time , but once again I can see it going hungry . It was then back to the Bramble bushes , where a chance to get male and female Speckled Bush-cricket in

 the same frame presented itself . The ovipositor of this species being scimitar shaped . The Brambles

 also produced one of the largest hoverflies , Volucella inanis . A pair of Chiffchaffs were not happy that I was around , and one was carrying food , so probably had a nest close by . The other one

scolded me from above , so I moved off quickly , and things quietened down again . On the way back

to the car , a Common Darter was posed on another Bramble bush , showing nicely the light coloured stripes on the legs which separates it from the all black legged Ruddy Darter . During a walk down

the garden in a bright spell this afternoon , a strange beetle caught my eye . This time the book worked , identifying it as a weevil , Otiorhynchus clavipes .
And finally , exactly one week after queueing 45 minutes to get over the Dartford Crossing , I have read that both the tunnel and bridge have both been paid for many years ago , and that the pair take
£1.25M every week . If a reasonable alternative was available then one could choose whether or not to queue , but there isn't , so continuous Governments just keep raking in the tolls .