… a review of 2020’s species list
by Ian Bushell
Continue reading “On the sixth day of Christmas”Jason Pickard photographed this specimen on Wednesday in The Race, in the south facing hedge among the tall grass there. Perhaps we have the makings of a colony.
Continue reading “and there’s more….”A large colourful female wasp spider found yesterday by Ian Bushell in the set-aside at the top of Kestrel Field.
Continue readingOn the evening of July 16th, Ian Bushell and lepidopterist, Hugo Brooke set up moth traps at the top of Village Green. You may have seen them and wondered what they were doing.
Continue readingWed 15/07/2020 18:48; mail and pictures from Clive Knight
Walking round this afternoon spotted these. The first two pics are of a plant in Sleepers Field – no idea what it is and the bottom pic I found in the pathway through the woods at the top of Village Green. Both single plants.
Sent from my iPhone
A marmalade hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus) feeding on the nectar of a bramble flower. This is a new species for our lists, despite its ubiquity.
The marmalade fly gets its name from its colour, and its thin cut/thick cut dark stripes, just like marmalade.
It’s June and we are nearly half way through 2020. Here is the round dozen of species that have been identified in the park for the first time this year.
Continue reading “Half time score”In the last ten days, three new species of invertebrates have been discovered in the park, photographed and identified by experts: an azure damselfly, a tent web of small eggar moth caterpillars and a brown argus butterfly.
Continue reading “A third new species”On Sunday, Julie Newblé sent us pictures of caterpillars in a tent-web she found strung between blackthorn twigs in the hedge at the top of the Arboretum.
Continue readingLast week, Ian Bushell found and photographed bush vetch (Vicia sepium) at Fiveways, near the picnic place. It is quite a common plant in the park but, for some unspecified reason, it had not previously been put on our species list.
Continue reading “Another new species”A new species for our lists: marsh marigold (Caltha palustris).
Conservation status: Least Concern (population stable); locally threatened by drainage and agricultural improvement.
Another recent addition to our species lists:
Coot