St Marks Fly (Bibio marci), sometimes called Hawthorn Fly, appears around St Mark’s Day (25th April) most years, and can be seen through to June. With its smoky grey wings, this is a female. These flies often appear in large numbers, especially around woodland edges, but only get them occasionally in the garden.
My Sage (Salvia officinalis) bush is a right mess at the moment. I should have pruned over the winter, but looking closer it is also heavily infested with insects. It is always hopping with Sage Leafhoppers (Eupteryx melissae), bugs that leave white spots all over the leaves where they suck the sap. But it is even more ratty than previously due to aphids. Researching these (recommended looking at https://influentialpoints.com), these are Sage Aphids (Aphis passeriniana). This species is considered rare in UK, with only 3 records up to 2018, the nearest in Sussex. Judging from the number on my Sage, they seem to find Gloucestershire to their liking, and are likely on the increase in UK.
I found these four spiders around the garden today, so took a few photos. the pale one on the dogwood willow flower (top left) is I believe a new species, Philodromus albidus, based on its colouration and size.
Messing about with my new toy, a cheap clip on macro lens for the phone, I found a few new creatures that I’d somehow failed to record previously. The Southern Pill Woodlouse is found in the south-west of England (the rounder Common Pill Woodlouse is more widely distributed), Potworms are small translucent worms common under plant pots and in compost, and last-season’s hollyhock leaves are covered in these red/brown fungus spots from Hollyhock Rust.
I found a new colony of Red Mason Bees (Osmia bicornis) in the mortar of a brick wall on the path to our house. The bees are very active, at least when the sun is shining.
Sawfly identification is pretty hard as there are lots of species and not very many good materials on the internet to help in reliable identification, but I believe this white-legged, mostly black sawfly is Violet Sawfly / Ametastegia pallipes. This is a species which as the name suggests is found on members of the Viola family, and apparently is not rare.
It was a pretty meagre catch of moths last night, despite the warm weather; never seem to do that well when there’s a clear sky and full moon. But out of only 6 moths, 3 of them were 2 new species. Two rather handsome purple-tinged Streamers and a Water Carpet all on the wall by the trap. Both are species only present in April-May.
As it was a warmer evening, I put out the moth trap. There wasn’t many moths in it this morning - maybe it was too clear overnight - but there were two new species: Shoulder Stripe and March Moth. All Spring moths during a period last year where whether prevented me doing much much trapping.
A first excursion of the year for my moth trap, resulted in a small catch of four different species. It might have been more if I hadn’t forgotten to put egg boxes in the trap - too much of a rush to get back to the rugby. Anyhow as well as three species I first caught last Match, there was this Dotted Border moth (Agriopis marginaria, #835) - yes, there are still plenty of new moths to see in 2022!
Came across these groups of ladybirds on fence posts while going for a walk near Tewkesbury. There was a nice mix of species: mostly the very common 7-spot ladybirds (Coccinella septempunctata), but also several small yellow 16-spot ladybirds (Tytthaspis sedecimpunctata) and a few Adonis ladybirds (Hippodamia variegata). An Adonis Ladybird is bottom left on the first photo. The latter two species are ones I didn’t yet find in my garden.
We got three chickens last April, which have free range of the garden. They do give us plenty of eggs, and are pretty funny, but hens are not exactly a gardeners best friend; or that great for garden wildlife either. Apart from eating plants and raking up the borders for worms, they do eat a lot of the bugs and molluscs in the garden, and have I believe also killed off our frogs. It’s not much of a plus, but the appearance of rats and more mice around the garden shed is likely linked to getting chickens, so I suppose I can thank them for adding Brown Rat (Rattus norvegicus) and Yellow-necked Mouse (Apodemus flavicollis) to the garden list. Yellow-necked Mouse is my first new species of the year and the 10th mammal species. Thanks girls!
My wife has been complaining that something is biting her in the house. Having suspected cat fleas and spider bites, but not really found evidence of either, I now think the suspect is the larvae of these small carpet beetles. Apparently, like some other caterpillars, they have hairs which can be irritating to some people and cause allergic reactions. We haven’t seen many of the adult beetles around, but are doing extra vacuuming to see if that fixes the problem.
#439 Two-spotted Carpet Beetle (Attagenus pellio)
Sunday was the nicest day of the year so far, weather-wise, with the first solitary bees around. This Double-Striped Pug moth (Gymnoscelis rufifasciata) was resting on the fence. Time to get my moth trap out of the cupboard and see what else is around! Happy it’s (just about) Spring…
Been too busy to take a proper look at and post these pictures from my son’s camera trap, but here we have a Brown Rat photographed on 30th October and a nice picture of one of the neighbour’s cats. The night time pictures are pretty good, so we’ll try again and see whether we have any more rodents or anything more interesting!
A nice variety of fungi around the woodland at Kemerton Lake nature reserve a couple of weeks ago
The cat brought in another new mammal for the garden this week; a Brown Rat (Rattus norvegicus). It’s a bit of a surprise that it took so long, but as we have recently got some chickens, I expect that this explains the appearance of rats.in the garden. Hopefully there’s not too many of them.
This Turkey Tail fungus is growing nicely on an old wooden garden table. The fungus contains a chemical called Polysaccharide-K (PSK), which is used in some countries as a medicinal / alternative-medicinal compound in treating immune deficiencies and some cancers. It’s a pretty common dead-wood fungus growing right around the northern hemisphere.
The cat caught this weasel somewhere nearby the other week. It’s a bit of a surprise to find one so close to the village, though I have seen a few along the lanes nearby. It’s also a bit surprising that the cat wanted to take on something as potentially feisty as a weasel. The weasel was heavily infected with mites, so maybe was not in the best of health.
This Small Tortoiseshell and a fly-past Red Admiral this week will probably be the last butterflies of the year, unless we get a really surprise hot Halloween. In exchange for insects there’s a changing of the guard with the bird life - the last of the chiffchaffs appears to have moved on this week, but I had my first Lesser Redpoll of the winter yesterday and there seem plenty of Redwings about as well as a regular Red Kite back over the village.
This moth had somehow got its way into the brown bin along with all the garden composting waste. The Angle Shades has two generations, the Autumn one from August to November being the larger. It’s a nicely marked moth; I hadn’t noticed previously the way it turns up the outside edges of its wingtips to look more like a leaf.
#739 Angle Shades (Phlogophora meticulosa)
Passionate about nature, based in Gloucestershire UK; this site is about creating a wildlife friendly family garden and exploring the diversity of animal & plant species that share it with us.
As a nature lover and wildlife gardener I started wondering about the biodiversity in my backyard and just how many species from plants to insects to birds to mammals might live in or visit it.
Much of the wildlife in my small, village garden has been present right under my nose for years without my really appreciating it, so on the way I am learning a lot about different species and how to make a wildlife-friendly environment for them; also getting engaged more in conservation activities around Gloucestershire, Worcestershire and the Cotswolds.
My garden species tally started from zero on June 1st 2018, the target was 1000 species, which I eventually hit in June 2024. But there’s still plenty to see and learn about.
I'm very interested in your comments & advice: whether it's about the blog, some help with identification or just how to make my own little Eden better for wildlife. So please leave a comment or drop me a line if you feel like it!
Graham Tompsett
microedenproject@gmail.com
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