Friday, March 15, 2013

Only in England...

 Only in England? We do seem to have our fair share of weather extremes here:often within the space of a few days. On Sunday I was out walking and spotted this blackthorn flower,the first I have seen this year...

Blackthorn flowers
There have been several other signs of spring that I'll come to in a moment, but to illustrate my point about the weather, today we woke to a blanket of snow. I won't bother you with a photograph though, I'm sure we all know what snow looks like after this winter. The forecasters tell us that there is no sign of a change in the next 10 days....B****r!

On better days, there are a few invertebrates getting about now...




First (7-spot) Ladybird sighting of 2013

A picture-wing fly
Not sure but could this little fly be 'Terellia tussilaginis' (Tephritidae)? Actually, scrub that...too early! Pretty thing whatever it is though.


Plenty of jumping spiders around in the garden now
I have also been continuing my journey into photographing other nature subjects aside from insects and bugs...















And a couple of macro shots of lichen...






Whilst I was admiring this lichen,I also found more of the strange little things that I believe are correctly known as 'slime-mould'. Not a nice name for something that can be quite delicate and interesting...well, to me anyhow...





It does feel as though the spring insects are going to be delayed this year. I have seen my first couple of hoverflies in the garden though. On one sunny(ish) day I saw a little marmalade fly and then the following day, this drone fly...




This looks like a female common drone fly (Eristalis tenax) to me. These are very common and gained their name because of the ability to mimic bee drones. There is anothe possibility of E.pertinax but it's slimmer and has orange front tarsi I think?

As I write this (Friday 15th March) we have a slightly warmer day but now it's raining. Spring/Summer better be good when it does arrive that's all I can say!

Until the next time then...



4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Some good sightings you've had despite the weather! It's been driving me insane too. Getting impatient now! It's our final recording year before the Shieldbug Atlas is published early next year..... I want to get out there and find some! Lol!
The Slime moulds are fascinating and beautiful I think! You've certainly got some stunning shots of them!
(btw, it's the 15th today! ;-))

Thanks for another interesting blog!

Maria

JJ said...

Thanks for your interest Maria...what's that Shieldbug Atlas all about can I ask?

I've altered the date...thanks for that too...I have something important on the 25th and it's been on my mind!

Anonymous said...

The Atlas is for Shropshire. Basically, which species where. There are a few species that are in neighbouring counties, but not yet found here, so we're going to try to find them. Plus there are 'holes' within the county for the more common species, so we will target those places too! Really eager to get going with it but this weather is holding everything up and making me so frustrated!! Lol! Last year I was finding Pied and Hairy about now....! :-)
Have a lovely weekend!
Maria

JJ said...

Thanks for the explanation Maria. Sounds like a great thing to be involved with. I'm sure things will improve soon and you won't know which way to look..there'll be bugs everywhere!

Now I must look back at previous years and see what I was finding by now :-) Have a good weekend yourself.
JJ.