Is everyone enjoying this beautiful weather that we have been experiencing in the last couple of days? We certainly are here at Langford and it has been a productive period for wildlife sightings on the reserve.
Bird wise, it’s been a mix of winter and spring with 39 whooper swans flying north east over the reserve on Wednesday morning at the same time as I was listening to singing chiffchaffs, skylarks and yellowhammers whilst conducting a breeding bird survey! There were also 10 whoopers on Phase 2 yesterday morning, spotted by Site Manager, Michael Copleston, much to the delight of everyone who saw them. A little ringed plover on Phase 2 this afternoon was my first for the year and I heard a Cetti's warbler singing from Phase 1 at lunchtime.
With the warm temperatures and calm conditions this afternoon, I decided to take a walk around the butterfly transect route. Butterfly transects will officially start next month and will be conducted weekly until the end of September. Today I recorded a peacock and four small tortoiseshells around the route, but also look out for brimstones, commas and red admirals in the next couple of weeks in good weather.
And there are now plenty of other insects about too – great for all us entomologists out there! There are numerous bumblebees flying now and so far I have seen both Bombus lapidarius and Bombus terrestris, two of our most common and early flying species. The insects you will see at the moment are queens that have hibernated over winter and are now out looking for a suitable place to nest and form this year’s colony.
Not a bee, but a fly – the bee-fly is a common species of true fly (the Diptera) that emerges in March and is common throughout much of England and Wales. The bee-fly, or Bombylius major to give it it’s scientific name, resembles a bumblebee, with a round orange furry body. However, it has a long black pointed proboscis that it inserts into flowers and uses to feed on nectar. There are three species of bee-fly in the UK, with Bombylius major being the only common and widespread one.
Beetles too are starting to make an appearance, with several species of ladybird seen in the last few days. Everyone knows the common and widespread 7-spot ladybird, or Coccinella septempunctata (they have wonderful scientific names!), but there are however, 46 species of ladybird in the UK. Also at Langford we have recently recorded the 2-spot ladybird, Adalia bipunctata, the adonis ladybird, Adonia variegata, the 24-spot ladybird, Subcoccinella vigintiquatuorpunctata and a new species for the site recorded by volunteer Stuart Carlton yesterday, the kidney-spot ladybird, Chilocorus renipustulatus.