Loads of good insects on the walk today but the birds were pretty good too with the now regular variety of waders along with Hobby, Yellow Wagtail, Tree Pipit, Sandwich Tern, Garganey and flocks of chatty moulting young Starlings....
Garganey & Black-tailed Godwit (HTV)
The two Lancasters perfrmed a distant fly past.... (more on that later I hope) and it was generally a nice day. We added two species of Hoverfly to the Rainham list with Lawrence finding his Chrysotoxum festivum at last and me picking up a smaller dull one called Cheilosia pagana...
Chrysotoxum festivum (LR)
There were lots of good flies around today with three of the chunky Volucella hoverfly (zonaria, inanis and pellucens) species, the furry looking Mesembrina meridiana (Noon Day Fly with the golden jowls) and lots of Greenbottles and Fleshflies...
Volucella zonaria (Tom Bell)
Mesembrina meridiana (HTV)
Flesh Fly (HTV)
One of my favourites was a fly that lays its eggs on small snails and slugs which they then devour upon hatching....
And here it is...
Coremacera marginata .... just look at those pretty wings (HTV)
Slugs of various colours were seen across the paths sporting their orange stripy frills and we found another two colonies of over 30 Wasp Spiders that I think may have missed by the studious counting of Clive Watts....
Wasp Spider (HTV)
And please be careful around the big will near the Wildlife Garden entrance as there are literally hundreds of mostly German Wasps harvesting honeydew from the large Willow Aphids in there as well as stripping wood from the hand rails for their nest nearby! Fun to watch though!
German Wasps (HTV)
Asa found one of the best beasts with this superb Velvet Ant that was heading off across the path.... this is the first one this year.
Velvet Ant (HTV)
Hopefully I will get a chance to investigate the Wildlife Garden for more insects tomorrow!
16-8-14
Howard Vaughan, Information Officer