Swindonbirder: July 2016

Sunday, 31 July 2016

Hoppers and Crickets

What's lovely about looking at the sightings and lovely photos on the Swindon Birds and Wildlife Blog is that you get to hear about the lovely places there are to visit within a 10 mile radius of Swindon. So today I spent a wonderful hour in the fields at Wanborough Here. after reading about Martyn Jelley's visits there recently.

There were a few birds about with Red Kite, Wood Pigeon, Green Woodpecker, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Dunnock, Robin, Blackcap, Chiffchaff, Long-tailed Tit, Coal Tit, Great Tit, Blue Tit,
Treecreeper, Wren, Magpie and Goldfinch.

Butterflies seen: Large Whites, Small Whites, Green-veined Whites, 6 Small Skippers, dozens of Meadow Browns and 2 Gatekeepers.

Also: 1 Roesel's Bush Cricket (Metrioptera roeselii), Common Green Grasshopper (Omocestus viridulus), Meadow Grasshopper (Chorthippus parallelus), lots of Green Leaf-hopper (Cicadella viridis), Hogweed Bonking Beetles (Rhagonycha fulva), Common Blue Damselflies, Southern Hawker and Greater Water Boatman (Notonecta glauca)

Here are a few photographs of what I found:

Gatekeeper

Meadow Brown

Small Skipper

Ringlet

Common Green and Meadow Grasshoppers on a mole hill. It wasn't just this molehill either, as others were providing heat! for many more grasshoppers.

Common Green and Meadow Grasshoppers

Roesel's Bush Cricket

Green Leaf-hopper

Hogweed Bonking Beetles

Greater Water Boatman

Common Blue Damselfly

Thursday, 28 July 2016

More Moths

A totally different night with the moth trap. There was a light wind and there were dozens of micro moths, some "mini" water-boatman, several Caddis Flies and a small beetle.

I had 75 moths with about 46 different species, but I'm really struggling to identify a good number of them. This is going to take awhile

Large Yellow Underwing (3)
Silver Y (2)
Grass Veneers (5)
Marbled Beauty (6)
Magpie (1)
The Rustic (6)
Pale Prominent (1)
Common Emerald (2)
Apple Ermine, Yponomeuta malinellus (3)
Long-horned Flat-body, Carcina quercana (1)
Knot Grass, Acronicta rumicis (3)
Grey Dagger (1)
Elder Pearl, Anania coronata (1)
Willow Beauty (1)
Small Blood-vein (2)
Shuttle-shaped Dart, Agrotis puta (1)
Eudonia sp. (6)

Ones I have now identified as of 3 Aug 16
Common Footman, Eilema lurideola (1)
Common Grey, Scoparia ambigualis (8)
Diamond-back Moth, Plutella xylostella (1)
Groundling sp. (1)
Common Rustic, Mesapamea secalis (3)
Double-striped Pug, Gymnoscelis rufifasciata (3)
Slender Pug, Eupithecia tenuiata (2)
Grey Pug, Eupithecia subfuscata (2)
Small Fan-footed Wave, Idaea biselata (3)
Square-spot Rustic, Xestia xanthographa (2)
Mother of Pearl, Pleuroptya ruralis (1)