There was a slight change in the weather conditions today. It still felt mild and fairly warm the sky was cloudy & overcast. I headed over to Hillditch Pool for my visit and was primarily looking for inverts. I only observed 2 butterflies, both being Small Tortoiseshells.
I did however observe the following for 4 species of Bumblebee: Buff-tailed Bumblebee, Common Carder Bee, Red-tailed Bumblebee. I also noted a small number of Drone Flies (which are common bee mimic hoverflies)
Tuesday 4th April 2017:
Today I decided to walk a circuit from the car park opposite Cook's Nursery. Walking across the heath towards the terrace bank I recorded 2 ♂ Orange Tip butterflies. Whilst nearby, a ♂ Kestrel was busy hovering and hunting for prey.
Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus)
The sandy paths were alive with activity with good numbers of the tiny Sandpit Mining Bee (Andrena barbilabris) active and to a lesser extent, small numbers of it's associated cleptoparasite the Sandpit Blood-bee (Sphecodes pellucidus).
Sandpit Blood-bee (Sphecodes pellucidus)
Along the terrace bank a Willow Warbler was singing from the immature Birch trees. This was my first record of this summer visitor on the common this year.
Things became even more interesting down at The Bog where I observed a Smooth Newt in one of the rear ponds. I also flushed a Common Snipe from one of the nearby channels. It flew of heading North. (I know, 'flush' & 'bog'....you couldn't make these things up!)
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