Tuesday 27th June to Sunday 2nd July

Tuesday 27th June 2017:
I made a breif visit to the Wilden Top car prak area of the Common today.  The weather was a cloudy with light drizzle and I just thought there may be the chance of an interesting bird being pushed down.  Of course there wasn't but you've got to be in it to win it!  That said there was a fair bit of bird activity in the scrub and it was heartening to see juveniles of Dunnock, Robin and Blackbird.  Yellowhammers and Linnets were also present and singing away. A Skylark was up singing above the NE edge of the Common and the adjacent farmland.   Two Swifts were also seen over heading West.


Saturday 1st July 2017:
A return to the warm sunny weather saw me undertake a walk on the Cooks side of the Common (west of the Worcvester Rd).  3 Marbled White butterflies were present near the gate by Cooks feeding on the Knapweed.  Both Essex Skipper and Small Skippers were present in this area too feeding on knapweed and the Lady's Bedstraw.  These two species of dinutive orange butterflies can be told apart by looking at the underside of the antennae tips.  In Essex Skipper they are ink black and in Small Skipper they are brown (although some Small Skippers can have what look like black tips with a brown underside so it is worth double checking).  2 Large Skippers were also recorded.

Essex Skipper (Thymelicus lineola)

Marbled White (Melanargia galathea)

Other butterflies recorded during my circuit included 5 Small Heath, 2 Red Admiral, 1 Comma, 3 Small Tortoishell, 1 Speckled Wood and 1 Large White.

4 Six-spot Burnet moths were also noted.  As was a single Fan-bristled Robberfly.  It was also nice to see the Bell Heather coming into bloom.

Six-spot Burnet (Zygaena filipendulae)

Bell Heather (Erica cinerea)

Sunday 2nd July 2014:
Today I started my visit at the Wilden Top carpark and managed to catch up with another of the Common's speciality species Brown-banded Carder Bee (Bombus humilis).  Small numbers of this bumblebee were present alongside the more commonplace Common Carder Bee feeding on the flowers of Wood Sage in one of the craters just of the entrance road. Sadly I was unable to get a clear record shot of one this visit but I will endevour to on subsequent visits.

Also of note in the Wilden Top carpark area were 1 Marbled White, 2 Small Heath and a Silver Y moth.

I then headed down to the lower terrace of the Common to check out the area that used to be the 3rd carpark along the Worcester Rd (and is now but a pull in).  This area has many interesting plants coming through and it's almost waste ground nature has the potential to turn up the odd interesting invert or two.  On arriving I soon picked up on a Black and Yellow Longhorn Beetle that was feeding on Yarrow. 

Black and Yellow Longhorn Beetle (Rutpela maculata)

I also recorded a Sand Wasp (Ammophila sp.) at this location, but I need to do more work on these before I can determine if it was Heath Sand Wasp or Red Banded Sand Wasp (both of which occur on the Common).