Monday 16 April 2018

Bibio spp





































It seemed unlikely that any of yesterday's Arctic Terns would have remained on Ibsley Water but I thought it was worth a punt as they are a bird I pretty much never see even when regularly seawatching in the past. And of course they had indeed departed!! Annoyingly the three Little Gulls were reported but not there when PW and I looked. The LRPs are still dashing around  and calling a lot but few hirundines (10SM/2 HM) and the only new bird for the year was a Common Sandpiper which kept its distance. Typically, a distant kite went south and one of the few Buzzards today was feeding on a Rabbit on the west side. Only two Goosanders and no Goldeneyes today.

By the centre at least eight Bramblings were point blank, great for watching but pretty horrible for photography with the ugly shingle path as background and side-lighting. A single Early Thorn was the only decent moth, Bombus pascuorum was again on Pulmonaria and Eristalis intricaria was the only new hover. The pink plant above may (depending on FB accuracy!) be Herb Robert, a question for RC next time we cross paths.
Edit : reidentified as Common Storksbill.

Also some monochrome fungi above made a nice shape - should have used some water to wash off debris and broken out the macro.