The Lyons Share

This is about the height that the small but beautiful Adela cuprella flies at around the tops of the willows. I did catch one but it wasn't playing ball for a photograph and after that lucky catch, I couldn't get anywhere near them again. At about the same height was the impressive hoverfly Eristalis intricarius. Tony Davis, Penny & Dave Green and I headed out to the far west of the county in search of a number of scarce moths. We started with the Adela at Ivy Lake (Tony was at a distinct advantage with his extra long handle) and then ended up light trapping for Northern Drab at Thorney Island, which we failed to find. In fact, no moths came to light except a Streamer, as we were packing up. A trio of pugs were pretty much all that was on the wing, despite a mild night.

Beetles saved the day once more! Torching in the short turf revealed a number of Chrysolina species and a few Pill Beetles Byrrhus pilula which everyone was impressed by. A nice surprise was a Helops caeruleus crawling around on an old Hawthorn whilst a Whimbrel called once in the night. At the time of writing, I'm on 3849 species. Now tomorrow, I'm heading to the far east of the county with Andy Phillips and my new fork to look for weevils...