The Lyons Share

Whilst brushing my teeth this morning, I had the feeling I was being watched. I looked up to see this little jumping spider (it was only about 3 mm long) on my window. I keyed it out to genus and got an identification, which thanks to Andy Phillips, I can now say was correct! It's a female Pseudeuophrys lanigera. I thought I saw this in Woodvale a few months ago but I was not sure. It's great to get a tick from within your own flat! It's particulary fond of roof tops apparently, just like your friendly neighbourhood Spiderman. The second photo is the epigyne, the sexual organs of spiders are external and hence dissection is not required as it is with so many other difficult invertebrate groups. It's not easy though matching the epigyne to the illustrations in the book.

There were quite a few inverts on the wing today and I have to admit to a very embarrassing tick at Wild Park today, the Marmalade Hoverfly Episyrphus balteatus. This is one of the commonest hovers, I've just never got around to keying it out and recording it. I also added another naturalised plant species growing up there, Oregon-grape. That puts me on 3090! Now, I have just found a tiny black flea beetle sitting by the light switch that makes this spider look huge...

I went up to Hollingbury Fort and the back of Wild Park to experience the visible migration, it's almost as addictive as sea watching! I observed from 07:45 to 09:35 and here are the totals. It was quite windy and it was difficult to hear birds unless they were right overhead.

It was nice to hear Bramblings again, definitely one of my favourite calls. Collins Bird Guide has perhaps the best written word interpretations of bird vocalisations. So, it puts Brambling's call as 'a loud, croaking, harsh, nasal te-ehp'. I am sure I heard one last week go over the car park at Woods Mill. Firecrests seem to be turning up everywhere at the moment.