A date for your diaries - fund raising event for Manx Wildlife Trust.

 

please click to enlarge

 

With many thanks to those people who have agreed to open their gardens for us to visit. A lovely way to spend a summer afternoon!

Ballachurry Reserve, 18th May 2021

Heading for the hide on a sunny day

  I usually try to leave 7 days between my recording visits to the Reserve but Tuesday was a beautiful day and there were gales forecast for later in the week so I decided to head off down there after breakfast. Inevitably things cropped up, but I arrived soon after 10 . Here is what I recorded:

Birds:

SC209693 Wren; Thrush heard but not seen;

SC209694 ( Hide)  2 x Moorhen ( chicks have gone but nest building again); Sedge Warbler;

SC209694 pair of Reed Bunting; Willow Warbler heard but not seen; Buzzard heard briefly but not seen; 2 x Swallow flying over; female Blackbird; Dunnock;male Chaffinch; Chiffchaff heard but not seen; male Blackcap; Goldfinch; Sedge Warbler singing from inside brambles eventually emerged at low level and flew to trees.

SC208694 Willow Warbler; Wood Pigeon; Chaffinch heard not seen; Robin; Blackbird; Blue Tit.

SC208695 Robin.

SC210694 3 x Goldfinch.

Other:

 SC210694 3 x 7-spot Ladybird;

SC210694 Small Heath Butterfly: male Orange Tip butterfly;

SC208694 Speckled Wood Butterfly + unidentified White flying

SC208694 a few native Bluebells + Ground Ivy visited by Carder bee

SC208695  7-spot Ladybird on Hogweed

SC209694 7-spot Ladybird on Bramble

SC208695  Dasysyrphus  species Hoverfly ; unidentified White Butterfly flying;

SC209695 Gorse Shieldbug eggs

SC209695 Gorse Shieldbug

SC209694 male Orange Tip butterfly

SC208694 Honey Bees in Hawthorn Blossom

SC208694 tiny  Nomada species "Cuckoo Bee"  on Hawthorn flowers NEW RECORD

SC208695 Crane Fly possibly Tipula oleracea

SC209693 6 unidentified flies on Buttercup flowers - possibly Muscids or Anthomyids

SC209693 Eristalis pertinax Hoverfly 

It took me ages to spot the Willow Warbler singing in the tree

but I located it eventually

singing its heart out

 Dunnock

also singing its heart out

Blue Tit near the Boardwalk

one of two Moorhens - the white dots are flies!

this one was carrying nest material

Speckled Wood Butterfly

Small Heath Butterfly

Carder bee? on Ground Ivy

Unidentified  flies on buttercups - possibly Muscids or Anthomyids

Crane Fly - possibly Tipula oleracea

Gorse Shieldbug

Honey Bee on Hawthorn flowers - note pollen baskets

 Nomada species - a parasitic " Cuckoo Bee"

 Eristalis pertinax Hoverfly

 Dasysyrphus Hoverfly

a more serious camera than I have!

7-spot Ladybird on Hogweed

backlit Sycamore leaves

native Bluebell

7-spot in nettles

just one of the potential predators our birds have to avoid

 

after a brief spell in the hide I headed home for lunch

 

please click on photos to enlarge them

With thanks to Steve Crellin for fly idnentification

Ballachurry Reserve, 13th May 2021.

A sunny afternoon in mid May

 My visit to the Reserve on Friday was part recording visit and part recce before showing a group of local Cubs scouts and Beavers round  later in the evening. There were two seasons happening at once in the reserve during the afternoon. By the hide there was a strong, cold wind blowing but over on the gorse boundary it was warm and sunny! Here is what I recorded:

Birds:

SC208694 Blackbird, Willow Warbler and Sedge Warbler all heard but not seen.

SC208695  2 x Goldfinch; Chaffinch; Chiffchaff heard but not seen.

SC209695 Blue Tit; Chaffinch; Sedge Warbler; Willow Warbler heard but not seen; 2 x Great Tit; Mallard drake flying over

SC209694 Great Tit; pair of Chaffinch; Willow Warbler.

SC209693 Sedge Warbler in reeds

Other:

SC210694 2 x unidentified spiders 

SC210694 Orange Tip butterfly eggs on Garlic Mustard;

SC210694 Large White butterfly;

SC209693 Orange Tip butterfly eggs on Cuckoo Flowers ( Ladysmock)

SC208694 Speckled Wood butterfly

SC209695 3 x Gorse Shieldbug

SC209694 mating pair of Gorse Shieldbugs + 3 singletons + 2 lots of eggs

SC209694 Unidentified bumblebee in gorse

SC209694 Several Muscid flies - probably Eudasyphora cyanella

SC209694 Speckled Wood

SC208695 2 x 7-spot Ladybirds

SC210694 Small Tortoiseshell butterfly  on nettles

SC209695 Noon Fly and  2 x Eudasyphora cyanella  lies on wooden bench

SC208695 4 x Eudasyphora species flies on ash trunk ( probably cyanella)

SC209695 Unidentified fly ( Green Bottle species?)

SC208695 Helophilus pendulus  and Syrphus species Hoverflies

SC208695 2 x 7-spot Ladybirds on Hogweed  + Muscid flies ( probably  Eudasyphora cyanella)

SC209695 1 x 7-spot on gorse; 1 x 7-spot on Bramble.

SC209695 Primroses in flower

SC209694 Red Campion in flower

SC209694   Rhingia campestris  Hoverfly

SC209694  female Sarcophaga species Flesh Fly

 

male Chaffinch

Goldfinch

Large White

Speckled Wood

 

Speckled Wood

Orange Tip egg on Cuckoo Flower

close up of the egg

close up of Orange tip egg on Garlic Mustard

Garlic Mustard - can you see the egg?

7-spot with  Muscid flies (Eudasyphora cyanella possibly) on Hogweed

closer view

7-spot on gorse

7-spot on Bramble

 

at first all seemed normal at the pond

but then.....

 

I noticed the mud flat that had appeared since my last visit

 

I discovered the stream was also dry

twin flies on ash trunk  Eudasyphora cyanella

Eudasyphora cyanella on bench

Eudasyphora cyanella on a leaf

female Sarcophaga species ( Flesh fly)

a Noon Fly, Eudasyphora species + unidentified

 Eudasyphora + unidentified flies

 Rhingia campestris

Bumble bee in gorse

view along the boardwalk

mating gorse Shieldbugs

gorse Shieldbug eggs

 always laid in two neat lines

 another gorse Shieldbug- note red antenae

these stripey  Helophilus pendulus hoverflies are nicknamed "footballers" 

 Syrphus species Hoverfly

view across the meadow to flowering apple trees

main path to hide

primroses

very small unidentified snail

tiny spider in the nettles

Rowan trees now in flower

and the Hawthorn

Red Campion along the gorse boundary

one of the more open areas

I was about to leave when another bird watcher on the site alerted me to the fact that he had just photographed a Reed Warbler in the reeds. I lingered in the hope of seeing it myself but it did not show so I hurried home before meeting the youngsters at 6 p.m.  

When I returned to the Reserve around 5.45 the wind had dropped and it was a delightful sunny evening. There were birds everywhere, notably 2 pairs of Sedge Warblers round the pond and a Moorhen out on the water. I still did not manage to spot the Reed Warbler though. The children proved adept at spotting ladybirds - 4 at SC209694 and 5 at SC208695 and we also discovered that it takes 7 x little boys in a line to equate to the wingspan of a Buzzard! 

Of some concern was the discovery that there was no water flowing into the reserve and that the water level in the pond was therefore falling too. I'm pleased to say that the cause for this, outside the Reserve, was found and has since been rectified. 

It has taken me some time to record this visit on the Blog and, in fact, I have made another visit since. But that's another story for another day!

Please click on photos to enlarge them

 With thanks to Steve Crellin for fly identification