Clevedon Wildlife

 Continued poor weather for insects have held up my plans and ambitions for the 100 hoverfly attempt but a new one at last appeared in the garden. This was a Platycheirus, which are notoriously difficult to identify so I was pleased to actually catch it as it shot through a patch of Vinca flowers. Under the microscope I was able to see the critical features and then tried to get allternative photos rather than my usual Phone held to eyepiece variety. This involved various attempts to use a steady light or a hand held flash.     White-footed Sedgesitter Again but with flash The second shot shows the silvery, rather than yellow, abdominal markings that together with two leg features identify this male as the common P. albimanus (AKA White-footed Hoverfly in some sources) I spent ages trying to get reasonable photos of the key features and am aware of how much room for improvement there is Tangled hairs on the front femur show up nicely here         ...

  Watercress Farm is a Wilding site near Nailsea where I record insects in my role of species lead for Hoverflies. Thus a sunny afternoon demanded a visit to start of their yearlist and see what was about. My first discovery, after some helpful advice from a local entomological group, was that a hedge, that I had always considered to be Blackthorn that flowered early; was in fact Cherry Plum. A difference in petal size and the presence of rearward pointing sepals clinched it Cherry Plum Flowers Over a period of an hour or so I saw 4 or 5 different individual hoverflies visit the hedge. I tried to photograph every one, but with varying degrees of success. In the end everyone I saw well enough to identify confidently turned out to be a female Common Drone Fly (Eristalis tenax) Eristalis tenax female This photo shows the well separated eyes that most female hoverflies have I was particularly checking for the colour of the front and middle tarsi. These are black, or at least dark, in t...

 This really is turning into a relentlessly wet winter. It has rained here at some point on almost every single day since the start of January. However between the showers today we had an hour of sun with a temperature of 10 degrees C. This was enough to draw in 4 hoverflies to the sugar sprayed bush. Two were Marmalade Hoverflies (Episyrphus balteatus) :- one that always sat with wings folded and one with wings open   Marmalade Hoverfly 1 Marmalade Hoverfly 2 Next up was my first Tapered Drone Fly of 2026. This was a male, the first hoverfly I have seen this year that has not been female. You can tell because the eyes touch along much of the centre-line Eristalis pertenax Then a small, darkish hoverfly with yellow body markings put in an appearence. This was clearly a Thintail (Meiliscaeva sp) but I wanted to get a photo that clinched which one of the two common ones it was. Having got a photo in situ I caught it and added a bit of CO2 to the pot for a minute or so. Setting u...

 The rain here is going on and on and another day of damp dawned with the added complication that I needed to stay in for the afternoon to allow some minor work to be done in the house. My solution was to build a couple of bits of kit for the microscope and light box. I already had the small amount of wood needed so I popped down to my local hardware shop and spent £2.20 on some bolts brackets and washers.  An earlier visit had doubled that with wing nuts and 4 small magnets..... in case I give the impression of being a cheapskate ! Here's my purchases plus wood and screws from old stuff kept in the garage. The first item to complete was a new stage for the microscope that could go lower than my earlier attempt. The idea for using a magnet for holding the plastezote  rather than wood, came from a BENHS meeting in Reading and was suggested by Marc Taylor, if I have remembered correctly. Anyway, using the magnet gave me an alternative stage design as below     ...

 I finally managed to see some hoverfly adults today. The temperature was only 6C but the sun was out for a bit. The actual purpose of our trip to Dyffryn House near Cardiff was to look at Snowdrops but I had high hopes of more. In fact I only found a single flowering bush on the whole estate but this Sarcococca had three hoverflies of different species as well as a couple of bumble bees and a Yellow-Dungfly.                                                                    Episyrphus balteatus  The Marmalde Hoverfly The first was more or less expected, it being a relatively common overwintering species in southern England. The Marmalade Hoverfly.  The second species was again, not a surprise. This was the Common Drone Fly ( Eristalis tenax). I took loads of photos to be sure that I captured the critical...

In the brief dry window today I made my first attempt at finding hoverfly larvae this year. My last try failed but it seemed worth i, if only as a break from researching sites for later in the year. I chose to go to a local rewilding site where I am surveying regularly for hoverflies as part of a large volunteer effort. The site, Watercress farm near to Nailsea, is run by the Belmont Estate whose owners are seeking to prove that a nature based solution can generate money as an alternative to an intensive farming. It seems to me that as many alternative land uses as possible should be trialled to give Britain a healthier mix for the future generations. I set up shop in the Poplar Wood to search leaf litter for diapausing (resting phase) larvae.                                                                       ...