Clevedon Wildlife

 Today the weather was just looking good enough to try the long drive back to the New Forest. Again, due to traffic conditions on the motorways I had to go cross country but this trip still took an hour less than last week's attempt. On arrival at the car park I met Paul and Mark who were both old hands from the Green Forest Hoverfly survey. Both, fortunately were way ahead of me in recognising Hoverflies too which was a great help. The plan was to check a number of Beech stumps in the hope of seeing one or more Green Forest Hoverflies (Caliprobola speciosa) and hopefully something else too. Beech stump After 30 minutes or so one of the stumps had a great hoverfly perched briefly. This was The Thick-thighed Forest Fly (Brachypalpus laphriformis). Unfortunately it was so brief a visit that I only managed this long range photo Thick-thighed Forest Fly Another 30 mins or so passed where the best hoverfly seen was a Dimorphic Bumblefly ( Criorhina (now Matsumyia in some books) berberin...

 My wife suggested a quick visit to Cornwall for tea with family, who were celebrating a birthday. I suggested that, as we could not arrive sensibly before the end of work and school for them, we should break the journey on Dartmoor. I knew just the spot, a site that could hold Eristalis cryptarum, one of the UK's rarest hoverflies. So after a cheese sandwich she went off with walking poles to reaquaint herself with the area, many years after we had first lived there as newlyweds. I walked out into the rather bleak and certainly wet mire in search of flies After 10 mins or so an obvious Eristalis (Drone Fly) landed in front of me. I rattled off a few pictures and then checked it with bins. Very much to my disappointment it was the very common Tapered Drone Fly (E pertinax) : a species that is common in my garden. Tapered Drone Fly I carried on searching seeing lots of tiny Fen Flies (Neoascia sp) and a single Blacklet of some kind Fen Fly These look like tenur the Black-kneed Fen F...

  A couple of day's ago I went to Salisbury Plain with some friends to look at some local specialities in the way of birds. We were very successful in seeing several Great Bustards and even a couple of Stone Curlews along with Kites, Hobbies and Corn Buntings. Great Bustards Stone Curlew The strong wind seemed to keep any insects down however with nothing being seen all day. On arriving home though, there was still time for a potter around the garden and this turned up trumps. First I noticed a slightly different looking Syrphine which turned out to be Dark-backed Smoothtail  (Epistrophe nitidicollis).  One I had seen reported on the facebook group but was not expecting in my own, small, town garden. Epistrophe nitidicollis Within minutes I had also seen this:- Dasysyrphus venutus Presumably because it has hairy eyes this is named the Broad-barred Brusheye. Recently this has been split into two species but the pattern of the bar on sternite 2 seemed to clinch it as this r...