Sunday 14 March 2010

Spring!

Today I first heard, and then saw, dozens of frogs in courtship. No spawn yet, but I'd bet on finding some by the weekend.

It's interesting to note that the Pale Brindled Beauty moth - Phigalia pilosaria - is at the end of its season (December- March), when most moths are still safely tucked away in their cocoons:



Still no Willow leaves, although the buds are most certainly getting larger. Again, I think bud break will be this week.

Given the sudden rise in daytime temperatures, I'd expect to see queen bumblebees and the earliest hoverflies out and about soon, too: I got buzzed by a Bluebottle earlier in the week.

2 comments:

Yoke, said...

Love the Moth again, Stuart. I like how you can predict the next stages of development after all years observing.

A couple of days ago, I did spot a Queen Humble, a Bluebottle, and some Insect a little bigger than the 'Bottle; some kind of Wasp perhaps? Was on a leaf and disappeared. Too fast obviously.

Stuart said...

Maybe your bigger insect was a hoverfly....they can look a bit wasp-like and I've certainly seen them this early.

I'm just off to check for frogspawn.