Spring!

Willow is always the first tree to show new leaves around here, and it's a sure sign that spring growth is moving:

Willow leaves

As soon as the catkins open up, we find bees, flies and hoverflies eager to feed on the new year's food supplies:

Willow catkins

Now we can expect to see the willow-feeding Andrena bees and various Quaker moths.

Earlier today, I found my first hoverfly of the year - Eristalis tenax, and I saw a queen Bombus terrestris checking out little holes and hollows to find a place for her nest.

Many other shrubs and plants are putting up new growth as the days lengthen. This is Bramble:

New Bramble growth

And moths are to be expected, now that nectar and pollen are available from the willow trees This is the Hebrew Character, named after the dark marks at the outer edges of the forewings:

Hebrew Character moth

Lovely weather

Most of the flowering plants are working to the normal schedule: the cold winter appears to have had little or no negative effect. Primroses have opened up all along the verge and ditch edges:

Primrose

The Barren Strawberry can be separated from the wild strawberry by the notch in the outer edge of the petals and also by the slightly glaucus appearance of the leaves:

Cow Parsley is beginning to show faster growth now, and already the fungal rust Puccinia chaerophylli is in evidence.

Puccinia chaerophylli on Cow Parsley

References say May-June, although I have found it in mid-April. I'm beginning to wonder if this is going to be an 'early year'.

Most of the early moths are showing up now:

Early Grey - a Willow pollen feeder

Early Thorn, found on many broad-leaf woody plants

Twin-spotted Quaker - another Willow feeder

Hebrew Character - one of our most widely-spread moths. Eats many plants.

Caddis flies are often mistaken for moths, but the wings are downy rather than scaled and the antennae are held in a forward-pointing position.

This specimen appears to be one of the Anabolea family, but it could be one of 25 different species.

Caddis fly larvae are usually aquatic and live in cases made from debris glued together and rolled into a tube.

Progress

On an average walk along a hedgerow, I reckon 90% of the flying objects considered to be flies will actually be micromoths. Micromoths vary in size from 2-3mm long to around 25mm long, but the majority are around 10-12mm.

In flight they can be distinguished as solitary fliers with an ungainly, often spiralling, flight. I followed this one until it landed (often the only way to get a good look at them) and was delighted to find it was a handsome specimen of the gloriously-named Schrekensteinia festaliella. Those rear legs have been turned into thorny spikes that would prevent any predator from approaching. Length 5-6mm. Note the feathered, almost hairy rear edge to the wing, which is a recurring feature of many micromoths.

My first mollusc of the year is the Banded Snail:

And yet one more member of the Orthosia family of moths. This is Orthosia gothica - Hebrew Character, and it feeds on.......willow pollen.

The last of the new queens that I expect to see: Bombus terrestris. These are huge bumblebees that buzz slowly over the ground looking for a nesting site.

More Moss

There's something quite wonderful about the way light interacts with mosses when you get really close. This is Ceratodon purpurea.


This is a habit shot on the top of a rock:

Racomitrium lanuginosum is another rock moss. The leaf tips have an extended central vein that looks like a white hair:


Here's a close-up.


And another Hebrew Character turned up last night:

Blue Sky

A wonderful spring morning dragged me out of my torpor and the hedgerow was found to be full of 7-spot Ladybirds. Every Hawthorn had a few basking in the sun. These two are on Ivy.


A few dry nights, and the moths are returning. This is the March Moth, Alsophila aescularia (male) , and is new to me.


And this is the Hebrew Character - Orthosia gothica: