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.

Willow is important

As soon as the Willow catkins start producing pollen, the trees become a valuable food source for insects of all kinds.

This queen Bombus terrestris is stocking up before she retires to her nest:

And a number of flies were also feeding, including this Lesser Dungfly:

The Twin-Spotted Quaker moth - Orthosia munda - is also a Willow pollen feeder, which is why it is only seen in March and April:

Another new moth came to light last night: the Red Chestnut - Cerastis rubricosa. The various Chestnut species can be very tricky to separate, especially in the cusps when their flying dates overlap, but the reddish colour, combined with the wing shape and the grey flashes at the edge of the wing make this look fine for that species:

Longest dry spell in 11 months

Barren Strawberry - Potentilla sterilis - has opened. The photograph shows most of the identification features: a small notch in the outer edge of the petal, gaps between the petals, and the final tooth in the leaf is shorter than its neighbours.


Single specimens of new moths keep arriving at light. This is Twin-spotted Quaker - Orthosia munda:

And this is Pale Pinion - Lithophane hepatica: