We have lift-off

This is the second day of sunshine and everything has leapt into action.

Along the sheltered ditch I found:

Lesser Celandine:

Lesser Celandine

Coltsfoot:

Coltsfoot

Opposite-leaved Golden Saxifrage:

Opposite-leaved Golden Saxifrage

Opposite-leaved Golden Saxifrage covers the rear wall of ditches and wet banks around here. Here's a habit shot from the back wall of the stream:

Opposite-leaved Golden Saxifrage on the ditch wall

I also checked the Greater Stitchwort plants just a little further along, but they're still pretending to be blades of grass:

Leaves of Greater Stitchwort

I also hunted for 7-spot ladybirds along the sunnier side of the track and found this single specimen just before the end:

7-spot Ladybird

Back home and I spotted this female Eristalis tenax hoverfly on Dandelion:

Female Eristalis tenax nectaring after emerging from hibernation

Females of Eristalis tenax are the only members of the family to hibernate. Other Eristalis species overwinter as pupae and won't emerge for a few weeks yet. So although the puparium will offer some protection from the cold, the female E. tenax has survived the exposure and now has a head start on getting her eggs laid.

Heat at last

We had a couple of warm days and suddenly everything is moving.

Solitary bees dig private tunnels in soil where they lay their own eggs and bring back pollen to a store which will feed the larvae when they hatch. These nests are often grouped in 'aggregations' of tunnels where the situation is favourable, but each individual tunnel remains self-sufficient. The largest family is Andrena, where the females can often resemble small bumblebees. My favourite is Andrena cineraria, where the female appears to be wearing a Barbarians rugby jersey:

Female Andrena cineraria gathering pollen

Once the pollen has been gathered, the female will seal the tunnel and the larvae will hatch, eat the pollen, pupate and then hibernate until next spring. The species with the shortest season is Andrena clarkella, which feeds exclusively on Willow pollen, and most nests will already be sealed: this is a bee that can be seen for perhaps 50-60 days each year.

Staying with Dandelions, I spotted this 14-spot ladybird in the precise centre of one. this will give a good idea of scale:

14-spot ladybird on Dandelion

And an intriguing shot of an aberrant Dandelion:

Aberrant Dandelion

Dandelions belong to the Compositae, which includes Thistles, Daisies, Knapweed, etc. Each 'flower' is actually a composite collection of individual flowers, some of which are Ray florets (the outer ones), and an inner group of Disc florets. This specimen appears to have dispensed not only with disc florets, but also with the reproductive parts of the ray florets. I rather suspect that this is a genetic experiment that is doomed to be unfit for survival. All flowers on the same plant were identical.

The following shot shows just how late this year has become. I normally see Greater Stitchwort in late March, but this specimen is at least 6 weeks behind the usual date:

Greater Stitchwort

Lady's Mantle has a habit of not being there one day, and then being fully opened the next. When I was down taking a shot of the lovely folding leaves, I noticed a couple of other leaves waiting to be discovered:

a) Lady's Mantle b) Meadowsweet c) Meadow Buttercup

Flowers of the Lady's Mantle are at the lower left.

I wasn't expecting to see too many fungi at this time of year, but I found a couple of very old Polyporus badius on dead Snowberry:

Polyporus badius

And a couple of specimens of a Psathyrella which I think is Psathyrella spadiceogrisea. I'll do some microscopic work on these once the spores have been gathered:

Psathyrella cf. spadiceogrisea

Yesterday, I saw 3 species of butterfly in the garden. There were perhaps half a dozen Small tortoiseshells, a single Green-veined White and late on, a single Speckled Wood.

Small Tortoiseshell butterfly

The Green-veined White and Speckled Wood are this year's first butterflies, whereas the Small Tortoiseshells are actually last year's autumn brood which have emerged from hibernation. Orange Tip has to be next, since the Cardamine is out.

Bilberry has flowered, so perhaps we might see a Green Hairstreak or two in the next week or so:

Bilberry flowers

I was a little surprised to find Field Woodrush on the patch. I normally see Heath Woodrush, and maybe I have been ignoring these smaller specimens. One major clue to identification is the pale 'blob' at the end of each leaf:

Field Woodrush - Luzula campestris

Lastly for today, a few specimens of Green Alkanet were spotted on a verge at the side of a remote road:

Green Alkanet

These are garden escapes, but I cannot imagine anyone taking their garden refuse for such a distance in order to dump it. Maybe bird-sown.

Synchronisation

Following my sighting of the Orange Tip butterflies two days ago, their foodplant - Cuckoo Flower or Milkmaids, Cardamine pratensis - has just flowered, bang on schedule. Orange Tips have an extremely tight relationship with their larval foodplant, and I hope to track progress over the next few weeks.

Greater Stitchwort is very much later this year:

Due to our hard winter after a series of very mild winters, all species are later than they have been in recent years, although I'm noticing that different species are delayed more than others. I can't quite see a pattern, yet, but it seems that the species that would normally be very early are delayed the most.

How many species?

As I was cropping this shot of a Common Carder Bumblebee - Bombus pascuorum - I spotted something that led to the above question. So how many species can you see in this shot? Answer at the bottom of the page (don't cheat!). Helpful hint: all the leaves belong to the flower.


Greater Stitchwort - Stellaria holostea - sneaks up stealthily due to the fact that the leaves look like grass:

Common Dog Violet - Viola riviniana - is about two weeks later than usual this year.


I counted 4 species:-

Carder Bumble Bee.
Lesser Celandine.
Puccinia ranunculi (fungal rust on leaf)
A parasitic bug on the bee (shown below).

April Sun

Another small mystery resolved. Some Barbula sp. mosses are very difficult to tell apart unless you have setae to look at, and these can appear irregularly or not at all. This one has yellow setae, and is hence Barbula convoluta. The confusion species (which I also have locally) is Barbula unguiculata, which has red setae. The tumbled specimen at the rear is Bryum capillare. Again.


Things are moving along quite quickly, now. Viola riviniana is out. You can just see the notched, pale, spur at the rear.


The 'Yellow Brain Fungus' - Tremella mesenterica is associated with Gorse. Or rather, it isn't. It is parasitic on another crusting fungus that grows on Gorse - Peniophora incarnata.



Leaf miners will soon be in evidence: this is one from last year. It belongs to the micromoth Stigmella aurella, and is always found on Bramble. I like to look at the path of the mine and try to work out the strategy the larvae use to decide how to turn at leaf edges and veins.


I could happily have made a mystery out of this one: the leaves of Greater Stitchwort.


Just for the record, first Swallow of the summer was 4th April, and first Bombus terrestris queen was 12th April.