St Andrews Park!

Had a quick look over he meadow area in the park, didn't see many insects other than Harlequin Ladybird, Thick-thighed Beetles and a couple of hoverflies - a Platycheirus sp. and a Syrphus sp. A Coal Tit was singing in the pine tree and lots of Goldfinches singing in the park.

Platycheirus

Syrphus

Thick-thighed Flower Beetle

Along Fairlawn Road, Montpelier there was a Dasysyrphus albostriatus hoverfly - my first for a couple of years. Also a Pill Woodlouse which an expert says might be a Southern Pill Woodlouse which apparently has one of its strongholds in Bristol. Nearby there was some Great Quaking Grass near Hurlingham Road which is probably a garden escape but I've not seen it before.

Possible Southern Pill Woodlouse

Dasysyrphus albostriatus

Great Quaking Grass

A Queen Buff-tailed Bumblebee was crawling along St Andrews Road - not sure if she'll survive....

Ravens!

There was a racket coming from the TV mast this morning - a couple of Herring Gulls and no less than 6 Magpies were mobbing a pair of Ravens! Presumably these are the St Werburghs birds. The station was quiet other than a Woodpigeon and the usual House Sparrows. It was good to see some Perforate St John's Wort near the railway line.

Magpies

Ravens

Perforate St John's Wort

Woodpigeon

I put the moth trap out last night and had an amazing 25+ Heart and Dart along with my first ever Heart and Club, a Pale Mottled Willow, a couple of Large Yellow Underwings and a smart Bright-line Brown-eye. A small but attractive micro-moth looks to be Eudonia lacustrata which likes moss on trees and walls - lots of moss on my roof!

Bright-line Brown-eye

Heart and Dart

Eudonia lacustrata

Heart and Club

Large Yellow Underwing

Pale Mottled Willow

This evening there was a small Centipede in the bath! It might be a Lithobius species.

Flowers and spiders!

There's lots of Creeping Cinquefoil in flower on the top of the wall along St Andrews Road and some Hedge Woundwort in flower at the top of Station Road.

Creeping Cinquefoil

Hedge Woundwort

This evening I discovered a Cellar Spider Pholcus phalangioides in the communal hallway of the flat!

Cellar Spider

Narroways!

Harry led a walk on the nature reserve this afternoon and we recorded 10 Marbled White, 5 Meadow Brown, 2 Common Blue, 1 blue sp., 1 Small Tortoiseshell, 2 Small White. And 4 Azure and 1 Large Red Damselfly by Community Gardens pond, Common Lizard and Slow Worm on the hill. I had a little sweep of the church field and cutting and saw Brassica Bug, Cinnamon Bug, Common Field Grasshopper, Malachite Beetle, Cryptocephalus sp., Oedemera nobilis and the Conopid fly Sicus ferrugineus.

Brassica Bug

Common Field Grasshopper

Malachite Beetle

Cryptocephalus and Oedemera nobilis

Sicus ferrugineus

Cinnamon Bug

Yesterday there was a Small Dusty Wave moth in the kitchen.

A bug and a slug!

A frustrating attempt to photograph a Red Admiral butterfly in Station Road this morning ended in failure as it did not settle long enough for me to snap it. Still, it's good to know this species seems to be quite common at the moment. Along the wall at the station there was a bug called Issus coleoptratus which looks like a boring little thing but it is apparently the only insect that has gears on its legs!  Nearby was a massive slug which has been identified as a probable Irish Yellow Slug.

Issus coleoptratus

Irish Yellow Slug

Just before getting to my flat this evening I noticed a tiny creature crawling around some bindweed in a Richmond Road front garden - I think it's the larva of a 14-spot Ladybird!

Probable 14-spot Ladybird larva

False Widow!

This evening I was greeted by a beautifully-marked False Widow Spider Steatoda grossa in the kitchen. These spiders tend to keep themselves to themselves and it's unusual to see them too far away from their web which in this case I suspect is behind the kitchen sink. What annoyed me was that it hadn't done the washing-up.