The only dragonfly seen today was a male Keeled Skimmer. Tree Bumblebees were the best of 6 species of bees seen. Other insects were the norm except for Tachinid flies, where I recorded Tachina grossa, Tachina fera and Eriothrix rufomaculata. 9 species of butterflies were headed by 13 Ringlet, there was also 4 Silver Y migrant moths.
Both pairs of breeding Stonechat have 3 well grown juveniles. The Swifts have taken flight today with 22 juveniles which equates to 8 pairs, the lower end of the normal counts [8-15 pairs]. The adults kept away from the screaming juvenile pack, they'll all be gone for another year in a day or two, but I think there are at least other 3 pairs acting as if their juvs have not fledged yet. [25th July update - another 10 Juvs have fledged, meaning 32 juvs from 12 pairs which is a slightly better than average year].Three House Martin nests have been located and active [+1 from last year], but no flying juvs yet.
3 comments:
had a couple of rupium up garnwen on sat too mart lots of eristalis i did look for E.syrphoides but no joy i might try again this weekend my hover counting been poor this year due to working every sat and hot weather :(
I've had rupium there too, as well as Top Llan, whose Hogweed and Ragwort are in full bloom at the moment. The lane to My. Ty-Talwyn is best in the afternoon when the sun gets directly on to it. My hoverfly numbers are down 60% from this time last year because of the weather. Hope they can recover quickly when the weather breaks.
Fingers crossed
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