White Throated Needletail

No, one of these hasn't been around Belgrave on any given lunchtime this week but I was nosing through the latest British Birds Rarities Committee 'work in progress' this morning and saw the following entry -

18th August 2009 15 White-throated Needletail, Essex, Saffron Walden

15!!! Get out of here.....

The report makes good reading though and you can view it here

Grey Wagtail

A rather pleasant sight near the Thurcastion Road bridge this afternoon. Their name just doesn't do them justice.......

Lunchtime Shield Bugs

Another couple for the pot earlier today. Green Shieldbug Palomena prasina and Hawthorn Shieldbug Acanthosoma haemaroidale were both noted at lunchtime.

Bright Line Brown Eye

A solitary larva of the above has devastated Jed's tomato plants! It has managed to munch through the Cherry, Plum and Beef Toms that we had lovingly nurtured.....We already had a good crop thankfully. The good lady wife managed to pot it for me to ID. And all this in the same day that she also spotted what appeared to be an Elephant Hawk Moth larva.

Pentatoma rufipes

I can't believe I haven't posted anything on here for so long.....Mainly because I haven't been doing very much other than working and being a dad. Both time consuming and the money earned from the first activity is usually cancelled out by the latter. No moth trapping at all since heaven knows when but a new non-moth species for me the other day (but I don't know how as they are very common) was Pentatoma rufipes or Forest Bug which made it's home on my offside wing mirror. Quite a smart Shield Bug and a welcome change from the ubiquitous Hawthorn Shield. For an excellent online guide to some of the commoner Shield Bugs then click here

Dorcus parallelopipedus

Following on from my earlier post regarding beetles, I found a female Lesser Stag Beetle in the downstairs shower room last night. Quite impressive it was as well. It's easy this beetling lark......

Beetles

I have always been fascinated by these insects, particularly Ground Beetles, but the lack of practical knowledge coupled with the lack of affordable and available up to date literature has always put me off a bit. However I stumbled across the website of The Watford Coleoptera Group t'other day and had a very helpful and encouraging e mail from one of their group Dave Hodges, which has made me want to do something about it. It's a great site and well worth a visit.