Gone.

The male Brambling that arrived here on 5th February, joining a female present at the time, has finally left, last seen on 11th May. The female long-since left. Hopefully the male is winging its way northwards but the male Sparrowhawk that has been hunting the feeders recently might have gotten itself a rather colourful meal.

Brambling male.

Otherwise the feeders produced the first warbler of the year, a Blackcap and a Tree Sparrow was present for an hour or two.

Tree Sparrow right, House Sparrow, left.

Blackcap, male.

Arctic Terns are now present on Bosquoy and sometimes on The Shunan, Greenshank, Common Sandpipter, Ringed Plover and  Dunlin have been recorded for the year and 11 Blackwits briefly graced The Shunan. Most extraordinary though was the first patch record of Turnstone when a small flock of four flew through Bosquoy, probably flushed from the wadery bit by a Bonxie. Two days ago the first singing Willow Warbler, just on the very extremity of the patch and four Sedge Warblers on territory.

Sedge Warbler.

There was a brief hirundine flurry, with plenty of birds on Bosquoy and Louise heard a Cuckoo up, behind the house, I dipped (but got it today). Swallows are now regular around the house and looking to settle in to their regular site. Finally, skua visitations; twice for Bonxie and twice for Arctic Skua, the Arctics were a dark and pale phase and then two dark phases.

The moth traps have been out a couple or three times, with last night being a tad disappointing, however, second site records for two species on the two previous outings made up for that.

The Herald, only second garden record.

Puss Moth, also only second site record.

Both these moths were found outside the trap, The Herald on the house wall and the Puss Moth on the grass by the trap, the previous Puss Moth was also found outside the trap, beside it.

Beetles have also been interesting with records for Pelophila borealis from Bosquoy, Harray and Wasdale (which is a new site I think).

Pelophila borealis.

Searching the loch shore I also managed to capture an interesting and large (5.8mm) Bembidion. After a bit of a struggle with Duff this came out as Bembidion tibiale, which might be NFM (I must check my old copy of Lindroth to see if it has a tick).

Bembidion tibiale.

Other new beetles have been a couple of Lesteva.

Lesteva sicula, left and Lesteva montana, right.

Both of these required a bit of measuring as the ratio of pronotal length vs elytral length is part of the key and L. montana is tricky from the similar and more common Lesteva longoelytra which I've recorded a few times; L. montana has proportionally shorter elytra.

The main identification battles have been with Hymenoptera. I do sometimes consider my sanity in relation to attempting to identify these things. The putative Euura vaga from the last post was sent off to the county recorder, who did some better business with the penis valve and having pondered suggested further consultation. Further consultation led to further uncertainty and the idea that this genus was not fully sorted re identification and taxonomy. So a full stop with that one at the moment. The other sawfly (Symphyta) I was working on came back as a Tenthredo, I hadn't managed to key it to there even. When I then had a punt with Lacourt I just ran into dead ends. However, a new key has been supplied, a new attempt will begin shortly.

A well known entomologist has likened attempting the Aleocharines of Staphylinid beetles to ascending Everest and his progress being somewhere in the foothills. Hymenoptera seem to be of a similar difficulty, at the moment I'm still at Kathmandu airport.

So, an Ichneumon was in a grass clump. Help from Facebook got me to Lissonota sp (thank you ADK), a male, with a rider that these are a tad tricky. Anyway, I've purchased the key so hopefully....

A bit more success with an Ophion, at least I knew which genus it was! I thought it was O. obscuratus s.l. but I was advised it was more likely to be O. variegatus at this time of year (thanks AG). I dug around and found a key, a recent one, available on the web (link in the side panel). And running the beasts through the key seemed to confirm that ID. However, I was then advised that UK specimens might not key in the same way as Swedish ones... However, everything seems to point to Ophion variegatus so I'm going to be happy with that. This is a genus that often turn up in light traps so the new key should be handy.

Ophion variegatus.

This record does throw some doubt on previous records of O. obscuratus s.l. at this time of year, despite expert verification. Ophion variegatus is new for the county.

I found some interesting Ichneumons, small ones in the pheromone traps. I wondered if they had been drawn to parasitising the micro moth target species of these pheromones, but they all turned out to be males. Anyway help got me to family Campopleginae, and guidance to a new key (thanks BH). A few goes with the key, at least six, has got me to Diadegma sp. (And after I found, what I think is, a female of the same species in the traps yesterday, a bit more certainty). Interestingly this genus parasitises moths. This is the point at which to give up though, a bit of a shame as these are clearly quite common, but I have no way to proceed as the literature suggests the 1969 key is dodgy at best.. The new Campopleginae key is rather wonderful, though, an online key that eliminates genera as you go along. If you use it I recommend hitting the "Submit" green button after you make a decision at each stage. 

T1 showing some difficult to discern features. Interpreting them is tricky.

The female. (Wing venation, particularly of the hind wing is difficult to interpret.)

Diadegma sp, I think.

Lastly a bit of video. I've finally got a new video editor, not as intrusive as the last one, a free which is always a bonus.

Best to play through YouTube, otherwise it seems to sit there doing nothing. (The time on the camera is incorrect by the way.)

I put the camera by our barrel pond for 24 hours and recorded ten species of bird visiting. Commonest were House Sparrow, then Starling, followed by Robin, Wren, Blackbird, Song Thrush and there was one visit each for Wood Pigeon, Dunnock, Greenfinch and Lesser Redpoll. It was fascinating seeing the relationships between the species and each species different behaviour when drinking or bathing, and other behaviour that took place around the water.