Late August 2021
Having been thinking of places to go for walks, we decided to try the Beowulf and Grendel trail at West Stow Country Park. This wasn't quite as well signposted at various points as most trails are, but was enjoyable and I do like a good dragon.
The lush vegetation alongside the river was particularly productive for insects, with one section in particular hosting Net-winged Beetle (Platycis minutus), Tree Damselbug, Xylota sylvarum and Xylota segnis.
Early July 2021
A very productive walk home via Train Wood led to sightings on an interesting chrysomelid beetle on St John's Wort and I finally managed to find a smut fungus that several other people had been noticing on False Oat Grass recently. A big group of Peacock caterpillars on nettles was nice to see too.
30th May 2021
Buxton Heath is one of our favourite places to go for an afternoon walk, and even a family stroll down the main path along the heathland usually turns up something new. That was certainly the case on this occasion, where we must have seen about 20 Black-banded Spider Wasps, including one returning to a prey spider left motionless on the path. The spider Trachyzelotes pedestris was another new one for me, as was the beetle Onthophagus similis and leaf mines of the Pale Feathered Bright moth (Incurvaria pectinea). Throw in good views of Linnet, Stonechat and Yellowhammer, plus a flyby Cuckoo, and it was an eventful visit.
Late April 2021
Noticing a tiny beetle dead on the windowsill at work, I stuck it under the microscope and identified it as a Biscuit Beetle. I was tempted to joke that it died of hunger because I would never leave any biscuits lying around, but its the larvae that are the voracious eaters so that doesn't really work.
On my way into work recently I had noticed some plants with yellow flowers at various points on my journey. They looked like wall-rocket species, but I hadn't stopped to examine them and find out exactly what they were. It wasn't until a week later when Louis and Chris had posted about seenig Eastern Rocket in Norwich that I suspected that was what these were - a thought confirmed when Chris gave me directions to some plants on Oak street, on my walk into work. The other ones I'd seen near New Mills were also this species, an alien that I'd not recorded before.
Mid-April 2021
Buxton Heath is probably our closest NWT reserve bar Thorpe Marshes, and has the added attraction for family walks of having horses, a favourite of my daughter. This area holds a wide range of insects, such that during spring and summer it would almost be a suprise not to see something new. During our couple of hours we saw six Buzzards kettling above the woods, a couple of Crossbills flying over, a Stonechat and a Meadow Pipit. I saw four new species, two of which are probably things that I have seen but not recorded in the past - Heather Beetle and Juniper Haircap moss. The other two were the larval stage of the Ling Case-bearer moth (Coleophora pyrrhulipennella) and a spider, Zora spinimana.
