Sunday 19 April 2020

Lobb's Wood fauna & flora

Red-tailed Bumblebee, Bombus lapidarius
An enterprising local grower advertised on  nextdoor.co.uk that he would make home deliveries of bedding plants by bicycle so I ordered 20 Nemesia, paying by bank transfer. They arrived just as I got back from my walk on Friday afternoon so yesterday morning I planted them in the empty areas of our balcony tubs. Not everything survives on the balcony as we endure south-westerlies straight off the sea. Plants that do well are geranium, primrose, mimulus & rosemary, we'll see how the Nemesia perform.
  In the afternoon I visited Lobb's Wood to see what flowers and insects I could find. John W's comment on a Facebook post prompted me to investigate the swathe of white flowers and they turned out to be Three-Cornered Leek which I have also found in the recently seeded banks surrounding the green by the flats. I found some native bluebells at one end of the wood, both blue and white forms. Most of the bluebells in Lobb's Wood are the invasive Spanish species so I suspect there are hybrids among these.
  Fauna seen: Buff-tailed & Red-tailed Bumblebees, a Nursery Web Spider, a Yellow Dung Fly, Common Striped Woodlice, a tiny Leaf beetle  & a Footballer Hoverfly. Plus plenty of native and garden flowers.
 All photos were taken with my phone camera (Samsung Galaxy S9+)
Garden Geranium, Pelargonium x hortorum

20 Nemesia plants

Nemesia species

Rosemary, Rosmarinus officinalis
California Lilac, Ceanothus

Forget-me-not, Myosotis species

Green Alkanet, Pentaglottis sempervirens

Red Dead-nettle, Lamium purpureum

Spanish Bluebell, Hyacinthoides hispanica

Yellow Corydalis, Pseudofumaria lutea

Yellow Corydalis on wall
Lobb's Wood:
native Bluebell, Hyacinthoides non-scripta 

native Bluebell

Buff-tailed Bumblebee, Bombus Terrestris

Cherry tree, Prunus species

Common Striped Woodlouse, Philoscia muscorum

Daffodil, Narcissus pseudonarcissus

Dandelion, Taraxacum officinale

Footballer Hoverfly, Helophilus pendulus

Goose Grass, Galium aparine

tiny leaf beetle (2mm)

Nursery Web Spider, Pisaura mirabilis

Red Campion, Silene dioica

Sycamore, Acer pseudoplatanus

Three-Cornered Leek, Allium triquetrum

Tulips, Tulipa species

Umbellifer species

Yellow Dung Fly, Scatophaga stercoraria

Thursday 2 April 2020

Double-striped Pug and daily walks

Double-striped Pug, Gymnoscelis rufifasciata
Last night I had the first moth of the year on our balcony, a Double-striped Pug (Gymnoscelis rufifasciata). The earliest I have recorded this moth is 25 March (2019) and the latest 19 October (2016). Hopefully I'll get more species from now on. Although I saw moths flying in the woods before the lock-down, they only get drawn to the balcony light when there are sufficient numbers on the sea frontage (we are 150 metres from the sea) and it is not too cold and is windless.
 Every morning we watch Chris Packham's daily 9am broadcast from The New Forest on Facebook. This is on his  'Self-Isolating Bird Club' and is co-hosted with his step-daughter Megan. She is becoming a new wildlife broadcasting star - knowledgeable and enthusiastic like Chris. They have great guest appearances from Chris' contacts in the nature world.

I have been posting our daily walks on my Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/colin.knight.16

Here is one photo from each of the days so far:
26 March, Lighthouse
27 March,beach huts
28 March, Littlehampton Wave
29 March, seafront shelter and stage
30 March Lobb's Wood
31 March, Mewsbrook Park
1 April, Oyster Pond