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10/Mar/25 - Week 10 of 52
Week 10! Probably a milestone of some sort, doesn't feel like it though. A pretty quiet week all things considered, but this is the week which first really felt like spring for me. Not ashamed to admit that I did almost cry opening the iNaturalist identify page to butterflies and bumblebee queens and ladybirds all of a sudden, it really did just all appear out of nowhere.
Not much else to say for now, so in honour of the Fortnite Cowboy Bebop skins, I'm bringing back the background music idea. Enjoy!
Notable Observations
Total Observations: 81
Most numerous species: Zebra Jumping Spider (4 observations)
Individual Interesting Observations
Marmalade Hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus)
Saturday (Mar 8th)
Crap pic, but my first hoverfly of the year! A real staple of British entomology, a taxa home to some of the most devoted recorders and citizen scientists I've ever met, and I can see why, they're all so unique for such ubiquitous creatures.
Moth Caterpillar
Saturday (Mar 8th)
First caterpillar of the year too! Quite a few firsts this week.
Shelf Fungus (Order Polyporales)
Saturday (Mar 8th)
Insane textures on the underside of this fallen shroom! A good photo of it is one of two things that I'm planning on getting next time I pass this tree, the second of which will probably end up in next week's blog. Found this one while setting up a trailcam on a neighbouring tree, no success with that though. Trying another location this week 🤞
Roe Deer (Capreolus capreolus)
Sunday (Mar 9th)
Two more deer spotted on the same site as last week's, which I spotted too! Here's one of them, a female, while the other two are male.
Long Tailed Tit (Aegithalos caudatus)
Sunday (Mar 9th)
Beautiful tit. Deep down I think I do love these types of photos.
Robin (Erithacus rubecula)
Sunday (Mar 9st)
I love our fat little Muscicapid robins, this guy is pretty tame having been fed for the best part of a year now.
(ditto!)
Sunday (Mar 9th)
Because why the hell not.
Sunday (Mar 9th)
Brilliantly coloured lichen! This wall is absolutely covered in all sorts of cool licheny, liverworty, mossy textures
Midge larva (Family Ceratopogonidae)
Sunday (Mar 9th)
Woah!! Check out that face, I'm rarely ever bitten by midges so I can absolutely love it. Can't say the same for horseflies unfortunately, though they are equally as beautiful in my eyes when you reallyyyyy look at them
(Kingdom Fungi)
Sunday (Mar 9th)
Hoping I can get this one ID'd!! Absolutely tiny fruiting bodies coming out of a dead willow leaf.
Sphaerulina gei
Sunday (Mar 9th)
Kind of proud of myself for ID-ing this one on my own, rust fungi can be difficult! Keep an eye out for them, they're pretty easily overlooked, and are definitely underrecorded, but they're good fun to hunt for
Breakdown
Goal Progress
All Spp. (189/1000) ▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱
Bird Spp. (48/100) ▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱
Francis Updates
No confirmed sightings since Week 9. Last likely location was out of sight in dense woodland, around 50m from the first sighting. Potential sighting on Saturday morning some distance from the first location (herein 'The Pond'), along the canal system -- Pink-footed Goose swimming alongside a flock of Canada Geese -- though this cannot be fully substantiated. For context, see here.
Hopefully the sun will hold out just a little longer this week, before the rain inevitably takes over again... To see all my observations for this week logged on iNaturalist, click here.
To see all of my observations for the year to date, click here.
What did you see this week? Let me know in the comments!
Comments
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The shelf fungus is so cool! I love all the intricate tiny patterns atop it. Wonderful robin photos!
Erah Mar
An excellent week! I'm happy to see spring taking a good hold in your area, since we're not far off from the Equinox.
With the weather here warming up, my yearly bird visitors have come back to my garden. I have a mated pair that likes to hang around during summer, but I can't put the feeder up yet. Too much risk of bird flu.
picmiz
yayy more deer things! Also what a lovely caterpillar :) i like caterpillars a lot,, especially inchworms. Maybe you'll see some later!