Saturday, 1 Nov 2025
A lovely morning for a walk and I thought that’s all it might be until I turned over a bramble leaf and found two insects and a spider within inches of each over. They were a Harlequin Ladybird (Harmonia axyridis), two adult Birch Catkin Bug (Kleidocerys resedae) and a well-camouflaged female Green Crab Spider (Diaea […]
Wednesday, 5 Nov 2025
Having seen my first Birch Catkin Bug (Kleidocerys resedae) of the year just 4 days ago I came across a cluster (what is the collective noun for a group of Birch Catkin Bugs?) of them this morning, again on a bramble. Found on leaf litter was a female wolf spider (family Lycosidae), possibly the species […]
Saturday, 8 Nov 2025
Another close encounter of the Goldcrest kind – yet again the wrong camera lens with me! The Downs are looking really colourful now before the trees shed their leaves fully. Everything was dripping wet today after late evening rain yesterday and an early mist this morning. Even the Common Wasps have now disappeared […]
Sunday, 9 Nov 2025
A glorious sunny morning with heavy dew on the grass. Unlike yesterday no insects on the wing, with not even a fly to be seen today. I did though locate a single adult of the UK’s biggest shield bug, the Hawthorn Shield Bug (Acanthosoma haemorrhoidale), sitting on a holly leaf. It is the […]
Wednesday, 12 Nov 2025
I mentioned unseasonal warm spells in my last post and that is exactly what we had today. Glorious sunshine and a maximum temperature of around 16°C. This brought out huge numbers of Common Wasp again, swarming all over any ivy that still had flowers. Speaking of flowers, surprisingly there are still a few Common Rock […]
Friday, 21 Nov 2025
Over a week since my last visit and what a change! The unseasonal warm weather is a thing of the past. We’ve had rain, strong winds, snow flurries and frost. The wind is now from the north-east and it is definitely more wintry than autumnal. There are still fungi to be found and […]
Tuesday, 25 Nov 2025
It may be cold and underfoot conditions are getting somewhat soggy, but there is still much to be seen on the Downs. First find of the day on an almost completely defoliated oak sapling (the few remaining leaves confirmed the ID) were Oak Marble Galls. I missed out on seeing any of this type of […]
Thursday, 27 Nov 2025
First seen on 21st October I came across more Himalayan Cotoneaster (Cotoneaster simonsii) this morning. A quick glance at the red ‘berries’ as you walk past and you might simply dismiss them as ‘rosehips’. Stop and look carefully, though, and you will realise that the fruits are smaller than their Rosa counterparts, the leaves although […]
Friday, 28 Nov 2025
A different route to yesterday, but some of the images I took were of things I saw yesterday. First was yet more overwintering Birch Catkin Bugs, this time clustered on sycamore leaf buds. More flower buds too on a Holly (Ilex aquifolium) bush. What was unusual was the presence of a pollen-bearing male […]