Tuesday, 2 Dec 2025
After the very wet weather of the past few days, the ground on the Downs is saturated and there are puddles of water on many of the paths, something not seen too often during the summer. I had decided to retire my trainers and break out my sturdy hiking boots, which given the squelchy underfoot […]
Wednesday, 3 Dec 2025
Another search today for overwintering insects and yet more Birch Catkin Bugs (Kleidocerys resedae) found. It would seem that a favourite place for them to congregate is on the terminal leaf buds of Sycamore (Acer pseudoplatanus) trees as this is where I found them on at least a dozen different sycamores, having first discovered them […]
Friday, 5 Dec 2025
It was a shorter walk than usual today as I wanted to get back to a spot where I had taken a photo 2 days ago to get better images of the subject of the photo, but more of that later. Along the way I discovered a Seven-spot Ladybird (Coccinella septempunctata) that looked as if […]
Saturday, 6 Dec 2025
Leaf litter and dead branches and twigs seem to be the place to find things now. So, I found a fallen tree with a large piece of loose bark and gently prised it off wondering what I might find (I did put the bark back afterwards as carefully as possible). There was an immediate frenzied […]
Wednesday, 10 Dec 2025
Damper and damper, even the leaf litter in the woodland is now distinctly soggy. I was only just onto the Downs today when I made my first discovery. Searching the underside of ivy leaves for anything of interest I found the pupa of a hoverfly (Syrphidae sp.) in plain sight on the upper surface of […]
Thursday, 11 Dec 2025
Lovely sunshine but a windy day. Both a Kestrel and a Buzzard were cruising over the main grassland area, the latter being harried occasionally by a pair of crows. An interesting find was a cluster of pupal cocoons, probably of an ermine moth (family Yponomeutidae), on the underside of a large holly leaf. Unusual, as […]
Saturday, 13 Dec 2025
Lovely sunshine again, but much colder this morning. The temperature firmly in wintry single digit territory. I tried peeling back a piece of bark on a dead birch tree and was rewarded with mixed age group of variably coloured Common Rough Woodlouse (Porcellio scaber) and my first ever sighting on the downs of a Common […]
Monday, 15 Dec 2025
I’m sure they have been around for a while already, but I saw my first small group of Redwing (Turdus iliacus) this morning. Similar to the Song Thrush, it has a wash of orange-red on the flanks that gives it its name. It is a winter visitor from the colder northern parts of Scandinavia, as […]
Tuesday, 16 Dec 2025
A struggle to find anything new today. After locating some Common Striped Woodlouse (Philoscia muscorum) on a rotting branch, a fallen birch trunk did turn up a new fungus, which I believe is Wrinkled Crust (Phlebia radiata). Crawling over this fungus was an insect tentatively identified as a spider beetle (Family: Ptinidae), possibly a Gibbium sp. […]
Friday, 19 Dec 2025
In the past week I have come across many small groups of Birch Catkin Bugs (Kleidocerys resedae) huddled together overwintering on either large leaf buds of sycamore or on holly and ivy. They seem more numerous on the latter two, as these evergreen plants must provide more protection for them. I know of only […]
Saturday, 20 Dec 2025
A heavy dew, a patchy light ground frost and some early short-lived mist made for a very damp start to the day on the Downs. Dewdrops dripped from everything …….. hawthorn, holly and even the fungus on rotting logs. With that amount of dew around I decided to spend some time looking under […]
Tuesday, 30 Dec 2025
As I started my walk this morning heading towards Sutton Lane, up the track parallel to Downs Road, I was surprised by a Roe Deer doe and fawn dashing across the track no more than 20 m ahead of me. Gone in a flash, so no opportunity for a photo. Could this be the same […]
Wednesday, 31 Dec 2025
A review of my 2025 posts on Banstead Downs First the numbers. This year I have photographed and recorded in my posts a total of 340 different species of insects, arachnids and springtails, with a further 16 species of birds and mammals for a total of 356 animal species. Plant species totalled 156. Add to […]