Warm, mostly sunny, but a very strong wind. So, I wasn’t expecting too many butterflies on the wing. Total numbers were down on two days ago, and Brimstone still dominates, with the rest almost all Holly Blue (Celastrina argiolus), but for single Green-veined White (Pieris napi), Small Heath (Coenonympha pamphilus) and Grizzled Skipper (no photo unfortunately). The last two were my first confirmed sightings of the season for these.

It turned out to be a good day for moth caterpillars. Four caterpillars were found in good numbers on deciduous tree leaves. Mottled Umber (Erannis defoliaria) can be easily found and was noted on Oak, Common Lime, Sycamore and Common Whitebeam. Spring Usher (Agriopis leucophaearia) was located on Oak and Common Whitebeam, while Spring Harbinger (Tortricodes alternella) was seen on Oak and Northern Winter Moth (Operophtera fagata) on Sycamore.

Another moth larva found was that of the Cloaked Case-bearer (Coleophora kuehnella). This caterpillar builds a very elaborate larval case in which it lives, pistol-shaped and covered in a semi-transparent ‘cloak’ of scale-like segments. It was busy munching away at an Oak leaf from inside its case as I took the posted image.

I wasn’t the only one finding moth caterpillars. I encountered a Robin (Erithacus rubecula) with a beak full of caterpillars, no doubt on the way back to the nest to feed some youngsters. It was a rare chance to be able to shoot a bird image with the zoom at maximum of only 135mm.

I located only my second Gorse Shieldbug (Piezodorus lituratus) on Common Whitebeam (Aria edulis) flower buds and on the same tree a Hypericum Rhopalid (Rhopalus subrufus) on a leaf.

Cream-spot Ladybird (Calvia quatuordecimguttata) was seen on a Sycamore, where my other find was leaf galls of the Maple Midge (Contarinia acerplicans). These galls show as red blisters on the upper leaf surface above a pocket-like deformation of the leaf when seen from beneath.

A good day for flies too with the first Common Tachinid (Tachina fera) sighting of the year, a female Sun Fly (a.k.a. The Footballer) (Helophilus pendulus), a male Yellow Dung Fly (Scathophaga stercoraria) and a mating pair of St. Mark’s Fly (Bibio marci). What was unusual about the mating flies was that they were wrapped around the edge of a leaf, with male and female on opposite sides of the leaf. 

A Wayfaring Tree (Viburnum lantana) had several leaves with numerous galls caused by the Viburnum Gall Mite (Eriophyes viburni). These manifest as hairy pouch galls on the upper leaf surface, initially green, but turning red and eventually brown, while on the underside of the leaf each has a whitish hairy opening.

Both Ash (Fraxinus excelsior) and Whitebeam (Aria edulis) are now starting to show good leaf development. These are two of the trees whose flowers develop before the leaves.

Latest wildflower to show flower buds is Wild Mignonette (Reseda lutea).

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