What's happening in late April ?

...and what has happened over the last couple of weeks? Well - lots! It has been one of the nicest Springs that I can remember, and the peculiarly warm weather that we had up until about the 26th helped a lot. The blossom has been lovely, with all manner of trees and flowers showing particularly well.

As it has been so warm and sunny on so many days, I was able to spend quite a bit of time looking just around my garden - which catches the Sun from morning 'till early afternoon, then becomes a bit shady. This has been a rewarding exercise, and an indication of just how much wildlife there is to be seen in a relatively unremarkable garden.  I have found that the leaves of honeysuckle have been particularly good for both attracting and observing insects; they seem to like basking in the sunshine.

Perhaps the most notable find here was the sawfly Zaraea lonicerae which turned out to be a first for Essex. More about that is available here. However, it isn't just the "rare" things that are notable - it is nice just to see the first occurrence of the year of regulars, or have the opportunity to discover species new to me, although they may in fact be quite common.

Melecta albifronsSo: there were numbers of Honey Bees Apis mellifera quite early - certainly 11th April, and other bees such as the Hairy-footed flower bee Anthophora plumipes - particularly the almost-all-black females with a distinctively long tongue - which I started seeing from about 8th April. As well as these, there were also the cuckoo-bee of this species, Melecta albifrons. Of course, earlier still had been the questing bumble-bees Bombus terrestris. The Bee-fly Bombylius major - a furry fly that looks like a bee - also paid a lot of visits to my garden (and elsewhere) during April and I saw more of those this year than I've ever seen before.

Holly BlueSpeckled Wood butterflies were common visitors, again from early April, and I would say that this is now the commonest butterfly to visit the garden. The first blue - a Holly Blue - was seen a few days before 19th April when I was able to get a photograph, and then Peacocks made rapid visits, and both Small and Green-veined Whites were seen from 11th April. A day-flying moth Pyrausta aurata that's quite a regular feature of the garden turned up on the 23rd April.

Pyrausta aurata

Hoverflies were much in evidence, and these included the small but distinctive Baccha elongata, which I'd never seen before and another new one - a tiny species which I believe is Pipizella viduata. Other species were Episyrphus balteatus, the big Myathropa florea, Sphaerophoria scripta, possibly Eupeodes luniger and possibly Melanostoma scalare. You can tell from the possibly's that my skills in identifying these is limited - but I'm unwilling to capture them to do detailed examination. That's true also of the flies that turn up - although a distinctive new one was the Golden Dung-Fly which I believe is Scathophaga stercoraria.

As has been usual over the last couple of years, the first Damsel-fly is the Large Red Pyrrhosoma nymphula, which I saw on the 23rd. Away from the garden, in Wanstead Park, as well as Large Reds also on 23rd were Blue-tailed Damselflies Ischnura elegans and the first Dragonfly - a fast-moving blue species slightly smaller than an Emperor. Standing at the west end of Heronry Pond in the afternoon, teneral damselflies were making their first flights with their silvery-wings glistening in the sunshine.

Misumena vatiaOne of the notable features in Wanstead Park on that day and days either side were the immense numbers of Long-horned Moths flying around Sycamore and Limes. There were also a number of spiders to be seen by the lake-side, and my tentative identifications are Cercidia prominens, Larinioides patagiatus, Pardosa proxima and more certainly Tetragnatha extensa and certainly Misumena vatia. For arachnophobes, it might be worth mentioning that to a small extent - I still am, though this has been tempered by just looking at them.

I'd had a few enquiries via the website about visiting the bluebells in the Park; when the best time is is always a bit difficult to ascertain. This year, they were early into flower and when I looked after a rainstorm on 23rd, they seemed past their best. I have a suspicion that those in Chalet Wood are a victim of their own success, for the paths seem wider, people were standing in them to photograph them, there was a couple laying in them, with two large dogs running wild amongst them. The notices explaining the problems with these sort of activities were in place - I am pleased to say - but perhaps some appropriate delineation of paths from flowers might be in order in future?

Ending on a somewhat negative note itself doesn't seem quite appropriate, so I shall just finish by saying that it has been a lovely Spring. May Day is just a few days hence, so let's hope it is an equally lovely Summer.

Paul Ferris, 28th April 2011