It&#39;s been a while....

But I visited Mayesbrook Park today, and had a pleasant walk around for three hours until midday. My first sighting was quite interesting, immediately opposite Lodge Avenue is a line of short trees/bushes with in the park. Many had these silken cocoons, some full of caterpillars the others tiny black eggs.

This was just a small section of the number of bushes with silken cocoons

Well after a bit of googling I think I have identified them as Spindle Ermine Yponomeuta cagnagella a small and quite elegant looking black and white moth.

There must have been thousands of these moth caterpillars and their eggs!

It is fairly common throughout Britain except in the far north, occupying chalk or limestone districts.

The foodplant, as the vernacular name suggests, is spindle (Euonymus europaeus), the larvae feeding gregariously in a silken web. Occasionally entire bushes or sections of hedgerows are taken over by the larvae and their web, causing defoliation. And I'm pretty sure the line of bushes are Common Spindle Euonymus europaeus which ties it all together nicely.

Anyway yippee I added two new bird species to my year list for the site Swift and Reed Warbler which takes me to 68 species. I was pleased with the Reed Warbler as one pair bred last year possibly for the first time ever. Today I had not one but three singing males, looks promising!

Very few butterflies about I recorded just 2 Speckled Wood, 4 Holly Blue and a few each of Large & Small Whites

Speckled Wood

Odanata were non existent, perhaps it's still a little earlier. There were a few hoverflies about. With a number of plants now in bloom, the pollinators were busy.

this smelt of mint, a bed of Cat Mint?

First species found was a fly Empis tessellata. This large, drab green-brown bristly fly with brown-tinged wings is distinguished from the very similar Empis opaca by its black thighs (E. Opaca has red thighs). It frequents hedges, woodland edges, gardens and shrubby habitats. Particularly common on Hogweed and other umbellifer flowers. Common and widespread between April to August, though it feeds on nectar it is also a predator and catches other insects using its long pointed proboscis to pierce their bodies. Males of E. opaca and E. tessellata present a 'gift' to the female, in the form of a dead insect, before mating takes place. Females will not mate with males who do not present a gift.

Empis tessellata Fabricius

This large, drab green-brown bristly fly with brown-tinged wings is distinguished from the very similar Empis opaca by its black thighs (E. Opaca has red thighs). It frequents hedges, woodland edges, gardens and shrubby habitats. Particularly common on Hogweed and other umbellifer flowers. Seen between April-August. Though it feeds on nectar it is also a predator and catches other insects using its long pointed proboscis to pierce their bodies. Males of E. opaca and E. tessellata present a 'gift' to the female, in the form of a dead insect, before mating takes place. Females will not mate with males who do not present a gift. Common and widespread in Britain.

A few hoverflies were out doing their thin, names to follow hopefully