This week’s local walk had another purpose: I checked out all the patches of Ivy to look for Ivy Bees, which appear from September onwards, just as the Ivy comes into flower. The Ivy Bee was first recorded in England in 2001 and has now spread across much of Southern England and Wales. It has been recorded at other local sites, but there are no records from the area around the Tarn, so I am making an effort this year to check all patches of Ivy around the local walk when I can over the next two months to try and fill out the record.
I found two patches of Ivy with Bees present and spent quite a while trying to photograph them but they were so active they wouldn’t stay still long enough to be photographed.
Elsewhere there was a drake Teal on the Tarn. I wonder if this is the same one as spent last winter here as like that one, this one associates with Mallards.
There were two Common Darters present, both were males, and a Migrant Hawker. Near the bridge where I first recorded them a couple of weeks ago, I found a mating pair of Willow Emerald damselflies. There were a lot of Spider webs, the ones I identified were Crowned Orb Weavers, also known as the Cross Spider or the Garden Spider.
Pete's Favourite Things 