Blog News & Important things

I have decided to take another route with Blog and concentrate my efforts on a website which will include;

# Local area & patch reviews
# Photographs
# A blog / diary
# Recording database of bugs & birds
# Anything else that I can think of.

Anyone who has kindly linked to this blog will be informed of the new URL when the site is up and running (oooh, a week or two)...

Bye de bye,
The Cardinal.

Oh I got out to Stithy.

At last, I finally made it out into a world beyond the front door and was surprised to find not much had changed since I last peeped out (I expected cars to be hovering by now).

The day was spent down at Stithians Reservoir where a pair of Hillbilly Grebes, a troupe of Canadian Geese, some mallards and a chiffchaff in the guise of a Chaffinch, were all visible to the judicious birder. A Buzzard was busy visiting its nest and some small watery birds flew off before I could identify them. A solitary swallow dive-bombed flies from the waters surface and I’m so (so so) sure I saw a Hawfinch… I can but dream (he was carrying a bottle of Sake). L. Grebes could be found on the ‘marshy’ bit over the road, but I didn’t stay too long in order to discover any other meaningless highlights.

Not as many lizards around this time, much to my partner’s displeasure. Plenty of Slender Groundhoppers pottering around & Leaf Beetles (the anomalous Gastrophysa viridula beasties) dangled on various grasses getting down & dirty with the opposite sex (bit early, but when the sun comes out the mood does take over…).

The other inane highlights included: A rather large Bumble Bee trying to fly up my arm, finding the biggest Earth Worm I have seen this year and discovering a small red beetle which I can’t identify.

And whilst I remember, there may have been a Willow Warbler, but I didn’t take much notice thinking he was the Chiff I spotted only moments before… a mystery.

Been busy

Been busy, oh so busy, be back start of next week....

Krites Vs The Cardinal

I have not had much time over the past few days to go out, although a brief stop at Stithians reservoir did produce the Hillbilly Grebe (that the birders at Falmouth Birding always see) and more Lizards than I care to shake any variety of stick at.

I will be out more next week, just for one hour jaunts up and down the local patches to see what has decided to retire from the winter slumber and munch on some fresh greenery. And next week also includes my long awaited ‘beetle trapping’ sessions, so who knows what surprises I may encounter when emptying the traps (most probably just some dreary wolf spiders and a slightly miffed slug).

Then we have the ‘surprise Pupae’ jars, which contain mysterious Pupae connected to even more mystical flying beasts that I have yet to identify in the Pupae state (again, probably just a blue bottle…).

The moment it hatches, I shall photograph and release it unto the world (and let you know just what it is currently transforming inside the plastic container). The whole process should take 10 days, probably less as the current detainee may have been in the Pupa stage for some time already.

Actually, it may even be some beetle pupa…

Or… I may even wake up one morning to find the container ripped to shreds and an interstellar bounty hunter called Ug wanting to know where the Krite is…

Orange beetles and Peacocks

Ah, the blog hasn’t been updated in something resembling a week! What has happened to me I hear you cry? Well, I have been out and about, but it seems that any interesting birdy sightings have fallen thin on the ground. As the sunshine pulls me away from the computer and into pastures new, my binoculars stay tucked away in my trousers and the camera comes out to photograph what insect life is foraging around in the undergrowth.

Butterflies are now making more of an appearance and today I was presented with a couple of young Speckled Woods. Yesterday I managed to photograph a Peacock (see below); the only reason I managed to photograph this one is probably due to the knackered appearance of his wings (assuming he’s getting on a bit in butterfly years/had a rough life)…

The other ‘ooh la la’ moment was finding an Orange Ladybird (Halyzia 16-guttata). The numbers of these beetles has been climbing steadily all over Britain and it’s the first I have found in Cornwall (although, not that this fact means anything as they have been here since before I can remember anything worth remembering… )

I can hear a Chiffchaff…