We over-wintered some pupae, mostly of emperor moth, but also a couple of others. I confess I did not know for sure what they were. One looked like a hawk moth and it turned out that it was a female lime hawk moth, as it emerged yesterday morning.
lime hawk moth female
The moth trap was very quite, with only five moths, but these included a freshly emerged male lime hawk moth and a very brightly coloured one.
lime hawk moth male
Although there were not many moths in the trap I did find a very beautiful, tiny moth running about on vegetation beside the Centre pond, remarkably I managed to get one, more or less in focus shot of it, although I have yet to be happy I have identified it.
micro-moth
Out on the reserve there has been a lot going on recently. The volunteers have been hard at work building a whole new fleet of tern rafts thanks to funding from the Hampshire Ornithological Society (HOS). By the end of Thursday we had eight rafts in two sets and I am pleased to say that we already have ten pairs settling on them with others about. So far I have had no chance to get a picture of them, but I will try again over the weekend.
Although Blashford’s tern colony is one of the smallest in the county, it is consistently the most productive, with each pair regularly fledging more than two chicks each year. Over the last ten years we have produced about 450 chicks to flying stage, since our colony is still only about 25 pairs, so most of these must now off nesting elsewhere, probably topping up struggling coastal colonies.
Other news is that the next stage of work on the former Hanson concrete block works has started, eventually this area will be absorbed into the reserve allowing direct access from the main car park to the Goosander and Lapwing hides without crossing the road or significantly doubling back on yourself. We hope to have the access open by the autumn.
I am still trying to identify be many bees that can be seen around the reserve using the excellent new guide, some are difficult though. One thing that looking at a different group of creatures does, is open your eyes to just how many there are, once you start looking there are bees of lots of different types all over the place! Below is a picture of a very small one I came across yesterday, still not sure if I will be able to identify it though.
small bee sp.
Blashford Lakes Nature Reserve 
I really appreciate your insect photos and information. Great for Earth science exam revision avoidance, too!! I have either never seen or never noticed the small bee sp, so will watch out for it, and eagerly await your identification – or maybe you have discovered a species new to science!