Still trying to catch-up with the 30 Days, Day 21 and I am just writing Day 20! Day 20 was quiet a day, before I got to the reserve I got a call to say that two cars had left the road and were in the water, as the call came from South West Water it could only be Ibsley Water! Considering the distance from the road and the trees etc in the way I had visions of vehicles leaving the road at very high speed, so expected to find lots of emergency services and general mayhem. In fact I arrived to nothing of the sort, indeed to nothing going on at all. It turned out to be the major incident that never was. The two cars had left the road but not into a lake anywhere at Blashford, but a stream on the edge of Ringwood. Somehow, by the repetition of errors and misunderstandings it had got amplified to a different location and a whole different scale of incident.
After this the rest of the day was quiet, I checked the moth trap and trimmed some paths, the recent rain has sped up growth tremendously and I will have to get out again next week.
The moth trap included some notable species, best of all was a lunar yellow underwing, a very local species in the UK with the main population in the Suffolk Sandlings. Locally there is a population on Porton Down and a small one at Blashford Lakes, where I see one or two in most years.
lunar yellow underwing
There was also an Evergestis limbata a Pyralid moth that was first discovered in the UK in 1994 on the Isle of Wight. I have seen it a number of times at Blashford, perhaps because the larvae feed on garlic mustard, which is very common on the reserve.
Evergestis limbata
Much more common, but very attractive were two small angle shades.
small angle shades
Later in the afternoon I made a quick visit to the sweep meadow where Tracy had seen several bee wolf the other day and I was not disappointed. This wasp hunts honey-bees to provision its nests. This one is a male, they do not enter the nest tunnels dug into the sand, but wait near them to see if they can find a female to mate with.
bee wolf (male)
I will see if I can do Day 21 and 22 tomorrow and so catch up, just a week to go and another 30 Days will have flown by. Not that I restrict myself to only doing wildlife related things to the month of June, just in case you were wondering!
Blashford Lakes Nature Reserve 