Today I had a day off from work, which is always good.
My partner had a day off as well, which is even better!
And with the weather still reasonable (dry, not too hot, not too cold) we immediately decided to make the most it and head outside to explore the great outdoors. Todays location was a place called Tunman Wood, it is (another) small nature reserve, and as it is just 30 minutes down the road to get to, its ideal for an early morning wander.
Here is an example of the habitat. It is a small patch of woodland with various areas of scrub and hedges...
...and with Summer in full swing, everything looks lush and green and in amongst the vegetation if you look closely you will all sorts of insects and other invertebrates resting on the leaves.
Oh, there we go... its only been a few minutes after we started looking and we've already found a moth. This is either a Spruce Carpet or a Pine Carpet, and to be honest my money is on Pine Carpet
Next up in the undergrowth I spy... a Scorpion Fly (Panorpa species). The name 'scorpion' and those bright colours might make them look aggressive, but I can assure you they are harmless, and in fact mostly scavenge on dead insects (source)
Going further into the wood, the path becomes smaller and more claustrophobic
There is still plenty to see amongst the vegetation such as this Damselfly, but the next wildlife sighting was unexpected...
While taking the shot of the Damselfly, I happened to look up, and bizarely I spotted a Hare walking away from me down the path. Where on earth had he come from? Hares are usually found in wide-open spaces such as fields on farmland.
He then turned and starting to walk towards me. I don't think he noticed me at first, but he certainly seemed 'on edge' and worried about something
At this point I am stood inside the wood, but I am fairly sure that we were near the edge of it at this point, and another 10 metres away on the left hand side is a field of crops (possibly oil seed rape?) so perhaps he as been spooked out there and chosen to try to hide amongst the trees...?
Who knows.
After this shot he turned tail and ran down the path and out of sight. The best thing about exploring local places like this is that often you have no idea what you will see.
Anyway, I turned my attention back to the Undergrowth, and spotted this 7-spot Ladybird
And then a Tree Bumble Bee (Bombus hypnorum) feeding on on some flowers
As we carried on round the Nature reserve, the path started to widen again
There was a lot of this plant thoughout the woodland, this is Hedge Woundwort (Stachys sylvatica). It apparently has a strong and unpleasant smell, but I didn't notice lol. The little purple flowers looked pretty and made a nice picture, and thats all I cared about!
Another Moth!
I was getting worried about the lack of them here! This is a type of tortrix moth - Celypha lacunana
Another cool find was this Golden-bloomed Grey Longhorn Beetle - Agapanthia villosoviridescens
And right at the end I found 2 different species of Bumble Bee. I still haven't worked out what species these are yet... I did ask them to tell me their names and they were apparently to busy working to answer me...
Rude!
Oh well. That rounds of a very pleasant stroll in the countryside, there was plenty to see and the unexpected Hare was a real bonus.
All names confirmed and checked via Wikispieces
Moth IDs via UK Moths
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