Margarets Meadow [January 2023]


 

Margaret's Meadow

29th January 2023

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

On my walk ... the polypody fern

Image
  Polypody ferns [Polypdium vulgare] are not uncommon, they can be found on tree branches, walls and rocks, house roofs and also on bare earth on shady banks, often by water. They are much smaller than most other common ferns and their leaves are narrow and without 'sub-fronds' on its fronds; does that make sense? This specimen was growing on concrete on a path through the Byes. Their favoured habitat is certainly growing on oak trees in deciduous woodland and that is probably the easiest place to find them as long as you remember to look upwards occasionally. In Dorset I found them in many woodlands I would expect to find them here when I go looking at our local woods around the Sid Valley. There are three variations of polypody, the common, the Southern and the intermediate (or, in some books, the Western). Separating them is difficult unless you are an expert but Southern and intermediate prefer calcareous (chalk and lime) substrates and so are less likely to be found aroun...
Read more

On my walk ... the marmalade hoverfly

Image
  Distinguishing between some species of hoverfly can be a real challenge, some species can only be told apart by examination under a microscope but that means capturing and killing a specimen and I am not about to do that. Mine is a hobby project not a scientific study. Some species, however, are distinctive enough to be identified even from a distance and this one [ Episyrphus balteatus]  being only 10mm or so in length is one of those more easily identified specimens. It is a slender insect with a quite distinctive shaped abdomen and has a unique pattern of markings on its back. Usually orange and with three alternate pairs of thick and narrow black bars it has earned the nickname of the marmalade hoverfly but you probably will not find it referred to as that in reference books. This particular insect caught my eye as it has three grey bands and I wondered if it was something other than 'balteatus' but upon reference to my 'bible' on hoverflies I find the markings ca...
Read more