A walk round the pond - Week 17

I have been to the pond each week but I didn't post an update for the past three weeks as there wasn't much to report. We have had weeks of cold easterly winds and although last weekend was warm and sunny we are now back to cool easterly weather.  Plants and insects may have been held back but the birds are getting on with things.  When I arrived yesterday this was what I saw.

There are eight chicks, the same number as last year, although they have hatched a few days earlier than last year.

This one is already marked out as an adventurer and was exploring the bank on its own

while the others kept close to mum.

A coot has made a nest in the reeds and is sitting on eggs.

I did my April bumblebee walk for the BBCT and saw five bumblebees, four common carder queens (Bombus pascuorum)

and one forest cuckoo bumblebee (Bombus sylvestris).  You can see she has hairy hind legs (so no pollen basket like a true bumblebee) and a pure white tail making species identification easier (I find the cuckoos a bit more of a challenge). This one is a social parasite of the early bumblebee (Bombus pratorum).

For just a moment I thought I had also found a worker tree bumblebee but on closer inspection it was a female hoverfly (Volucella bombylans var. plumata) which is a bumblebee mimic.  She will lay her eggs in the nests of social wasps or bumblebees where the larvae scavenge on the debris.

I could hear chiffchaff, willow warbler, curlew, buzzard,

yellowhammer,

and blackcap.

At one point a squadron of curlews flew overhead.

Butterflies this week included speckled wood, orange tip, comma, peacock,

and small white.

Last year week 18 saw the emergence of the first large red damselflies so I am keeping my fingers crossed for next week, especially if the weather warms up a bit.