May 30th Fryent CP insect hunt

After a quick look at Brent Reservoir where the only thing of interest was a new Great Spotted Woodpecker nest in Silver Jubilee Park I headed across Church Lane and down Slough Lane to Fryent Country Park for a longer walk to try and track down some insects and see if I could find proof of any new birds breeding. Although it was still early, before eight, the sun was shining in a bright blue sky and it was already warming up. We’ve only had ten seconds of rain in the past three weeks so the hay meadows were already losing their bright green colour and the trees were now in full leaf.

Male Great Spotted Woodpecker near its nest

Wembley's arch is never far away

At the horse paddocks I turned left and headed south along the perimeter path adjacent to the houses where the sun was shining on a hedge full of flowers – the perfect place for insects. The Common Hogweed seemed to attract most of the insects with plenty of hoverflies to examine. I confess to not knowing the names of any of them so I just photograph what I can and look them up later; it can be quite difficult as each species seems to vary a lot. It doesn’t help that many don’t have an English name while those that do often seem to have more than one which confuses the issue!

I think these are both Myathropa florae 

Myathropa florae with unidentified hoverfly, same below

I walked into a sweet-smelling cloud at one point and realised there must be honeysuckle nearby which I quickly located. It’s a bit like walking along a seaside promenade with the smell of fish ’n’ chips wafting across at every step.

Honeysuckle

Next up was my first Degeer’s Longhorn of the year which now seems to be called Yellow-barred Longhorn Moth – why stick to two words when you can use four instead? I often see swarms of these displaying at the Welsh Harp but this is the first time I’ve seen them here. I’m not sure if anyone has compiled a moth list at Fryent CP. And while on Lepidoptera, the only butterflies I managed to see all morning were two Speckled Woods which was odd as there should be lots on the wing right now. Maybe I haven’t found the best spots yet.

Yellow-barred Longhorn Moth

I found some interesting, but unidentified, yellow flowers. I'm pretty good at finding flowers I can't identify! While looking for bumblebees I found what I think is Bumblebee Hoverfly, a fly that mimics a bumblebee to avoid predation.

Yellow flower sp

Bumblebee Hoverfly

On the woodland path I found a couple of broken eggshells, clear evidence something has bred but I’m not sure what, perhaps Robin and Woodpigeon? 

I emerged out of the woodland back into the sunshine and headed north through the open fields and back past the paddocks. Birdsong has died down a lot and only the occasional Blackcap gave a short burst of song although the Common Whitethroats were still giving it a good go. The hedges were full of families of Blue and Great Tits, the youngsters constantly begging for more caterpillars (at least it’s not McDonalds).

Common Whitethroat

I checked all the ponds on the east side for dragonflies but didn’t see a single one, however one was full of tadpoles.

I crossed over Fryent Way and the verge on the west side had two species of blue flowers that I didn’t recognise although the bumblebees clearly liked them with both Early and Buff-tailed feeding on them.

Blue flowers with Early and Buff-tailed Bumblebees

I visited all the ponds I knew about on the west side and found another one I’d not come across before but there were still no dragonflies.

Pond with fallen tree (White Poplar?)

I walked up to the footbridge over the Jubilee Line where there was a large mass of honeysuckle, then I walked along the tarmac path up to a little bridge which advised me that my regular gait was insufficient so I didn't proceed any further. A juvenile Robin was in the display zone but hadn’t managed to perfect any such Monty Python comedy stepping.

Footbridge over Jubilee Line

More honeysuckle

Juvenile Robin about to goose-step

At the last pond a male Broad-bodied Chaser was holding territory and there were a couple of blue damselflies that were too distant to identify so I headed up towards Barn Hill. Unusually the pond didn’t have any ducks in it (I suspect it had been invaded by hordes of rampaging dogs) but there were a couple of Emperor Dragonflies patrolling it. Unfortunately they didn’t settle at all so I didn’t get any pictures. By now it was gone 11 o’clock so I dropped down the other side and headed off home, just pausing on Blackbird Hill to watch a Mistle Thrush.

The rolling hills of Middlesex

Mistle Thrush