With frogs for their watch-dogs

There are signs of Spring in the pond. I visited Timble Ings last week and frogs were very active in the shallows, even at mid-day.

Today, I pulled a few leaves out of one of my tiny garden ponds and was surprised to find three Palmate Newts (Triturus helveticus) had already returned to the water. I shall have to purchase some more Water Forget-me-not (Myosotis scorpiodes) which I have found to be their preferred vegetation for egg-laying in previous years.

The flowers in the photograph are those of Primrose (Primula vulgaris) but I almost included my first lawn Daisy (Bellis perennis) of the year which cheered me up this morning.

The Song Thrush has returned to the garden.

Why the title? I noticed in the stats section of the blog that lines from poems attract the most visitors!

Hibernating larvae of Olethreutes mygindiana

The beauty of Cowberry is that it is an evergreen and therefore easily distinguished from Bilberry at this time of year.

On Wednesday 2nd February 2011, I climbed up to my favourite Cowberry patch on Barden Moor to look for the hibernating larvae of Olethreutes mygindiana.

I soon found a couple of hibernacula consisting of spun-together leaves and each containing a solitary reddish brown 5-6mm long caterpillar.

The Outside Light

I have had an outside light installed at the back of my house with the intention of monitoring the insects that it attracts.
The bulb is a 15W low energy model. I have heard that low energy bulbs emit more UV light than the old-fashioned filament types and should therefore bring in more moths.
My first project for 2011.
:-)

Phyllocnistis unipunctella at Shipley Station

More half-term leaf-mining this morning resulted in this Phyllocnistis unipunctella on a Black Poplar in the car park of Shipley Station.

Coleophora lusciniaepennella, Stigmella salicis, Stigmella trimaculella

I went back to Ben Rhydding Gravel Pits to establish exactly which species of willow the Stigmella salicis larvae are mining. I am now confident that this is Salix cinerea. I did also find vacated mines on Salix caprea where I also found another Coleophora lusciniaepennella case-bearing larva.
This morning I found a new species for me in the form of Stigmella trimaculella on the roadside poplars opposite Otley Garden Centre.

Stripping the Willow

I had a productive hour at Ben Rhydding Gravel Pits this morning searching a couple of willow trees for leafmines. I even found a pale brown tortrix moth on the under-surface of a leaf but clumsily failed to pot it.
I think the case-bearer is probably Coleophora lusciniaepennella which is a new species for me.

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The contorted mine with larva still present is likely to be Stigmella salicis.
*
The empty cone formed at the leaf tip could have been made by Caloptilia stigmatella?

Grete Herball

Fungi ben mussherooms; there be two manners of them, one manner is deedley and slayeth them that eateth them and be called tode stoles, and the other doeth not.
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These fungi were photographed in Middleton Woods, near Ilkley, today.

To see some much better fungi photographs, have a look at Dean's site here.