My Blog - Jeff Clarke

The Cheshire Ladybird Atlas {yoogallery src=[/images/stories/blog/ladybirdmap]}Map courtesy and © of RECORD This year one of my major tasks is to start writing the Cheshire Ladybird Atlas with a view to publication in early 2012. As part of this process I aim to fill in as many gaps in the maps as I can over the coming months, but to achieve my aim I'm going to need help. Take a look at the map above (Click on it to enlarge) and you can clearly see some significant gaps in the records. The map is the aggregation of all species occuring in a given square. White squares have no records of any ladybirds being present. Clearly this is a reflection of recorder effort as opposed to a true reflection of ladybird distribution in Cheshire.It's easy ...

Snakes n Adders {yoogallery src=[/images/stories/blog/queenwasp]} All images unless otherwise stated © Jeff Clarke 2011 I spent an exceptionally warm February day (15 degrees celsius),  so warm I ended up in just a T shirt, surveying a special site in Cheshire. I was in search of 16-spot Ladybird Tytthaspis 16-punctata, I failed to find it, but I wasn't disappointed as I had a remarkably productive day. Within minutes of starting my survey I found a basking queen Common Wasp Vespula vulgaris, my first of the year, she was still dozy, so I took a few pictures which gave a really good view of the trio of ocelli (simple eyes) on top of her head. Hoverflies were also on the move and I was a little surprised to find Marmalade Hoverfly Episy...

Globetrotters   {yoogallery src=[/images/stories/blog/slimbridge]} All images unless otherwise stated © Jeff Clarke 2011 I spent Saturday 12th February leading an adult education group at Slimbridge WWT Reserve in Gloucestershire.The weather was stunning and the views of the ducks, swans and geese were beautifully illuminated.Slimbridge is the winter home of some marathon migrators. The most emblematic of which are the 300+ Bewick's Swans whose journey from the arctic tundra of Russia brings them westward. Alongside them are up to 3000 Russian White-fronted Geese.From the opposite side of the hemisphere they were joined by an unexpected visitor in the shape of a female Lesser Scaup. This bird had arrived a month, or so, ago and certain...

Orangy Boom!   {yoogallery src=[/images/stories/blog/OrangeLBs]} All images unless otherwise stated © Jeff Clarke 2011   I spent Sunday the 30th January leading a Ladybird workshop at World Museum, Liverpool, as part of Merseyside Biobank's'Identification Training Sessions' programme for biological recorders.The entomology collections at the museum are seriously impressive and definitely worth spending some time studying. For today'ssession I'd also collected a number of live specimens which gave the participants plenty of opportunity to become familiar withsome of the locally found species, this included local scarcities such as Adonis and 11-spot Ladybird.I think most of the people went away better prepared and with a few handy tips ...

Sand and Snow {yoogallery src=[/images/stories/blog/snowbuntings]} All images unless otherwise stated © Jeff Clarke 2011 On Saturday 22nd January I joined my Wilmslow Guild Adult Education participants as I led them on a day bird watching along the North Wales coast. We started at the delightful, if slightly incongruous setting, of Rhos on Sea. A genteel Victorian seaside resort, the town makes a great location for a spot of wader and seabird watching. The incoming tide soon drove an impressive number and variety of waders close to the sea defences, where they eventually took refuge from the innudation. Among the regular waders such as Ringed Plover, Turnstone and Dunlin, we were lucky enough to find a couple of Purple Sandpipers. We then ...