My Blog - Jeff Clarke

Hogshead Pit Stop

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All images unless otherwise stated © Jeff Clarke 2011

The sunshine tempted me away from pressing paperwork and I headed for Hogshead Wood to check on the 'Rep-tiles' I'd recently put out to monitor for lizards and hopefully a snake or two. They have only been down a few days so I wasn't expecting too much so I was delighted to find that a single Common Lizard had already adopted one of the mats. I hadn't expected to find a Common Toad sunning himself on one of the bitumen mats.

Carl Clee our local Aculeate Recorder had asked me to keep my eye open for a mining bee called Andrena clarkella, which frequents Sallow blossom. I was delighted to find a couple behaving just as Carl had predicted and collecting pollen from the flowering catkins.

A check on the pond showed clearly how dry the Spring has been so far. Just a shallow puddle remains, if we don't get any significant rain soon it will all be gone. Having said that, at least it will give us the opportunity to remove the vast Crassula helmsii beds that have completely taken over this wetland.