The dreaded C word

All of us will be directly affected by 'coronavirus' in many obvious ways.  Chris is very gregarious and will miss the close contact she has hitherto enjoyed with people in her Craft Group, Coffee Club and via various other social activities. I am far more of a loner and wandering unaccompanied in fields, along hedgerows and beside watercourses is natural to me. My blogging should be little affected.


So I continue toddling about, a wildlife nosey-parker.


The local pocket park seemed an easy place to visit and the weather was fine despite a rather chilly east wind. The conditions were encouraging many insects to take to the wing and I regretted not bringing a sweep net, but I had other things in mind.




Tortoiseshell butterflies were out and about, resting on warm patches
of bare earth. Stefen Hill Pocket Park, 22 March, 2020

Patches of Coltsfoot, Tussilago farfara, were looking bright and cheerful but were in a shady position, and so not attracting insects. 

With a little more sunshine these coltsfoot flowers may have been

receiving insect visitors. Stefen Hill Pocket Park, 22 March, 2020

I knew a spot where Greater Stitchwort, Stellaria holostea, grew. A tiny moth, the Three-colour Groundling, Coryocolum tricolorella, lays its eggs on this plant and this is a good time of the year to find the caterpillars. However, a careful search revealed nothing. The patch is flourishing and gradually spreading. Next year perhaps?

A small but growing patch of Greater Stitchwort grows beside the pond

in Stefen Hill Pocket Park. 22 March, 2020 

Another moth larva I was hoping to find was the Viburnum Midget, Phyllonorycter lantanella, and with this I had more luck. Its larvae feed on several species of viburnum including Laurustinus, Viburnum opulus. Several of the mines created by the larvae were found.

The distinctive mine formed by the larvae of the Viburnum Midget.

Near Stefen Hill Pocket Park, 22 March, 2020




Feeling moderately pleased I set off home, pausing only to photograph the tiny but curious flowers of box bushes.

Box, Buxus sempervirens, bears interesting flowers but they are generally

 overlooked. Garden near to the pocket park, Stefen Hill. 22 March, 2020