Stefen Hill on a lazy day

Today has been fine, sunny and windless. I ought to have walked to Foxhill Farm but, lazily, I only went as far as our nearby pocket park.


The warm sun had brought out further butterflies and today tortoiseshells, peacocks and orange tips were joined by a Speckled Wood, Pararge aegeria.

Speckled Wood in Stefen Hill Pocket Park.

14April, 2020

Stefen Hill Pocket Park is not the place to visit if you are seeking spectacular flowers or bizarre insects (although some of the insects have remarkable life-styles) so a visitor must be content with common, often mundane, species. Herb Robert, Geranium robertianum, is to be found in parks, gardens, hedgerows and waste ground everywhere, and is generally ignored. And yet the flowers, even as shown in this disappointing photograph, are very attractive. However, not only are they small but the glandular leaves and stems give off a disagreeable smell when brushed against. The plant has been rubbed on the body to repel mosquitoes. (M. Harley, Ref 1)

Herb Robert. Worth a closer look.

Stefen Hill Pocket Park,  Daventry. 14 April, 2020

Keck or Cow Parsley, is now coming into flower. Like Herb Robert it does not often receive attention, and yet the flowers are interesting. They are borne in umbels and it is an ultra-urbanised person who is not familiar with them.

Most people must be familiar with the umbels of Cow Parsley.

Stefen Hill Pocket Park. 14 April, 2020

Examined more closely it will be seen that the tiny white flowers are zygomorphic, with four smaller petals and a larger petal facing the edge of the umbel. The flowers are fragile and, as my second photograph shows, some petals are easily lost. It is no surprise that such a widespread plant should have a variety of vernacular names. Keck is probably the commonest of these, with Queen Anne's Lace close behind. Apparently Mother Die is also a widespread name, children being warned, 'If you dig that up your mother will die'. (Quoted by Richard Mabey, Ref 2)

But not everyone takes a closer look.

A considerable number of insects were on the wing, with Dark-edged Bee Flies, Bombylius major, being as abundant as ever I can recall. Despite their appearance they are not bees, although their larvae are parasites of certain bees, mainly mining bees. (Stubbs and Drake, Ref 3)

Dark-edged Bee Flies have been abundant this year.

Stefen Hill Pocket Park, 14 April, 2020

Also very common were species of Eristalis, and these are true bee mimics. By far the commonest of the genus today was Eristalis pertinax, easily recognised by the yellow ends to the front legs. They frequently hover motionless at about head-height, in woodland clearings, over footpaths, etc.




Eristalis pertinax is among the commonest of the Eristalis species. This is

a female. Stefen Hill Pocket Park, 14 April, 2020

As I was saying, no spectacular flowers or bizarre insects, but in these difficult days we must take what is on offer.

References

1. Harley, Madelaine (2016)  Wonderful Weeds  Papadakis Publisher

2. Mabey, Richard (1997)  Flora Britannica  Chatto and Windus

3.  Stubbs, Alan and Drake, Martin (2001) British Soldierflies and their Allies  British Entomological and Natural History Society