In June last year I found while walking in Brede High Wood a White-clouded Longhorn Beetle - Mesosa nebulosa Red Data Book 3. I did a post on this site when I found it. Realising it was about the same time of year I decided to walk the same path again. This year I found a Black-clouded Longhorn Beetle - Leiopus nebulosus. This beetle turns out to be common. The larva lives in dead wood and they both live in the tops of trees.
Yesterday Dungeness Bird Observatory noted only its second Turtle Dove of the year. There are very few purring at Rye Harbour this year - by the Castle Water viewpoint is the best site. I suspect this is further evidence of a decline that will see them disappear from the RX countryside within a few years, so get out and hear their lovely purring while you can.
But on a more positive note a bird sound has returned to Rye Harbour after many years absence. The endless trill of Grasshopper Warbler has been heard in the last 2 summers…
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A cuckoo was calling in the distance, and at my feet was one of it’s insect equivalents, the cuckoo bumblebee Bombus sylvestris. This is the fourth species of cuckoo bumblebee found at Pett Level in the past year, and the thirteenth bumblebee. Not a bad tally in these pollen and nectar-deficient times.
The bee was a male (you can tell by the long antennae) and therefore was unable to sting. Note how Read the rest of this entry »