Network Rail, Multiple-Purpose Vehicle (MPV) No. DR98925, heads past the up-platform at Belvedere

A Thameslink Train had just passed through (they don't stop at Belvedere) and we heard an Announcement viz. 'The next Train at Plattform One will not stop here', so we hoped for a Goods Train.

Instead, we saw this:

Never knowingly seen one before.

A Lichen' Quartet

A group of Lichens that have set up Home on a nearby Public Pavement. 

There are at least four Species viz. the companionable Lecanora muralis and Xanthoria parietina, an assumed Caloplaca sp. and a Lecanora dispersa type:

With thanks for help from the British Lichen Society.

There is still some Common Agrimony growing on Bostall Heath (the Royal Borough of Greenwich)

We thought it had gone: then today, we noticed what we initially thought to be a late-flowering Common Ragwort. But it was Common Agrimony viz.

growing a couple of yards from where it previously grew (ten Plants or so).

Bechuanaland Protectorate: 1961 First Day Registered Cover ~ the Introduction of Decimal Currency

 Well: it finally arrived (all the way from Argentina):

Now Botswana.

There were quite a few Crane Flies on Bostall Heath (the Royal Borough of Greenwich)

Yippee: they seem to be returning viz.

To the Crayford Marshes in search of Bees, Butterflies, Crane Flies, Ivy Bees, Wild Flowers &c.

We found some Ivy Bees almost immediately, in the Moat Lane area: where we saw them last year.

We then worked our way around to the Erith Yacht Club: seeing a couple of Crane Flies including this one:

There were quite few Butterflies out and about including Brown Argus, Clouded Yellow viz.

Common Blue, Small Copper, Small White and Speckled Wood Butterflies.

Standing beside the Thames and looking out across the Dartford Creek, we noticed a small party of Avocets: our first of the year viz.

Wild Flower' Species (flowering) included:

Black Horehound viz.

Bristly Oxtongue

Broad-Leaved Everlasting-Pea

Cock's-Foot viz.

Common Mallow

Common Ragwort

Common Restharrow viz.

Common Toadflax viz.

Hawkweed Oxtongue

Hedgerow Crane's-Bill

Hogweed

Lady's Bedstraw

Perennial Wall Rocket

Red Clover

Ribwort Plantain

Sand Medick viz.

Soapwort

White Campion

White Dead-Nettle

Wild Carrot

and Yarrow

Shipping wise, we noticed Ro-Ro  Cargo Vessel, Adeline, heading upstream, en-route to Ford of Dagenham: and Vegetable/Edible Oil Tanker, Purgo, heading away from the Erith Docks viz.

Our first (and probably only) European Hornet of the year in the London Borough of Bexley

 Seen in the small Garden beside the Bostall Library (we don't see many) viz.

 

Yippee: the Crane Flies are back

Well: one at least but where there is one, there may be more. Hopefully anyway.

Earlier this year we took quite a fancy to them then annoyingly, they disappeared. But we noticed this Little Guy on Bostall Heath (the Royal Borough of Greenwich) so perhaps they are making a come-back?

If memory serves, they do re-appear later in the year.

Some assumed Silk Button Galls and Common Spangle Galls

Assumed Silk Button Galls and Common Spangle Galls, on an assumed Pendunculate Oak aka Common Oak, growing on Bostall Heath (the Royal Borough of Greenwich) viz.

Some assumed Knopper Oak Galls

Assumed Knopper Oak Galls on assumed Pendunculate Oak aka Common Oak (viz. the long Stalks on the Acorns), growing on Bostall Heath (the Royal Borough of Greenwich):

Our first European Hornet of the year.

Seen on Bostall Heath (the Royal Borough of Greenwich). There were two of them:

An Ivy Bee beside the Upper Bedon Stream

In addition to Honey Bees, Hoverflies and Wasps there were a handful of Ivy Bees on the Ivy, including this Little Guy: 

And the nearby Brooklime is still flowering viz.

Some More Ivy Bees: this time on Bostall Heath (the Royal Borough of Greenwich)

 There were few buzzing around the Ivy, including this Little Guy:

in addition to Hoverflies and Wasps.

The Ivy Bees are coming out to play

Bicycling down to the River we stopped to look at the Ivy that grows beside Erith Road, close to the Trinity School: and Wow, there were lots of Ivy Bees out and about viz.

We submit some Hoverfly Records

The first submissions for a couple of months or so viz.

 

And all Eristalis tenax.

Of Chalk Streams and Goods Trains

After spending some time chatting in Waterside Gardens in Crayford (the River Cray **, a Chalk Stream, runs through the Gardens) viz.

we caught a Train from Crayford to Albany Park, where we were lucky enough to see a Goods Train pass through the Station viz.

** In The Compleat Angler or The Contemplative Man's Recreation, Izaak Walton writes, 'And you are further to know, that there be certain waters, that breed Trouts remarkable both for their number and smallness. I know a little brook in Kent, that breeds them to a number incredible, and you may take them twenty and forty in an hour, but none greater than about the size of a Gudgeon ...'. It was conjectured by James Rennie (Editor of the 1833 Printing) that Walton was referring to the River Cray.