Our Bee-Fly Sightings during 2022

12 March 2022: one Dark-Edged Bee-Fly beside the Footpath running between Bazalgette Way and the Crossness Nature Reserve...

15 March 2022: three Dark-Edged Bee-Flies beside the Footpath running between Bazalgette Way and the Crossness Nature Reserve...

17 March 2022: four Dark-Edged Bee-Flies on the East Wickham Open Space...

18 March 2022: two Dark-Edged Bee-Flies beside the Upper Bedon Stream...

19 March 2022: eleven Dark-Edged Bee-Flies on the Crossness Nature Reserve and Surrounding area...

20 March 2022: one Dark-Edged Bee-Fly in the Plumstead Cemetery (the RB of Greenwich)...

21 March 2022: one Dark-Edged Bee-Fly beside the Upper Bedon Stream...

25 March 2022: seventeen Dark-Edged Bee-Flies on the Crossness Nature Reserve and Surrounding area (including the Erith Southern Marsh)...

25 March 2022: one Dark-Edged Bee-Fly beside the Upper Bedon Stream...

26 March 2022: seventeen Dark-Edged Bee-Flies on the Crossness Nature Reserve and Surrounding area...

2 April 2022: five Dark-Edged Bee-Flies on the Crossness Nature Reserve and Surrounding area...

9 April 2022: two (possibly three) Dark-Edged Bee-Flies in Scadbury Park (the LB of Bromley)...

10 April 2022: twenty-two Dark-Edged Bee-Flies on the Crossness Nature Reserve and Surrounding area...

12 April 2022: one Dark-Edged Bee-Fly in the New Woolwich Cemetery (the RB of Greenwich)... 

12 April 2022: one Dark-Edged Bee-Fly on the East Wickham Open Space...

15 April 2022: one Dark-Edged Bee-Fly in the Garden (at Home)....

16 April 2022: one Dark-Edged Bee-Fly in the Cemetery of Our Lady of the Angels, Erith...

16 April 2022: one Dark-Edged Bee-Fly in Lesnes Abbey Park...

16 April 2022: one Dark-Edged Bee-Fly on Bostall Heath (the RB of Greenwich)...

17 April 2022: one Dark-Edged Bee-Fly in the Garden (at Home)...

18 April 2022: twenty Dark-Edged Bee-Flies on the Crossness Nature Reserve and Surrounding area...

20 April 2022: two Dark-Edged Bee-Flies in the Garden (at Home)...

22 April 2022: one Dark-Edged Bee-Fly in the Garden (at Home)...

24 April 2022: one Dark-Edged Bee-Fly in the Garden (at Home)...

24 April 2022: four Dark-Edged Bee-Flies in Petts Wood (the LB of Bromley)...

26 April 2022: three Dark-Edged Bee-Flies on Bostall Heath (the RB of Greenwich)...

1 May 2022: one Dark-Edged Bee-Fly on Bostall Heath (the RB of Greenwich)...

5 May 2022: one Dark-Edged Bee-Fly on Chapel Bank (the LB of Croydon)

9 May 2022: one Dark-Edged Bee-Fly on Bostall Heath (the RB of Greenwich)...

To Petts Wood and Hawkwood (the LB of Bromley)

Many years have passed since we first visited Petts Wood and Hawkwood: and it had been a few years since we last visited. 

For most of the time the Sun shone and we saw Bees (including Common Carder and Hairy-Footed Flower Bees), Bee-Flies, Butterflies, Hoverflies and Wild Flowers. Also a few Birds including a male Pheasant (first heard, then seen) and a few Jackdaws (in the Soldier's Field) viz.

Butterfly species seen: Brimstone viz.

Comma, Green-Veined White, Orange-Tip, Peacock, Small White and Speckled Wood

Wild Flower species seen included:

Bluebell viz.

Brooklime

Common Dog-Violet

Common Mouse-Ear

Common Stork's-Bill

Common Vetch

Cow Parsley

Dandelion

Garlic Mustard

Germander Speedwell

Green Alkanet viz.

Hogweed

Ivy-Leaved Speedwell

Lesser Celandine

Lords-and-Ladies (Arum maculatum)

Pendulous Sedge

Red Dead-Nettle

Wavy Bittercress

White Dead-Nettle

Wild Garlic viz.

Wood Anemone

Wood Avens

Wood Sage

Wood Sorrel

Wood Speedwell viz.

and Yellow Archangel

We find the Cuckooflowers growing in the Local Monad flowering

Totally unexpected. The site where they grow viz. TQ48447706 or thereabouts, was recently mown and we weren't expecting to see any Cuckooflowers, let alone any flowering. But there were seven flowering Plants, the most we have ever seen there, including these:

It's a small area and fairly regularly mown: although not we think, strimmed. 

Other Wild Flower' species present include:

Annual Meadow-Grass

Common Mouse-Ear

Cow Parsley (actually flowering)

Creeping Thistle

Daisy

Dandelion

Dove's-Foot Crane's-Bill

Groundsel

Ivy-Leaved Speedwell

Meadow Foxtail

Red Dead-Nettle

Ribwort Plantain

Spear Thistle

Sticky Mouse-Ear

and Thyme-Leaved Speedwell

The Sedums and Stonecrops are coming back to life in the Garden (at Home)

 

To Bostal Heath (the RB of Greenwich) where we saw lots of Ladybirds

We had intended to spend an hour or so on the Heath and then move on to the Lesnes Abbey Woods. In the event, we stayed on the Heath.

We saw our first Holly Blue Butterfly of the year viz.

Other Butterfly species seen: Brimstone, Comma, Peacock and Speckled Wood plus a few Unidentified White Butterflies.

Additionally, we saw our first Myathropa florea (Hoverfly) of the year.

Wild Flower species seen included:

Annual Meadow-Grass

Annual Mercury

Balkan Spurge

Bittercress

Black Medick

Bluebell

Broom

Buck's-Horn Plantain

Buddleia

Bulbous Buttercup

Bush Vetch

Cleavers

Cock's-Foot

Common Chickweed

Common Field-Speedwell

Common Mouse-Ear

Common Ragwort

Common Sorrel

Coral Spurge

Cow Parsley

Creeping Thistle

Daisy

Dandelion

Dog's Mercury

Dove's-Foot Crane's-Bill

Foxglove

Garlic Mustard

Gorse

Grape Hyacinth

Greater Plantain

Green Alkanet

Groundsel

Herb Robert

Honesty

Ivy-Leaved Speedwell

Lesser Celandine

Lords-and-Ladies (Arum maculatum)

Mouse-Ear Hawkweed

Mugwort

Red Clover

Red Dead-Nettle

Ribwort Plantain

Sowbread

Spear Thistle

Sticky Mouse-Ear

Sweet Violet

White Clover

White Dead-Nettle

Wild Garlic

Wood Anemone

Wood Avens

and Yarrow

We also saw quite a few Dock Bugs but the highlight of the visit was the unexpected find of massed ranks of assumed 16-Spotter Ladybirds on a fallen tree' branch viz.

Wild Flowers in the New Woolwich Cemetery (the RB of Greenwich)

A first visit for 2022: we expect to find a few more Wild Flower' species viz. Bird's-Foot Trefoil, Clovers &c. as the year progresses.

Wild Flower' species seen today included:

Annual Mercury

Buddleia

Bulbous Buttercup

Caucasian Stonecrop

Cleavers

Comfrey species

Common Bramble

Common Chickweed

Common Dog-Violet
Common Field-Speedwell

Common Mouse-Ear

Common Ragwort
Common Stork's-Bill viz.

Common Whitlowgrass

Cornsalad viz.

Cow Parsley

Creeping Thistle

Daisy

Dandelion
Dove's-Foot Crane's-Bill

Early Forget-me-Not viz.

Field Wood-Rush viz.

Garlic Mustard

Grape Hyacinth

Ground-Ivy

Groundsel

Hairy Bittercress

Hart's-Tongue Fern

Herb Robert

Ivy

Ivy-Leaved Speedwell

Lesser Celandine

Maidenhair Spleenwort

Meadow Foxtail viz.

Mouse-Ear Hawkweed 

Red Dead-Nettle

Reflexed Stonecrop

Ribwort Plantain

Round-Leaved Crane's-Bill

Sow-Thistle

Spear Thistle

Spotted Medick

Sticky Mouse-Ear

Sweet Vernal-Grass viz.

Sweet Violet

Thale Cress

White Stonecrop

Wood Avens

and Yarrow

And not many Insects immediately visible! 

We looked for Wild Flowers whilst en- route to the Southern Erith Marsh (or what little there is left it)

Before entering the Southern Erith Marsh via the Waldrist Way' Entrance, we looked around for Wild Flowers on the nearby Road-Side Verges &c. Despite regular mowing &c. and it being a fairly small area, we identified seventeen species (some flowering) viz.

Annual Meadow-Grass

Bristly Oxtongue

Bulbous Buttercup

Common Field-Speedwell

Common Mallow

Common Stork's-Bill

Common Whitlowgrass

Daisy

Dandelion

Dove's-Foot Crane's-Bill

Groundsel

Hairy Bittercress

Red Dead-Nettle

Ribwort Plantain

Sticky Mouse-Ear

Thale Cress

and White Clover

Just inside the Entrance, we saw that the Coltsfoot is still flowering viz.

Xanthoria elegans aka Caloplaca elegans

Xanthoria elegans growing on a local Kerb Stone (in the local Monad).

Although the general appearance initially suggested Xanthoria elegans, on second thoughts, based on the appearance of the lobes giving it a perhaps crustose-placodioid appearance, we wondered, a Caloplaca?

But not a Caloplaca: it being confirmed as Xanthoria elegans.

That being said, the British Lichen Society (BLS) identify Caloplaca elegans as a synonym for Xanthoria elegans.

We understand that in the past it has been recorded as either Xanthoria elegans or Caloplaca eligans, dependent on the observer's perception. 

Interestingly, the synonym persists.

We pay a brief visit to Scadbury Park (the LB of Bromley)

Somewhere to visit when the Butterfly Season hots up: despite time being very limited we managed to see a few Wild Flowers (including a single Bluebell, Ground-Ivy and Lesser Celandine), Common Carder Bees, Hairy-Footed Flower-Bees, Hoverflies and Bee-Flies.

Plus a few Lichens including Parmelia sulcata, Parmotrema perlatum, Physcia adscendens, Punctelia subrudecta, Xanthoria parietina and this assumed Punctelia jeckeri:

viz. C+ red with soredia on the lobe (underside light coloured) margins and brownish (seemingly pruinose) lobe tips. We wonder whether the orange/brown arrangements might be a Trentepohlia species?

Some Wild Flowers

Some of the Wild Flower species seen growing on Pavements, in Road-Side Gutters  &c. and on a small area of waste ground, whilst we were walking to/from the Bus Stop (we went shopping in Bexleyheath):

Annual Mercury

Hairy Bittercress

Buck's-Horn Plantain

Cleavers

Common Chickweed

Common Mallow

Common Stork's-Bill

Common Whitlowgrass

Cornsalad

Dandelion

Four-Leaved Allseed

Green Alkanet

Groundsel

Hairy Bittercress

Henbit Dead-Nettle

Ivy-Leaved Speedwell

Jersey Cudweed

Lesser Swinecress

Pellitory-of-the-Wall

Petty Spurge

Procumbent Pearlwort

Rue-Leaved Saxifrage

Shepherd's-Purse

Shining Crane's-Bill

Sticky Mouse-Ear

Sweet Violet

and Thale Cress

A few more than we expected. So much so, we are now hopeful the local Spotted Spurge has survived the Council' Spraying. And we have just realised we didn't see any Water Bent: previously common, so hopefully it might re-appear.

A Stroll though Lesnes Abbey Woods

Wild Flower species seen included:

Bluebell (soon to be flowering)

Cow Parsley

Dog's Mercury

Garlic Mustard

Greater Stitchwort viz.

Ground-Ivy

Hogweed

Lesser Celandine
Lords & Ladies (both Arum maculatum and Arum italicum)

Sweet Violet (white)

Wild Daffodil (almost flowered out)

Wild Garlic
Wood Anemone

Wood Sage

Wood Sorrel viz.

Yellow Archangel

and Yellow Pimpernel

The Wild Flower Society', Spring Week Hunt 2022

The Spring Week Hunt: to identify Wild Flower' Species seen flowering during the first seven days of March.

We looked for Wild Flowers but didn't find many: just twenty species).

We won't submit any records.

Species in flower found during the seven days:

Alexanders

Annual Mercury

Common Chickweed

Common Field-Speedwell

Cow Parsley

Daisy

Dandelion

Dog's Mercury

Field Madder

Green Alkanet

Groundsel

Hairy Bittercress

Jersey Cudweed

Lesser Celandine

Red Dead-Nettle

Shepherd's-Purse

Sow-Thistle

Sweet Violet

Wild Daffodil viz.

and Wood Anemone viz.