There is a grove, there is a plot

I was up and out the door before 6 this morning to visit one of the four remaining fragments of the ancient wild fens. There were already a couple of cars parked up when I arrived and I spotted a couple of photographers taking shots of emerging dragonflies. I walked in the opposite direction and didn't see another soul for a couple of hours.

It was a magical morning. The air was filled with birdsong and there seemed to be cuckoos calling in every direction. Willow Warblers sang and Grasshopper Warblers reeled. Flies seemed to be warming up on every sunny leaf and trunk. Including this massive tabanid which I think is Tabanus autumnalis.

There were Cercopis vulnerata froghoppers every few centimetres. Thousands of the things on every bit of path side vegetation.

I found this Chrysolina beetle by the side of of one of the lodes perched on a reed. At a smidge over 10mm it's either C. graminis or herbacea. The epileuron length and shape fit the former as I think does the punctuation on the pronotum but the jury's still out. [EDIT: it is C. graminis, the Tansy Beetle].

Tapping a few bits of hawthorn and oak I managed to find a few other beetles but the star of the show deserves its own post (more tomorrow). I did finally catch up with Rhagium mordax and it turned out to be a 7 species of longhorn day. My best yet I think.

Just like number 73 buses I found my third new ptinid in 10 days. This time it was Ochina ptinoides found on oak.

It was just lovely being out in some awesome habitat and seeing a bit of wildlife. By late morning the temperature had risen and it was quite warm in the sunshine. I decamped to check out a couple of other sites and even did a bit of botanical twitching. Very unlike me.

I'll leave with the blog title inspiration.