If I was Prime Minister

If I was Prime Minister I would do absolutely f#ck all.
A corporate take over led by billionaires is near completion as our democracy evolves into a billionaire dictatorship. The parties have little power, the prime minister has no power at all- they are as history as the monarchy- merely theatre and museum.
Power lies in either becoming a billionaire or in resistance. Everyone and everything else is largely being processed into low entropy states as energy and resources is transferred to the new dictators.
Now that's me done with the  Election- I'm going to look at some more flies.

Spring detonation

 Dark-edged Bee Fly- plenty about today

Eupeodes luniger (For hoverfly id I'm referring to this photo list of species recorded so far at Beddington Farmlands identified by I-spot or UK Hoverflies group: BEDDINGTON HOVERFLIES). Any errors please comment. 

Eristalis intricarius (thanks Roger Morris- fly in flight id- love it!) 

Syrphus ribesii

 Playcherius albimanus

Epistrophe eligans

Male Spring Flower Bee (also called Hairy-footed  Flower Bee)  

 Female Spring Flower Bee

 Small Tortoiseshell on Blackthorn flower

Peacock

 Adult Red Kite- aged on streaked underparts and deep rufous underwing coverts. 4 Red Kites today and over 35 Common Buzzard (with eight in one kettle alone).  Also a few Swallow, Sand Martin and Meadow Pipits moving. 

 Adult Common Buzzard (with Sparrowhawk)- compare to juvenile below (yesterdays post). Notice the prominent dark trailing edge to wing and tail band of the adult.

The farmlands literally exploded into life today with building temperatures and a light north airflow producing the first main insect emergence of the year. Things are set to become busier as the week goes on as conditions continue to improve.

Insects along the path today: Small Tortoiseshell, Peacock, Brimstone, Comma, Small White, several species of hoverly, a sawfly sp, various diptera sp, various bee sp and the first Green Longhorn moths Adela reaumurella. 

Plants in flower/or leaf recently (at farm and local area):
Begonia, Purple Plum (flower), Ground Ivy, Bluebells, Magnolia, Horse Chestnut (buds bursting), Hawthorn (leaf), Berberis (leaf), Willow (leaf), Box Elder (catkins), Cherry (flowering), Ramson, Hyacinths, White dead nettle, Wood Anemones,  Thyme, Rosemary, Heather, Photinia,
This list follows on from this: First spring plants

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BIRD GROUP SITE AND DAILY SIGHTINGS

Spring wave commencing

 A light north east wind and clear skies this morning produced some visible migration. Highlight was these 4 Black-tailed Godwits (the first for the year). Also one male Wigeon over, 6 Cormorant, 10 Buzzard, 3 Red Kite (this evening, together heading north), 190+ Meadow Pipit north west, 5 Swallow, 8 Common Gull, 5 Linnet, 1 Rook, 20+ Black-headed Gull and Herring and Lesser Black backs moving around too.

Common Buzzard. The lack of a broad trailing edge to the wing and tail and lack of barring on the breast indicate this is a 2nd calender year bird (juvenile- first summer). Although not visible here the bird should also be showing a pale eye at this age.The pale mid-wing band (mainly on the greater underwing coverts) is typical in all ages. 

 Barnacle, Greylag and Canada Goose 

Weather chart for Thursday- this whole week will witness a building high pressure with an airflow gradually orientating  to south with high temperatures and a long southerly draw (from North Africa/Southern Europe) by the end of the week. Spring is presumably going to surge forward this week- hopefully with some interesting bird and insect migration and a surge of emergences of plants and local insect populations. As Franco used to say 'This is no time for the workers!' 

Bit of Vis Mig

 Male Swallow- finding an alternative use for a mist net

 Chiffchaff 

 LRP going over 

Black-headed Gulls on the move

A light northerly wind today with a few birds pushing on against it. 84 Meadow Pipit (NW 1000-1230), 32 Linnet over, 5 Sand Martin, 2 Swallow, 6 Common Buzzard, 4 Wheatear on the mound, 2 LRP and also 2 Redshank, 5 Green Sandpiper, 3 Sparrowhawk, 2 Peregrine, 4 Chiffchaff, and 4 Blackcap.  

Easter Holiday

Polly Morgan bringing a modern twist to taxidermy and natural history displays (More here) 

It's holiday time which means family days out. Good Friday we went to the Horniman museum and Gardens at Forest Hill.  A good natural history collection and some cultural stuff too, collected by old great and good Frederick Horniman, who built a public museum to show off his bling and try and educate the public too (nobody's still quite cracked that one!).

Artist Polly Morgan had a display using stuffed animals- the kind of stuff that if your mate was showing you that he'd made in his bedroom and wasn't for an art house or museum- you'd fear for your safety. Needless to say, right up my street- loved it.

Looks like the Tickell's Thrush in the collection is wrongly labelled (looks like a Black-throated to me).

A must see on the London natural history circuit.

HORNIMAN NATURAL HISTORY COLLECTION

 Easter Sunday at Richmond Park with Rachel and Sue- nice little bit of habitat recently been created in the Isabella Plantation

Easter Monday- family walk round Little Woodcote. Buzzards and Peregrine and added a few more species to Sid's Bioblitz list SID's BIOBLITZ

Spring Push

*Warning content may be offensive to some viewers from North Downs and Beyond. Contains strong scenes of Wheatear.

Adult male Wheatear. One of five today feeding on the ploughed area (Love it when a plan comes together!)

Adult female Wheatear

Female Wheatear fly-catching

Despite the influx it was still cool today (Cold enough for Gloves). The Wheatears were finding food by fly- catching for the midges. 

First-summer male Wheatear. Brown in mantle and scapulars, less peach suffusion over breast and brown remiges (cf. black of adult male)

Meadow Pipit- a few of  these moving today too

First Swallow 

Diurnea fagella- The first for the year in the trap last night- a bit milder and less wind but still cool at night and not many moths

Clouded Drab

 Met Office chart from Sunday. Strong westerly airflow effectively blocking migrants

Met Office chart today. Wouldn't normally associate north west winds (like today) with a fall of migrants. However weather and effect on migration always needs to be considered in context and always best to see the big picture (Good to have your 'Head in the Clouds'). Migrants being blocked by the westerly airflow have jumped at the first chance of a window of opportunity which in this case is a less than ideal head-wind direction but with the reduced wind speed- it's good enough to go for it.

The first influx of the Spring at Beddington today:  1 Osprey, 7 Common Buzzard, 3 Redshank, 1 LRP, 9 Snipe, 1 Jack Snipe, 40+ Meadow Pipit, 3 Swallow. 5 Wheatear, 1 Willow Warbler, 1 Blackcap and 4 Chiffchaff.

Some more (better!) pics from Roger here: ROGER PICS