Ring-a-ring of ladybirds...

I'm feeling rather shattered tonight after a long and busy day. I was up at six as usual, and after saying goodbye to Chris, I drove Alex down to Shuttleworth as he'd been told he should try to arrive at the college by 8.30am to set off for the New Forest trip.

We had a good run down, had time to visit Sainsbury's at Biggleswade for some last minute provisions and still arrived by 8.20. We sat in the car, and waited...and waited...When no-one else had turned up by 8.30 I thought something must be up - it turned out we were in the wrong car-park, and should have been in the next one, about twenty metres away! Once we'd found the right place he unpacked his bag, said his goodbyes and slammed the car door on his little finger, damaging the nail bed badly. In the end I really needn't have driven him down as they didn't set off until 10.25!!

I then spent the morning doing the first field survey of the season, in a large woodland SSSI at Gamlingay. It was a glorious spring day, with plenty of sunshine, and I have to say it was rather a treat to wander round a wood for three hours, even if nothing much was flowering. However, the warm sunshine had drawn out the insects - one hazel bush had lots of seven-spot ladybirds, including these four circling one of the branches. There were also quite a few queen buff-tailed bumblebees about, buzzing noisily, and I saw the first bee-fly of the spring and my first butterfly - a comma who wouldn't sit still!

Although I was mostly recording the flora and vegetation structure, I kept an eye and ear out for birds.For most of my time there I could hear the mewing calls of a pair of buzzards, which now seem to be present in virtually all the larger Cambridgeshire woods. Greater spotted-woodpeckers were drumming and I got a good view through the binoculars. There were also plenty of nuthatches calling and I was excited to get a good view of a willow tit, foraging in the top of a birch tree. These rather subdued members of the tit family have shown a significant population decline in recent years and now have Red status.

I arrived back home for a late lunch. Then after a short rest with my book, I spent a bit of time in the garden tidying up the green-house and its environs, in preparation for seed sowing. Then it was out again to walk the dogs - a proper evening walk with a chorus of birdsong and a beautiful sunset. Thankfully we were able to eat yesterday's leftovers for dinner!!