February 18th in Comfort's Wood...

A month on from my last little update to this blog and we have seen some mixed weather, with even a little snow. February 18th though was to become one of those days when, at least weather-wise, it couldn't really get any better for the time of year. 
The sun was shining and temperatures were up on recent days. Skies were almost cloudless blue and the light was good-time then to get out the camera and whizz round the woods to see what I could find...

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As you would expect-still looking bare...

Plenty of late winter catkins...

Looking up...

The ash trees are showing their characteristic dark buds now and it was on ash that I had my first sighting of an insect...

This male common earwig (Forficula auricularia) was surprisingly sitting in the morning sunshine, amongst the lichen. Common earwigs are nocturnal and usually hide themselves away, under logs or stones during the day.

Amara aenea-A Ground Beetle

Close-by I also spotted this quite large metallic beetle. I am thinking this one might well be 'Amara aenea' a bronze ground beetle, also known as the sun beetle after its habit of running around in bright sunshine. 

There were also a few more 7-spot ladybirds enjoying the better weather...

Coccinella septempunctata-A 7-spot Ladybird

  

Coccinella septempunctata-A 7-spot Ladybird

Under rotting bark I found this soldier beetle larva.

I saw at least six of these largish spiders in the same area...

Nuctenea umbratica-A Walnut Orb-weaver spider

Nuctenea umbratica-A Walnut Orb-weaver spider

These are females but occasionally I find males during the winter too. Again, like the earwig, these are nocturnal and hide themselves away during daylight; their flattened abdomen lends itself well to squeezing into tight areas under bark or even door frames etc.

I'm not too sure of the exact species of this fly, but once again it was sunning itself on an ash tree whilst feeding...

Another unknown fly...

I do know this next bug, even though it has undergone a fairly recent name change and is no longer known as a forest bug it seems...

Pentatoma rufipes-A Red-legged Shieldbug...

This of course is the nymph of the shieldbug; they overwinter as young nymphs, with new adults being seen from about July. 


I didn't have too long to walk the woods on this particular day but even so, I was pleased with what I did find. I'll end this update with a picture of the pussy-willow starting to break out...

Despite a downturn in the weather of the past couple of days, there are signs of spring everywhere; I noticed primroses in flower as well as green bluebell shoots poking through the leaf-litter. I hope therefore that my next update will be less than a month away as things speed up.