{"id":5754,"date":"2018-05-09T15:42:49","date_gmt":"2018-05-09T15:42:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/?p=5754"},"modified":"2018-05-09T16:28:12","modified_gmt":"2018-05-09T16:28:12","slug":"lesser-whitethroat-at-wraysbury-lakes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/2018\/05\/09\/lesser-whitethroat-at-wraysbury-lakes\/","title":{"rendered":"Lesser Whitethroat at Wraysbury Lakes"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Cardinal Beetle, Pyrochroa coccinea<\/u><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Well, I had two delightful surprises on my Wraysbury walk today. The first, as you can see, was a Cardinal Beetle, by no means a common sight any more, and unlike many claimed sightings, seems to be the actual species. I say seems to be, because the antennae were not especially toothy: the detail below shows that the end segments were certainly well toothed, the rest not. So either this was an individual with a slightly aberrant pattern, or it was a closely related species.<\/p>\n

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Cardinal Beetle – detail of antenna, well toothed at least at the end<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The other thing was the warblers. There have been hardly any Chiffchaffs around in the reserve, but today I heard about six of them. They struggled to be heard above a background of Blackcaps with varied songs; and in some spots, a barrage of Garden Warblers as well (mixed with a bit of Blackbird, Robin, Chaffinch, Robin, and Wren). And, just once, the second delightful surprise: a Lesser Whitethroat, with its distinctive trill. So it was a Four Warbler Walk. I listened out carefully for Sedge Warbler, Cetti’s Warbler, and Willow Warbler but there weren’t any singing – the Cetti’s were surely lurking nearby.<\/p>\n

Overhead, apart from the planes, were a Buzzard,\u00a0 gently mobbed by a Carrion Crow, later joined by a circling Sparrowhawk.<\/p>\n

The brambles and herbs (from nettles to Comfrey) were being used as perches by a mass of Banded Demoiselles, both the blue males with their glorious dark blue wing-patches, and the more subdued green females. They were joined by a few Common Blue Damselflies, the first of the year for me, as the demoiselles were.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, I had two delightful surprises on my Wraysbury walk today. The first, as you can see, was a Cardinal Beetle, by no means a common sight any more, and unlike many claimed sightings, seems to be the actual species. I say seems to be, because the antennae were not especially toothy: the detail below … Continue reading Lesser Whitethroat at Wraysbury Lakes<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[90],"tags":[157,20,12,59,167,215,124,165,423],"class_list":["post-5754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-natural-history","tag-banded-demoiselle","tag-blackcap","tag-buzzard","tag-chiffchaff","tag-comfrey","tag-common-blue-damselfly","tag-garden-warbler","tag-lesser-whitethroat","tag-sparrowhawk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5754"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5754\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5763,"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5754\/revisions\/5763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}