John Barley-Corn

Help with wildlife identification is welcome!

[john-barley-corn]

It’s been a while since I posted on here, but for whatever reason, I feel like posting on here again today.

Here is a weevil that was in my parent’s house on Friday while I was staying over there. It was first seen on the front door and was soon some time later on the door to the cupboard under the stairs. I think it might be a black vine weevil, Otiorhynchus sulcatus.

[john-barley-corn]

A couple of months ago I discovered iNaturalist, which seems like a very cool website! It’s a website designed for the sort of posts I make on this blog, and there’s in-built functionality to help people identify other people’s specimens. For example, I put up this photo of a bug I saw at the top of the Rockefeller Center, and within a few days it had been identified as a member of the genus Kleidocerys!

So if people like the sort of posts I make here, maybe try following me on iNaturalist, since that’s where my future posts might end up. Though I still haven’t used the website since the initial week I found it, due to my current job sapping me of all time, mental energy, passion, joy, hope, etc...

[john-barley-corn]

Two types of springtail on a very dirty window at the back of the house.

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A baby harlequin ladybird sitting on a chair in the garden on the 14th of June.

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A blowfly on the edge of the carpet on the 14th of June.

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A red spider mite on a chair in the garden, from the 8th of June, 2018.

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A tiny spider with a catch, from the 8th of June.

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A bumblebee-mimicking hoverfly of some sort, from the 7th of June.

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This is a mason wasp of the genus Ancistrocerus, found on the insect death-trap that is our windowed door into the garden, on the 7th of June, 2018.

[john-barley-corn]

A female sparrow in the garden on the 7th of June. The only sparrow I’ve seen in the garden so far, I think. There’s lots of them in the neighbourhood, but they seem to prefer the houses with hedges, and we have a fence.

[john-barley-corn]

Now that it’s summer, we’re having to keep the windows open all day to let the heat out, which means lots of insects are getting into the house. These three photos are from the 5th of June. Not sure what kind the first is, but the second and third are hoverflies. In the third photo, you can see the hoverfly’s tiny shadow.

[john-barley-corn]

We also saw this colossal tree. My brother is included as a scale to compare it with, although I’ve smiley-ed out his face. I don’t know what type of tree this is, since I didn’t get any close-up of its leaves and from the zoomed-out picture it’s hard to tell which leaves are its and which are from other plants.

[john-barley-corn]

Me and my parents went to see my brother at university in Conventry on the 6th of May, and he took us to this nearby wood, where there were bluebells!

[john-barley-corn]

On the 3rd of May, my mum saw a cat in the garden which looked like it was after something, so she went out to scare it away and it turned out it had been eyeing this frog. I think it’s a common frog, but I’m not entirely sure. Unfortunately I didn’t manage to get a non-blurry picture.

[john-barley-corn]

Here’s a game for you: spot the bird in this picture! If you need a clue, look at the tags to find out what species it is.

[john-barley-corn]

At Pennington Flash on the 3rd of June, I saw this robin, and I also saw this peculiar-looking bird, which I thought was a new species:

I couldn’t identify it, so I asked the RSPB for help. Turns out it was simply a juvenile robin! They look quite different from the adults.

[john-barley-corn]

Close-ups of a bullfinch, from Pennington Flash on the 3rd of June, 2018.