Day 79 - Coombes Valley (an RSPB reserve)

I spent a couple of hours at RSPB Coombes Valley this morning as it's somewhere I haven't been for a while.  I hadn't walked far from the car park when I spotted this caterpillar. An angle shades moth caterpillar I think.

There were lots of flies out today.

I saw a couple of Leucozona glaucia hoverflies, but didn't manage to take a decent photo before either of them flew away!

A couple of feathers I picked up as I walked. Is anyone good at feather ID? I wondered if the left one came from a tawny owl and the right one perhaps from a kestrel? I'm really not sure though.

One of the Ichneumon suspiciosus aggregates -  a parasitic wasp. These lay eggs in moth larvae and then feed on the body of the host caterpillar. I find this species in the kitchen quite often!

I wonder what creature did this to the tip of the fern?

And what are these? I'm thinking possibly hoverfly larvae but am really not sure.

This one I do know. It's a lacewing larva.

I've finally identified these as Sulphur Tuft mushrooms. I found some like this last September and tried to identify them at the time without success so I'm pleased to have finally got an ID on them!

Coombes Valley is one of the few places where Argent and Sable moths are found and I'm pretty sure these curled leaves on a young birch tree contain the caterpillars. I know that this is just the right habitat for the species (that's why they're seen here) and that caterpillars are present at this time of year and make themselves a home in leaves at the tips of branches of birch and bog myrtle. They feed from inside the leaf and the pupal stage will over winter like this.

Fungus on a tree stump

Some kind of stretch spider (one of the genus Tetragnatha )

Flesh fly

Yellow bellied fly (Sciara hemerobioides)

Green leafhopper

Grasshopper

I passed this scene and deduced that someone had left a pile of seed and the pigeon had been too busy eating it to notice a predator sneaking up!

A moth I haven't looked up yet but I'd think it's some sort of Rustic moth.

As I was leaving, I came across a small flock of mistle thrushes in a field. One of the group was perching above on a wire.