An unusual Fly and a trip to the Cemy.

Friday 14th June 2024.

Field Poppies were abundant throughout the Cemy.

A blustery, showery day today though with plenty of sunny intervals with south-westerly winds. After my first shift at Pembroke Road (14 species recorded this morning and no Cats got run over either!) the dogs got their second walk of the day with a nice stroll around Highland Road Cemetery (I think the Council have now named it simply Highland Cemetery and dropped the ‘Road’ bit!).

Above, the underrated beauty of Mallow plants and below, a pair of Carrion Crows within the Cemy on top of one of the ornamental Conifers.

Though a low number of species was recorded this morning, we must remember the numbers of  birds seen here as numbers of nearly every species is declining in the UK. The lack of insects is extremely worrying yet the ‘powers that be’ in our City still want all the grass mown and looking boring and miserable. The insects heavily depend on our small pockets of grassland, which will reward the birds and produce more young. I noticed the banks by the Curtain Moat in Old Portsmouth has just been mown and looks absolutely dreadful for it!! 

Above, just a few Goldfinches were seen here today and below, the customary Herring Gulls on the neighbouring houses. The Herring Gulls are nesting now and I can hear the youngsters calling when I walk down my street.

Though there was a lack of bird species this morning, I tend to concentrate on the insects and plants this wonderful place has to offer and a few more plants were now coming into bloom along with the more regular ones. Field Poppies are now in bloom along with the likes of Common Nipplewort, Cut-leaved Crane’s-bill,  Smooth Tare, Hoary Willowherb and Creeping Cinquefoil as well as good sprays of Ox-eye Daisies, Purple Toadflax and both Prickly and Smooth Sow-thistle provide plenty of flowers for the smaller insects to nectar on including the Marmalade Hoverfly I found today enjoying the flower heads of the latter plant. I did find a Caterpillar which I eventually identified as a Knot Grass moth caterpillar feeding on the leaves of a Green Alkanet plant that was growing close to the Mausoleum.

Above, a Marmalade Hoverfly on Smooth Sow-thistle. Below, Hoary Willowherb.

Above, Creeping Cinquefoil was abundant by the footpaths and below, a Knot Grass caterpillar on Green Alkanet.

Sadly, I expect soon one of the Council workers will start spraying the graves with weedkiller shortly, which I wish they would stop. It has to be said that most of the graves here are very, very old and very few people come here to pay their respect. Why not just let nature take its course and think of the wildlife?

Above, Common Nipplewort was growing along the footpaths and below, my dogs making their way along the footpath by the Holm Oak clump. Note the remains of the flowers from the trees laden covering the footpath. I saw a car in Old Portsmouth absolutely covered with the flowers of the same tree it sat under.

The birds recorded this morning on my walk around the Cemy included the following:

• Herring Gull
• Black-headed Gull
• Wren
• Robin
• Blackbird
• Starling
• House Sparrow
• Wood Pigeon
• Feral Pigeon
• Collared Dove
• Goldfinch
• Carrion Crow
• Magpie

When I got home and fed the dogs, a strange looking Fly / Bee was in my kitchen. I quickly potted it and came to the conclusion and narrowed it down to a Lliona lineata type of Fly. There was very little information on this creature on the internet, so I shall put it on the relevant Facebook page to get more info on it. Amazingly, I got a quick response this afternoon and it is in fact a Phoenix Fly (Dorycera graminum) and apparently, quite rare.

The male Phoenix Fly that was in my kitchen this morning.

Ive put out dried Mealworms for the birds now and it didnt take long for the birds to come down and feed on them. I have to top the feeder up every day now and not only the House Sparrows are coming down to them, but a family party of Blackbirds are coming into the garden to feast on them too. Great stuff. This afternoon, on my second shift at Pembroke Road, Old Portsmouth; sadly, one of the juvenile Carrion Crows was found dead lying on the pavement, but on a positive note, a female Peregrine sailed overhead heading low west and then south-west towards Portsmouth Harbour entrance, upsetting the local Gulls in doing so.