2019 - Year of the something or another...

Sometimes blogging can be fun and rewarding, other times it can be a bit of a chore. Lately, I think, a small degree of apathy has set in. Unwanted, unasked for, but it's there all the same. Meh. My oh-so-gloriously-named Challenge 2019 is limping along, but no more than that. I haven't written a blogpost on that site since mid-February, quite ridiculous.

There's a guy who has just started blogging about his attempt to see representatives of all British fly families in 2019, a total of 106 families, though realistically he expects to see less than half of that number. In his own words, "...see how many families of flies I could see through the year. Each time I see one from a new family I will write a post, and by the end of the year I hope to know my way around them." I liked the sound of that, so immediately bookmarked his blog and you can read it for yourself by clicking The Year of the Fly.

But what about my own Challenge, I hear you cry. Calm down, I just told you it's limping along - it's not completely dead in the water just yet (give it time...) Yesterday it was sunny. SUNNY!!! That rarely happens, thankfully it was also bitterly cold else I would have thought spring had finally sprung. Once again I found myself regretting that recent haircut and lack of beard (and gloves!) High overhead, a stratospheric skein of 106 Pink-footed Geese noisily proclaimed themselves as they headed north westwards. Next stop...Iceland? Likewise, flocks of Icelandic Redwings have been highly prominent for the past two days. This morning they mostly cleared out, just a handful left in the woods and fields. But I did actually find a few flies, unlikely though it seemed in the raw wind.

Calliphora vomitoria - this is the default 'bluebottle' up here. Note the ginger beard

Scathophaga calida - with the red frons and massively hairy hind legs 

I netted seven flies from the rotting wrackline, six were Scathophaga calida (4m amd 2f) plus one that I haven't sussed yet. With this species, it's a case of checking whether the acrostichals rows are closer together than they are from the dorsocentrals, which they were, in order to rule out the similar Scathophaga litorea. Plus the ridiculously hairy hind tibia in the males, which are lacking in S.litorea. 

I was shocked to watch a sizeable hoverfly zigzagging through the wind, across an area of open grass and then set up hovering about a metre away from my face. The daft bugger. One swipe of the net and it was secured. I keyed it through to Cheilosia grossa, an early flying species that is widespread but seemingly under-recorded in the adult stage (probably due to the early flight season, before most dipterists stir from hibernation) and not one I've seen before. 'New' to Skye too, according to the maps.

Cheilosia grossa - new for the entire Hebridean archipelago, it seems!

Here are a couple of pics of my main fly-stalking habitats. Fly-stalking, blimey whatever next!

This wall faces south and often holds sunbathing flies, all desperate to warm up before I arrive with my net

Another south facing feature that often holds flies. More diversity here too, not just calliphorids as per the wall

The beetle list is slowly growing, most impressive find yesterday was a Creophilus maxillosus which was literally blown (yep, like a tiny tumbleweed!) across the track in front of me. I thought it was a dead bee at first, maybe a dull Andrena or somesuch, then it slowly uncurled, lumbered into life and started walking around the pot I'd popped it into. It's a proper smart beast and the first I've seen on Skye, though seemingly quite a common species across the Inner Hebrides, being recorded from all main islands either near the strandline or beneath mammal carcases. I also have a small staphylinid which keys through beautifully to the wrong species. I'll try it again some other time...

My boot is 32cm long - I'm thinking this probably isn't a rabbit or sheep bone...

Tomorrow we're due some snow. In April. FML. I need warmth, long days and lots of invert action. Soon, I'll keep telling myself soon... 

I think I've played this at you before, but it's sheer brilliance so have it again

Random factoid #271 - I need 24 more species to reach 600 species of vertebrate on my British PSL