Summer migration

Roger K.A. Morris · Joined: 06 Nov 2005 Posts: 465

I spent a very boring day on the fens yesterday - very windy and not much about. My impression is that the main bulk of hovers has been boosted by immigration - plenty of E. balteatus, but also good numbers of Eupeodes corollae and a single Scaeva pyrastri. What was also noteworthy was that Syrphus ribesii was abundant but S. vitripennis was almost absent. Will this be the same when the main migration happens - if it does this year.

Keep your eyes peeled and notebooks ready - it would be good to get a feeling of how the main wave comes through this year.

Regards

Roger

conopid · Posted: Sun Jul 20, 2008 5:31 pm Post subject:

Had a couple of fariiy boring days out in Shropshire. Lots of E baltaetus and Syrphus about - mine were vitripennis though. A couple of Scaeva. I have also noticed relatively high numbers of Epistrope grossulariae in the last couple of weeks.

A Mallota cimbiciformis elevated the first day from fairly boring to ecstatically exciting! My first ever. It was on hogweed in a woodland close to Shrewsbury - a very weather worn female.

Sam Bryo · Joined: 24 Jul 2010 Posts: 5

I was surprised to see at least 8 Scaeva pyrastri on one flowering shrub in the Coop carpark in Llandeilo yesterday (23/7). I've seen a few around here in the last few weeks, but this was the biggest 'flock' I've encountered in 6 years of hoverfly recording. Last year I had selenitica regularly in the garden (bordering a big Spruce plantation) but only a couple of pyrastri all year.

Sam (Bosanquet, as it's my first post)

Ian Andrews · Posted: Mon Jul 26, 2010 3:24 pm Post subject:

I have just come back from a few days camping by the Somme at Amiens, in northern France. There were huge numbers of Episyrphus balteatus, there, and large numbers of Scaeva pyrastri...every thistle seemed to have one.
Whether these were migrants making their way towards Britain, I don't know, but there were certainly very large numbers of both.

Like Conopid, I was seeing large numbers of Epistrophe grossulariae, before I went away, on the chalk hillsides of the Yorkshire Wolds...way more than usual, I felt.

Ian

Colin Boyd · Joined: 09 Sep 2009 Posts: 52 Location: East Sussex

Large numbers of E. balteatus today ( East Sussex), plus numerous S. pyrastri.

I have a report in the last two days of "hundreds" of S. pyrastri on the South Coast of Isle of Wight at Yaverland

conopid · Posted: Mon Jul 26, 2010 10:40 pm Post subject:

There is almost certainly a migration underway. Watch out for lots of Syrphinae - but probably not a huge number of species....

benacre · Joined: 31 Mar 2009 Posts: 17

Lots of Scaeva pyrastri in off the sea at Kessingland Suffolk VC25 this week several tideline corpses here too