Ladybirds have been a theme of 2022. Fresh from twelve months of ladybird recording, here’s a quick round-up of the highlights this year.
Category Archives: Ladybird Recording
Ladybirds: A Short Talk and a New Course
With the arrival of winter, now seemed like a good time to look back on a year’s worth of ladybirds and look forward to a new course in 2023. A New Short Talk Golly. For someone who shies away from talks of any kind (and don’t even get me started on crowds), Zoom has beenContinue reading “Ladybirds: A Short Talk and a New Course”
Great sites for ladybirds in the North East
A breif and evolving list of great places to find and record ladybirds in North East England.
Ladybirds along the Tyne – Elswick, Heaton, Havannah & Prudhoe
From the city carparks and cemeteries to chalk mounds at Prudhoe, it has been a fantastic fortnight for local ladybirds.
Spotted Marsh Ladybird, Coccidula scutellata, at Gosforth Nature Reserve
This week, I was delighted to record what appears to be the first Spotted Marsh Ladybird recorded in South Northumberland (VC67). Searching various local wetlands this year for Red Marsh Ladybird and Water Ladybird, one thing that has persisted at the back of my mind had been the possibility of finding the former’s far scarcerContinue reading “Spotted Marsh Ladybird, Coccidula scutellata, at Gosforth Nature Reserve”
A Quick Guide to Black Ladybirds
A short guide to some of the black ladybirds you could encounter while ladybird spotting across the UK
A ladybird extravaganza – local recording in July
With visits to some of my favourite haunts and lots to see elsewhere, July has been a great month for ladybird recording.
Rearing ladybird larvae – an experiment
To help identify a few of the tricker species out there, recently, I’ve been experimenting by rearing ladybird larvae at home.
Recording North East ladybirds: twenty-six species and counting
Inspired by the Natural History Society of Northumbria’s North East Ladybird Spot and the #LadybirdYearList challenge launched on Twitter by Andrew Jewels, this year I’ve been dedicating quite a bit of time to finding and recording the North East’s ladybirds.
Heather Ladybirds at Rothbury
Continuing this year’s quest to find and record ladybirds across the North East, back at the end of March I popped up to Rothbury in search of the elusive Heather Ladybird (Chilocorus bipustulatus). This is a species which should, theoretically, be incredibly numerous up here given the abundance of Heather but despite this, there isContinue reading “Heather Ladybirds at Rothbury”
Rhyzobius chrysomeloides in Tyneside
Recently, I was delighted to discover a population of the inconspicuous ladybird, Rhyzobius chrysomeloides, in Tyneside.
Exploring the scarcer ladybirds of Newcastle
While out and about in search of ladybirds this last few weeks, I have been lucky enough to stumble across a number of scarce and unusual species