Cold morning in a high pressure area and had to scrape ice off the window before driving to Cullaloe. For the second time one of the pitall traps has produced an aquatic larva - most unexpected. This time I think it looks dragonfly-ish, whereas I'm almost sure the previous one was a beetle of some sort.
Anyway, the weather was nice. Birds were singing - Dunnock, Song Thrush, Chaffinch, Yellowhammer amongst them. A nice pair of Bullfinch paused briefly in front of me for a decent look. Colt's-foot flowers are emerging around the embankment and filter beds and last night Pink-footed Geese were making the most of the weather to head north over Fife. If spring isn't quite in the air at 2 degrees, then at least signs of it are.
Soon we'll be over this awkward period when winter species have been recorded and the spring push hasn't yet begun.
The beetle from the other day turned out to be Nebria brevicollis ... or N.salina ... or brevicollis ... I can't decide. Thinking salina was going to be less likely I expected it was a dark brevicollis but now I see it has some inland distribution and I'm not sure. Coloration is right for salina and I can't see the setae that would definitively make it brevicollis either.
(after looking at this site I have decided that it is the more common and more expected brevicollis. link)
This site has some nice ground beetle plates:
http://claude.schott.free.fr/Carabidae/Carabus/Carabidae-liste-planches.html
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