Signs of Spring Around Bossay sur Claise

On Monday 27 March we joined the Phoenix en Claise walking group for a 5 kilometre ramble through the countryside around Bossay sur Claise. There were plenty of signs of Spring, with both iconic early emerging insects showing their faces, and wild flowers heralding the longer days and warmer temperatures.

Male Violet Oil Beetle Meloe violaceus (Fr. Méloé violet).

A waymarker for the Chemin de Saint Martin pilgrim route.

I think this cup fungus is Toads Ear Otidea bufonia or a close relative.

Cowslips Primula veris (Fr. coucou) and Long-leaved Lungwort Pulmonaria longifolia (Fr. la Pulmonaire à longues feuilles).

Walking through fields of winter wheat.

Male Andrena sp mining bees on canola.

Justyna Kierat, a Polish bee expert, thinks these might be A. lagopus, which are brassicae specialists. What we can see of the wing venation supports this (A. lagopus is the only Andrena to have two rather than three sub-marginal cells).

Cowslips popping up all over a farmhouse lawn. Many of them have mutated to have red flowers.

Taking the photo above involved jumping a ditch and clinging on to a mesh fence. I let my friend Jim display his athletic prowess to take this photo with my phone. He then promptly dropped the phone. For a second I thought it had landed inside the fence, which would have involved knocking on the farm door and hoping someone was home in order to retrieve it. Luckily it was outside the fence and landed on soft grass covered earth, so no damage done.

A farmstead.

Walking along the greenway (Fr. voie verte).