Spot On @iSpot_uk

Another failed twitch bird hunt this weekend, I'm afraid. Whilst we were at Deb's 40th birthday party on Saturday evening, Lawrie let me know that a Great White Egret had been seen at Fairburn Ings. After a short discussion, when I was told off for tweeting at the table, we arranged to go for it early today.

Unfortunately, as per usual, it had flown. But we had a great couple of hours in the sunshine and had several clear sightings of Cuckoo, a Green Woodpecker and watched whilst Swallows fed their young on the reedbeds behind Lin Dyke hide.

We agreed that Lawrie could blip the Swallows, as he has the younger reflexes and had got the better action shots. Whilst I, consigned to gimmerdom, knew I had a much slower subject at home.

Last week, some of the younger kids at Rebecca's school were learning about mini-beasts. This stirred their curiosity and when she was on playtime duty, Rebecca had to set up a mini Customs Post, to search for undeclared bugs and contraband foliage before the anklebiters went back to class.

A few of the kids had their pockets stuffed with leaves and grass, which contained loads of small larvae they had found. One young girl had captured so many that they were crawling out of their hiding places onto her school uniform. Rebecca told me the story over tea and, sensing a bliportunity, I asked if she could bring some of the larvae home for me to identify.

This is one of the bugs. Less than five millimetres long, its true colours are only revealed when magnified. Unfortunately, I couldn't identify it, but knew a web site that could help.

iSpot is an Open University project, part of the Open Air Laboratories OPAL initiative. Members help members to identify all manner of wildlife. I posted photos of the larvae on the site, with other helpful details, and later this afternoon "wad25" came back with the ID. What a great idea!! You must try it whenever you are stumped.

You can see another view of this bug and my Swallow pictures from today on my flickr photostream.