Kuwait Birding: Lockdown

Week 14; 04 April 20 - Fnaitees

On my anniversary, away from my wife, I decided to see what was around my 3-floor apartment building pre and post curfew. Fnaitees is a new area, so there is a lot of construction going on (much slower now during the lockdown). Around my apartment there is a really small garden with plants that smell like Basel (perhaps they are) and Oleander along with artificial grass in the neighbours garden.

It seems an ideal time to start a photographic invertebrates list, so I also dusted off my macro lens.

I must thank Huw Roberts who assisted with the ID for some of the species, as I don't have any literature on insects of the Middle East.

Fortunately the Basel type plants are in flower and the most obvious insect is the Honey Bee which I discovered can be variable in colour. It is amazing to watch them both harvest the pollen and pollinate the really small flowers. You can see the pollen stored on the back legs!

Honey Bee (Apis mellifera)

Also seen harvesting was an Asian Dwarf Honey Bee

Asian Dwarf Honey Bee (Apis florea)

This Wasp sp. made a brief appearance or looking for prey

Wasp sp.

You really have to get down low and look very closely as many of the insects are quite tiny - here the remnants of a spider exo-skeleton

Itsy bitsy Spider

Ants were often seen in the tangles of the Basel Plant. The Ant in the second image was quite translucent

Ant sp.

On one of the Oleander flowers was this really tiny Spider that was a really challenge to focus on and find again if you lost focus. Which is really easy to do with macro photography - a breeze is not your friend!

Spider sp.

There were many Fly species on the Oleander plants, from really small

Fly sp.

to pretty chunky beasts, like this one on some dead Sabkha type bush not far from the driveway

Sarcophagidae sp.

In these same dead and spiky Sabka bushes, there were quite a few other insects to be seen; A Bee Fly species, also pretty big and fast flying

Bombyllidae sp.

But there was also a skulking Crimson-speckled Flunkey

Crimson-speckled Flunkey (Utetheisa pulchella)

And I was thrilled to find quite a few diminutive Western Pygmy Blue butterflies. I discovered this butterfly as a 1st for Kuwait a few years back and here they are outside my apartment. They are pretty striking..

Western Pygmy Blue (Brephidium exilis)

The Mediterranean Pierrot is a lot bigger in relative terms, but also striking and with a distinctive underwing pattern

Mediterranean Pierrot (Tarucus rosacea0

A European Beewolf or Bee-killer Wasp landed on an exposed twig and groomed itself - or do insects also preen?

European Beewolf (Philanthus triangulum)

After curfew, I changed lenses and went to the open patio on the top floor and watched a few European Bee-eaters pass through and overhead with no respect for the curfew hours.