A Year in the Valley

There were some small beetles on an old wooden bridge that we had carried up the watermeadow for the winter, so that it didn’t get washed away.  Black and shiny with reddish legs, a longer shape than the bronze beetle that I spotted in October.  Ground beetles have long filiform (thread-shaped) antennae and five-segmented feet.  They live in moss and leaf litter in marshy habitats and wet woodland.  I think it might be a Bembidion gilvipes beetle looking at the colour and shape, with a relatively broad, chunky thorax.