Butterflies and Ladybirds

For the first time this year, on the 15th June, I recorded butterflies on all ten sections of my butterfly transect.  This runs from Crosstown in Morwenstow down into the Tidna Valley to the Altantic then climbs the cliff before returning along a Cornish hedge to the start.

Last year it was 23rd June when I recorded butterflies on all sections. 

Despite seeing butterflies in each sector, the abundance was low with only 25 specimens but a good range of species; ten in all.  In 2020 I recorded 64 specimens again of 10 species.

Large Skipper and Meadown Brown made their first appearance this year but it was the guest appearance of the second brood of Speckled Woods in the wooded sections that made a 100% record possible.

Large Skipper

Meadow Brown

Speckled Wood

In contrast, there were over 100 newly emerged 7-spot Ladybirds.  All along the open section in the Tidna Valley, were some quite yellow ladybirds.  There were one or two larvae and pupae, but it appeared that there had been a mass emergence and they had not quite managed to achieve their normal red colour.

Newly-emerged 7-spot Ladybird

Blogs I follow

https://downgatebatman.blogspot.com/

https://maryatkinsonwildonline.blogspot.com/

In like a Lion, out like a Lamb

In March, the surveying season starts. And when it starts, it starts with a bang.

After weeks of inaction due to Covid restrictions, the second week of March has been filled with the resumption of surveys of all types.

First off was Sunday morning, 14th March, surveying Maer Lake for the BTO’s Wetland Birds Survey. There were a limited number of bird species, although there was an unprecedented mixed flock of over 300 gulls, as most of the winter waders had left although a pair of Shelduck remained giving hopes of another breeding year. Black-tailed Godwits were also noted; they seem to be residents now.

This was quickly followed the next day by a visit to Tamar Lakes, again WeBS at Lower and Upper Lakes. This was similar to Maer with few winter visitors although the annual Goosander visitation had not come to an end with four remaining on the Lower and two on the Upper Lake.

Mixed flock of Gulls at Maer Lake

The temperature was around 13℃ so high enough to commence the Bee walk in Coombe woods. Although not many were seen, we did find that where Willows were in flower, they had attracted quite a few Buff-tailed Bumblebee queens high up in the canopy.

Thursday 18th was the day we planned the quarterly bird transect around Bude Marshes. Normally this is a group effort, but to conform with Covid regulations, Duncan and I have been the only two participants for a year now. Numbers of species are definitely down; from 31 last March to only 24 this year although it did include Shelduck, Curlew and two Cattle Egret.

Cattle Egret - Bude Marshes

During the month, the invertebrates had begun to appear from their winter absence. Gorse Shieldbugs, 7-spot Ladybirds and Buff-tailed Bumble bees were appearing at the beginning of the month in that short warm spell.

We had the very cold and windy middle of the month, typical of March until the last week when we had the mini heatwave. Butterflies - Small Tortoiseshell and Brimstone, and those harbingers of spring, Skylarks and House Martins.

During this cold spell, I completed my three Riverfly surveys adding another beetle to my growing species list - Oreodytes sanmarkii, a tiny 2-3mm water beetle that zooms about in the water column of stony streams.

2-3mm Water Beetle - Oreodytes sanmarkii

The 30th was a very warm day, hitting 18℃ when I recommenced my Butterfly Transect along the Tidna. Although there were only four butterflies of three species - Speckled Wood, Peacock and Small Tortoiseshell, other invertebrates were recorded. Common Carder and Red-tailed joined the Buff-tailed Bumblebees along with more Gorse Shieldbugs and 7-spot Ladybirds.

Of great interest were the Oil Beetles. I recorded both Violet Meloe violaceus and Black M. proscarabaeus in the Tidna Valley as well as the triungulins of the Violet species. These are bee parasites. The adults lay eggs in sandy soil near a bee nest . These in turn hatch into triungulins (so called because they have three claws on each leg)which emerge and crawl onto flower heads and lie in wait for a passing bee. They hitch a ride into the bee’s nest where they eat the bee’s eggs before changing into grubs where they remain until emerging as adults the following year. The cycle then repeats.

Clockwise - Violet Oil beetle, triungulins, Black Oil beetle

On the last day of the month another butterfly, a Red Admiral was recorded along with the first Green Shieldbug of the year.

To top it all off, life has continued to develop in my Lockdown Pond. I built it during Lockdown1 from 8th April and filled it with water on the 16th. At the begining of March, I found a Palmate Newt under a log and transfered her into the pond where she vanished into the bottom mud.

Palmate Newt

 In the last few days of the month I have seen, a Backswimmer (Notonecta), Pond skaters (Gerridae), a Whirligig beetle (Gyrinus) and three Dragonfly nymphs. As I noted ovipositing Broad-Bodied Chasers last May, these would appear to be its progeny.

Broad-bodied Chaser nymph

Those last few days of March were gentle, warm and windless - almost as gentle as the large numbers of new-born lambs in the fields.

Blogs I follow

https://downgatebatman.blogspot.com/

https://maryatkinsonwildonline.blogspot.com/

Signs of Spring?

Well officially, it has been the wettest January in 10 years.  I can confirm that from experience!  On the North Cornish coast, we rarely get snow and are too high above sea level to suffer from flooding.  But there certainly has been lots of rain.  Our streams are surging and high and the ditches are overflowing onto the roads.

When it is wet, we experience very low cloud which means we have to walk through a miasma of damp, drizzly all enveloping rain drops.

Despite all this, nature is beginning her regeneration.

New lambs

Mammals, such as deer and squirrels are becoming more obvious, out looking for mates and visible through the leafless branches.  We have new lambs gambolling in the fields. Birds too are becoming apparent with Nuthatch, Pheasant, Goldcrest appearing and a territorial Robin singing every 100 yards or so.

Invertebrates are beginning to appear too.  During late January I have recorded a Ruby Tiger Moth caterpillar trying to get run over on the road; it was safely returned to the verge.  

Garden Tiger Moth caterpillar

One sunny day there was a Queen German Wasp investigating Ivy and I have rescued two other species from the cold wet weather.  

Queen German Wasp

Queen German Wasp

I found a Common Earwig on our coal bunker and a 7-spot Ladybird on the house wall.  Both are now ensconced on my pop-up butterfly cage which is now serving as a hibernaculum for them and an overwintering chrysalis that I hope will prove to be a Red Admiral when it emerges.

Common Earwig and 7-spot Ladybird

Flowers are also pushing out of the verges, with buds and flowers showing.  Honeysuckle is in bud and in the last days of January a number of plants were in flower; Dandelion, Lesser Celandine, Barren Strawberry, Primrose, Snowdrop, Dog’s Mercury, Alexanders and Daffodils almost ready to pop.

Snowdrops

Honeysuckle buds

Dog's Merucry

Alexanders

There are certainly signs of Spring in North Cornwall

Blogs I follow

https://downgatebatman.blogspot.com/

https://maryatkinsonwildonline.blogspot.com/

The Dark Days of December?

 

As the end of the year fast approaches, the days become increasingly shorter.  There is less time, and less light, so I don’t expect to be able to see much of nature, especially flowers or invertebrates.

I began this blog on the 21st of December; the Winter Solstice which is the shortest day and longest night of the year. Literally, one bright phenomenon to look out for was the so-called Star of Bethlehem, the Great  Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn.  In the days leading up to this “once in 400 years” event, early evening cloud prevented it being visible.  We have an excellent dark sky view to our south and west from home but couldn’t beat the clouds.  That is, until the 22nd when the vision was apparent

The rain during these few days meant that even the view from our windows to the feeders was blurred and indistinct.

Saturn and Jupiter

Our daily walks were punctuated with rain, but even when it cleared, there was no much expectation of seeing anything of note.

The farmers had been using this quiet time to trim their hedges and verges, further reducing opportunities as vegetation and any insect population was trimmed back to woody branches.

Neatly trimmed hedgerows

The omni-present Red Campion was seen every day as well as its companion Herb Robert.  We were unprepared for an out of season Field Buttercup but not too surprised to see an early Primrose and a single Lesser Celandine right at the beginning of the month.  The vanilla/marzipan smell of the groups of Winter Heliotrope are a welcome Christmas flower.

Field Buttercup

Primrose

Winter Heliotrope

An advantage of trimmed hedges and verges, is that the hedge bottom is visible and in the gaps, can be seen the fields normally hidden by Cornish Hedges.

Fungi were found in the hedge bottoms but despite the wet damp weather, were not abundant.  Brackets and encrusting fungi could be see as well as a few Candlesnuff fungi (Xylaria hypoxylon) the rare, but spreading Perenniporia ochroleuca as well as Tawny Funnel - Lepista flaccida and my favourite, Cobalt Crust.

https://northcornwallnaturalist.blogspot.com/2020/11/blue-sky-experience.html

Tawny Funnel Cap

Perenniporia ochroleuca

Cobalt Crust

Invertebrates were very few, although any sunshine brought out masses of midges near the stream at Crosswater.  A late German Wasp was seen on Ivy, no doubt seeking a hibernacula.  One Green Shieldbug was also found on an Ivy leaf for three days in a row, before it either succumbed to predation or fell lower down the hedgerow.  We also had a couple of sightings of active 7-spot Ladybirds.

German Wasp

7-spot Ladybird

Green Shieldbug

The views through the hedgerow was welcome allowing us to see a Red Fox crossing a field and a Roe Deer busily eating amongst the Purple Moor Grass until it sensed us.  Two areas on our walk have quite a number of trees and here, on three or four occasions we were rewarded with sightings of Grey Squirrel.  We often see the hoofprints of deer on the paths that cut the hedges and cross the roads, but carrying the correct lens at the right time to get a photograph of a deer itself is more challenging.

Red Fox

Roe Deer

Deer slot

Another advantage was to be able to find abandoned bird nests.  We identified these as Tits, Blackbird and at least four Wrens’ nests.

A Wren's nest

Apart from the permanent presence of Gulls and Corvids, we were rewarded by the sighing of a small flock of Long-tailed Tits, a couple of Great Spotted Woodpeckers chasing each other and, at regular intervals along the walk, a singing Robin.

Back home, there are more invertebrates with Winter Moths regularly seeking out our lighted windows and a rain speckled 7-spot Ladybird rescued from the house wall and brought into the garage.

Winter Moth

The last sighting of the year on the 31st was of a Rabbit.  It's good to know that they are surviving Myxomatosis and VHD.

Blogs I follow

https://downgatebatman.blogspot.com/

https://maryatkinsonwildonline.blogspot.com/

What’s eating Shieldbugs?

On our local patch we can expect to record four different species of Shield or Squash bug on most days when it is not pouring with rain.  These four are:-

Dock Bugs (Coreus marginatus) are usually seen in tens of individuals with all five instar and adult stages throughout the year.

Dock Bug and Green Shieldbug instars

Green Shieldbugs (Palomena prasina) similarly found in tens and all stages of their life cycle.

Green Shieldbug and Dock Bug adults

Sloe Shieldbugs (Dolycoris baccarum) are less common.  We are lucky to see one or two of these at a time and usually only in the adult stage.

Sloe Shieldbug

Gorse Shieldbugs (Piezodorus lituratus) are again only usually seen in ones or twos and generally the adult stage and only on one particular Gorse bush.  That is, we used to see them on most days until the end of July.  My records show then in all months from January through to the 28th of July - then nothing.

Gorse Shieldbu

In a different part of the parish, on Gorse bushes on top of the Atlantic cliffs I am usually rewarded with a sighting or two every week when I walk my Butterfly Transect.  But, nothing on their usual Gorse shrub on our daily walks until the 26th of September when there was one.

So where had they been I asked myself?

On Lundy I have come across the occasional Gorse Shieldbug carapace caught up in a spider’s web.  And, there are certainly Garden Orb spiders and Labyrinth spiders in amongst the Shieldbugs’ favourite bush.  Perhaps the spiders had been culling them.

However, during September one and sometimes two Common Lizards had taken up residence in that particular Gorse Bush.  On warm sunny days they could be found basking in the sun as we carefully walked by.

Common Lizards

I am aware that lizards predate slugs, but have they developed a taste for Gorse Shieldbugs causing them to move out or to move deeper into the shelter of the Gorse.

So, a good selection of Shieldbugs to be found on my local exercise walk. There was a unique sighting of the predatory Spiked Shieldbug (Picromerus bidens) devouring a caterpillar in 2013, which first piqued my interest.

Spiked Shieldbug and caterpillar

Stop press, just yesterday 8th October two Hazel Shieldbugs (Acanthosoma haemorrhoidale), new for the site!

Hawthorn Shieldbug

Blogs I follow

https://downgatebatman.blogspot.com/

https://maryatkinsonwildonline.blogspot.com/

Red Letter Day

A red letter day is one of those days highlighted in red on the calendar, from the medieval practice of colouring saints days in red.

Today, despite the very strong north easterly wind, I embarked on my weekly butterfly transect.  I expected a few stray species not a bumper crop.

Beginning at the Bush Inn at Crosstown, I quickly notched up 5 Small Whites.

Small White

And so it continued through each of the ten sections with butterflies on each of them.

All week I have been noting many Large and Small Whites as well as Red Admirals so was expecting to see some of them.

Red Admiral

I was totally unprepared for the sheer numbers.  I recorded 40 Small and 14 Large whites but what made a real RED letter day was the 51 Red Admirals seen on 9 of the 10 sections.

Small Coppers and Small Tortoiseshells as well as the almost mandatory Speckled Wood and two rather late tattered Silver-washed Fritillaries made up the rest of the list. It was the second largest total of butterflies I have recorded this year.

Small Copper

For a September transect, I counted an unusually large total of 143 butterflies of 7 species.

To top it all off, deep in the woods on Bracken was an unusual sightiing for this area, a Hawthorn Shieldbug.

Hawthorn Shieldbug

Truly a butterfly transect to note on the calendar in red.

Blogs I follow

https://downgatebatman.blogspot.com/

https://maryatkinsonwildonline.blogspot.com/

Living in a Zoo - Mammals

 These last few weeks we have seen more mammals that usual.  I wonder if it is dispersal time and we are seeing youngsters seeking their own territories.

The blog was prompted by the sighting of a Stoat on our garden.  We have seen one before usually once year.  My records show one in March 2016 and again in September 2017.  This one appeared this last week on 27th August.  It was doing what they always do, snaking in and out of the stones in our wall; no doubt following the routes that our resident Bank Vole takes. 

Stoat

Bank Voles are resident in our garden wall.  I have records from 2014 up to the present. They appear almost every day traversing the route along the back fence, before emerging from the right hand wall, dashing across the gap and into the other wall.  Here they appear between the stones and head into the undergrowth before returning a few minutes later. 

Bank Vole

I know there are Hedgehogs in the garden, they leave little present of their dropping here and there.  My records show them from 2014 mainly in Summer and Autumn.  I left a part of the lawn to grow and noticed hedgehog sized tracks through the long grass which my trail camera confirmed were hedgehog trails. 

Hedgehog

An unwelcome visitor since this year has been a regular sighting of a Brown Rat.  It appears to follow a route between our fence and hedgerow before heading into next door’s garden.  Our neighbour very kindly puts down food to attract hedgehogs, but the rats have noticed and make regular calls to check for free food.

Brown Rat

We have had the odd sighting of a Red Fox in the field beyond our fence.  Two wonderful sightings were made in July when a young fox visited on the 23^rd and again on the 29^th.  Earlier sightings were of an old mangy fox, this youngster can visit any time.

Red Fox

Since 2015, I have recorded the occasional Grey Squirrels looking longingly at the bird feeds, a newly acquired ground feeder was found in June by a squirrel.  It came day after day to gorge on any peanuts in the feeder but we had to remove it when the rat appeared. 

Grey Squirrel

Bats are quite common around our house.  Once shortly after we moved in 20 years ago, we called on the services of the North Devon Bat Group who recorded over 90 Pipistrelles emerging from our loft.  We do see them on warm nights and assume that they are Pippistrelles but until we found and photographed a dead one on our drive we could never be sure.

Pippistrelle

There are quite a few pet cats about and they catch quite a lot of vertebrates and leave their prey for us to find.  

Common Shrew

Common Shrews are frequently seen as cat kills on our driveway

Although we can’t condone this and do chase cats from our garden, there have been two remarkable sightings that we might not have had otherwise.  Many years ago, I photographed a very blurred picture of what I suspected was a Water ShrewIn July, we came across a cat kill which is undoubtedly the real thing.

Water Shrew

Later on in August, the other extraordinary kill was a Dormouse.  

Hazel Dormouse

It was dead on the road and had obviously been hit by a car, but to be on the road it had probably been caught by a cat and then left there.