Week 25: Hello Essex & Kestrels Fledge

My life is complete! Well, it is in terms of finding all 3 species of little orange Skipper butterflies on Box Moor Trust land. More than that, I can’t say.

My wanderings this week started with a quick visit on Monday morning to Dellfield. As soon as I opened the car door, I could hear young falcons calling. The first creature to come swooping past me as I entered the meadow was an adult Kestrel. I didn’t catch whether it was the male or female but it was heading for a noisy youngster located high up in the trees in Ryders (the field west of Dellfield). This is exactly the same area I’d seen a pair of Kestrels mating in early May so I guess springtime shenanigans were successful. Anyway, once food had been delivered, the fledgling took a short flight to a more exposed perch, giving me the chance to get a photograph, albeit a rather distant one. It and its fellow offspring (3 in total, I think) were constantly calling for food and attention. The universal plight of new parents!

The view across Dellfield towards Ryders. The line of trees, from left to right, runs along Ryders' border with Dellfield. The Kestrels were initially in the right corner: the trees you can see, if you look between the Oak and its neighbouring Scots Pine.

When it comes to photographing the Oak, I sometimes have an idea of what I’m after. Other times, it’s a case of responding to what’s in front of me. On Monday, it was the latter. Early on, I’d taken a few shots but none that satisfied. As I walked back down from visiting the pond on Preston Hill, the Oak was drenched in shadow and set against the wisps and puffs of a striking cloud formation. I quickly got into place and timed the shot to coincide with the Oak remaining in silhouette whilst the meadow in the background was released into the light. I love how clouds passing over the sun can create such fleeting drama on an otherwise static scene. Blink and you'll miss it.

Now to this week’s life completing experience (compensation perhaps for watching Federer nearly, nearly win...but actually lose in the final on Sunday). Tuesday, I plumped for Bovingdon Brickworks. Butterflies galore! And, within about 10 minutes of arriving, there in front of me, settled on a delicate pink flower, was an Essex Skipper butterfly (Thymelicus lineal) (ref last week's post). They emerge slightly later than Small Skippers (the end of June rather than mid June). Their inky black-tipped antennae being the clinching ID feature. You do have to be a little careful (apparently) as Small Skipper’s antennae can “show very dark brown undertips, whilst others have confusing amounts of black on top of their antennae”. The other quite noticeable feature, especially when comparing the photographs, is the shape of the forewing. The Essex Skipper’s appears to be squarer. The colour also seems to be brighter: a feature noted by Charles Smith but qualified later as perhaps being a result of the later emergence and therefore fresher state of specimens. However, my photographs were taken 9 days apart so perhaps the Essex Skipper truly is a brighter butterfly than the Small Skipper. For a more detailed comparison of Hertfordshire’s Skippers see this excellent webpage.

All 3 orange Skipper species, photographed on Box Moor Trust land

Finally, a few metres beyond the Skipper, I found a Creeping Thistle hosting 5 Common Red Soldier Beetles (Rhagonycha fulva). “Adults feed on aphids, and also eat pollen and nectar. Larvae prey on ground-dwelling invertebrates, such as slugs and snails, and live at the base of long grasses. The adults spend much of their short, summer lives mating and can often be seen in pairs.” The literature doesn’t lie!

POST SCRIPT August 2016 

With time and experience, I am no longer convinced the Skipper photographed above and labelled as Essex Skipper is indeed an Essex Skipper. It could be but a view of the underside of the antenna would be conclusive and I didn't manage that, unfortunately.

Week 24: A Novel Use of Nettles & Family Wagtail

The first week of July and yet, applying my mind is like trying to rouse a tiny dormouse, snuggled up in a downy nest, seeing out the winter. That is to say, the creative juices have run dry. I’m adopting the less is more approach when it comes to words and will perhaps rethink things from week 26 onwards. By that point, the project will have been going for 6 months and might be worth tweaking/reworking/abandoning. Who knows.

Ok, first up, it’s a female Banded Demoiselle.

This one was fluttering around the common nettles by the river, east of Station Road on Harding's Moor. At one point it looked as though it was ovipositing some 15 metres from the river (pardon?!). That had me scratching my head until someone suggested that perhaps the Demoiselle was using the bristles on the nettle leaf to clean itself. That made perfect sense, especially when I noticed that apart from the mating claspers (cerci) and ovipositing appendages (stylus), the damselfly had a foreign object hanging from its rear end (nice!)!

After the Broad-bodied Chasers, I’ve seen an additional 3 species of dragonfly this week on Trust land. A few Emperors (river Bulbourne, Gadespring cress beds and Preston Hill pond), a Southern Hawker around Fishery Moor and a Common Darter (photographed, left) at the Preston Hill pond.

Most noticeable this week, though, has been the number and variety of butterflies out and about. Marbled Whites, Commas, Small Tortoiseshell, Meadow Browns, Ringlets, Red Admiral and Small Whites to name but a few. Add to that, Small and Large Skippers out in good numbers now. I have attempted a Skipper ID comparison (below) from photographs taken at the Brickworks this week.

Small Skipper (Thymelicus sylvestris) (left); Large Skipper (Ochlodes sylvanus) (right)

3 Key Differences

1. Size (wingspan): Small Skipper 27-34mm; Large Skipper (male) 29-34mm, (female) 31-36mm. Their wingspans overlap but the Small Skipper is noticeably smaller in the field.
2. Shading on the wing: Large Skipper - dark shading/patterning on forewing
3. Antennae: Small Skipper - orange/brown rounded tips; Large Skipper - hooked tips. I’ve not found an Essex Skipper (yet) so don’t have to worry about that!

Up on Further Roughdown, I came across a pair of mating Ringlets (Aphantopus hyperantus). Their larval foodplants are grasses [Cock's-foot (Dactylis glomerata), Common Couch (Elytrigia repens), False Brome (Brachypodium sylvaticum), Meadow-grasses (various) (Poa spp.) and Tufted Hair-grass (Deschampsia cespitosa)].

And, near Old Fishery Lane, a Gatekeeper butterfly (Pyronia tithonus) was warming itself, perched on nettles. This is another species that relies on grasses as larval foodplants [Bents (various) (Agrostis spp.), Fescues (various) (Festuca spp.) and Meadow-grasses (various) (Poa spp.). Common Couch (Elytrigia repens)].

Early on in the week, Monday, I think it was, I was walking across Station Moor when I suddenly heard the distressed calls of a Grey Wagtail. I looked up to see a Sparrowhawk lazily flying south, carrying something in its talons. The diminutive Grey Wagtail was in hot pursuit as if its yellow go-faster-stripes were sufficient protection against such a predator. I did wonder if the Sparrowhawk had made off with a young Grey Wagtail. Anyway, on Thursday, I was able to get back to the area and was pleased to discover that, whatever had been going on with the Sparrowhawk, it had not prevented the Grey Wagtail pair from successfully fledging at least 2 youngsters this week by the Fishery Road canal bridge. I’ve put together some video footage of the parents and one of the fledglings. It was a task and a half to capture significant moments when the wind wasn’t gusting and making the footage unusable. Some clips are a little ropey (to put it mildly!) but hopefully that doesn’t detract too much from enjoying the events.



Finally, this week's Oak photograph.

Week 20, Surprises: The Skipper & The Tortoise

It really doesn’t have the same ring to it as “The Hare and the Tortoise” does it, but I didn’t want to get you here under false pretences. A few nice surprises yesterday, which deserve a mention, mean a hurried Sunday evening post is in order.

Saturday, I braced myself for torrential rain, thunder, lightening, and the apocalypse. However, by midday, all the drama had passed and it was warm, dry and sunny. I headed to Dellfield early evening as there is a particular scene I want to photograph. More on that another time, though. Anyway, as I climbed the path through Dellfield, a bug flew in front of me and landed in the grass to my right. Taking a closer look, it was a Common Green Shieldbug (Palomena prasina) (of week 16 fame) but what was more exciting was the Tortoise Beetle on leaves just behind it. This is another invertebrate group (or genus, the Cassida genus, to be precise) that Martin Parr introduced to me. There doesn’t seem to be a great deal of specific information about them on the internet but, as far as I can make out, they feed on the surface of leaves (specific plants for specific species) and, like tortoises, when threatened, they can pull in there antennae and legs and drop their dome-like carapace so that it is flush with the leaf. Great camouflage and good protection. 

From what I’ve read, determining species can be quite difficult, even with a photograph. However, it’s likely that the Tortoise Beetle I found yesterday was Cassida vibex, which feeds mainly on Thistles and Knapweeds. It seems to have a south-easterly UK distribution (rare or scarce beyond this region). And, it’s another tiny little creature, just 7mm long. (….Oh, ignore the Large Skipper for the moment)

Tortoise Beetle (Cassida vibex)

Large Skipper (Ochlodes sylvanus)

My first encounter with a Tortoise Beetle was last month at the Brickworks. I had joined Martin for an afternoon of surveying and he came across what we later identified as a Thistle Tortoise Beetle (Cassida rubiginosa) (not to be confused with the thistle eating Cassida vibex!). The rusty brown “triangle” at the front of the wing cases distinguishes it from the Green Tortoise Beetle (Cassida viridis).

     Thistle Tortoise Beetle (Cassida rubiginosa) [16 May 2014]

The “rubiginosa” of its name “refers to the beetle's ability to produce a red liquid from [its] head”! I’m not sure I fancy seeing that but good to know if it happens in the field and you’re after an ID! This species feeds on Creeping Thistle (Cirsium arvense) and, according to NatureSpot, “has the most interesting larvae and pupae. The larvae have twin tail-spikes and these are sometimes used to carry dead skins and droppings in a kind of parasol [nice!]. The spikes are retained by the pupa and these are flicked forward if it is disturbed.” Weird eh! So, there were are. A whirl-wind introduction to the genus Cassida, the Tortoise Beetles. Hopefully, I’ll come across a few more over the coming months.

Obviously, the other colourful find yesterday was a Large Skipper butterfly (Ochlodes sylvanus) (actually there were two) on Bovingdon Reach. And, on the pond on Preston Hill, I watched 3 male Broad-bodied Chasers achieving olympic standard “chasing” around the water. One, with a broken wing, eventually perched on a twig close by, giving me a chance for photographs (below). Finally, as I was walking from the pond towards Hay Wood, I heard the most peculiar sound. A friend had recently described to me the “call” of a female Cuckoo and, I can only conclude that that is what I heard. It was a kind of subdued, hallow, rich random burbling, coming from the tree tops. Unfortunately, it was too distant for the mic on my camera to register otherwise I would have recorded it. Ultimately, the source will remain a mystery but it would be nice to think that a female Cuckoo is around and the species has bred this year in Hay Wood.