Dorset Holiday Day 5

Exhausted from yesterday I lacked the motivation to get up early, so crawled out of bed at the rather late time of 8.00. I had a quick look round at the moths on the walls, but could see nothing. This was probably the result of my lie in. The only notable moth was a Herald on one of the blocks, but light was poor so I decided to move it to a more photogenic location. However, when it fell off the wall it appeared it was dead, or was doing a very good impression to that extent, so placed it in the wood and left it.

The weather looked like it would be Ok, and so eventually decided to go to Higher Hyde Heath nature reserve. I cycled there from the campsite and was on site by around half 10. It was warm but overcast, but fortunately as the morning wore on the sun did come out and it became rather pleasant.

Birds were not on the agenda at all, but the reptiles more than made up for it. The heath has many tins, and under a number of them were some super looking Slow Worms. In addition to them, as the morning wore on, there were a number of Common Lizards basking on dead branches along the path. There was also a Grass Snake basking, but it dropped as soon as I saw it and my view was only brief.

-Slow Worm

-Common Lizard

But they were not the best of it reptile wise. On my previous visit there had been a Sand Lizard basking next to the small hide, but it had moved before I had a chance to see it properly. With this in mind I kept checking the same area just in case, and unbelievably I picked up a super basking Sand Lizard not 2 feet away from where I had seen it before. It allowed me to get some proper photos of this very rare reptile. To say I was buzzing after seeing it, would be an understatement.

-Sand Lizard

So the reptiles gave more than a good show, and they were not the only ones. Last time I was on site I life ticked Silver-Washed Fritillary, but my record shots were no more than that. Today they more than redeemed themselves, and though I failed to get a good profile shot I am more than happy with my efforts and the views I got of these stunning butterflies. They are fantastic to see in flight, so big and orange, and so striking when settled on the ground. Superb insects!

-Silver Washed Fritillary

On the dragonfly front I had hoped to get downy emerald, but they were not present. Common Darters and Keeled Skimmers were the main dragonflies present, but there was also a Southern Hawker and a few Ruddy Darters, the latter of which were very nice but not easy to photograph.

There were a number of other noticeable insects too, including the Longhorn Beetle Stranglia Manticulata, which I had seen before but was able to get a few more photos of this rather spectacular beetle. Perhaps the most surprising thing seen today was a Leaf-Cutter Bee. I saw a bee flying towards me with a large green mass underneath, but assumed this was a caterpillar being predated, but it soon became clear that it was a piece of leaf. I was able to follow the bee to its nest in a piece of dead wood. Sadly though I was not able to watch it cut any leaves.

-Strangalia maculata

-Leaf-Cutter Bee

I left the site early afternoon and cycled back. Upon arriving back I found a tick on my leg, which quickly became no less than 30 ticks and probably more. I had to pull them all off, and that was not a pleasant experience to say the least. However, I eventually got them all off.

By 3 in the afternoon I headed to Tadnoll heath for an afternoon to see how the seed had gone down and if there were any reptiles. We checked the tins and there was a smashing male Smooth Snake, but it was badly obscured by the grass so did not bother taking any photos.

The number of birds was horrifically low, and there were no Woodlarks. We could not find any Dartford warblers either but all the seed was gone, so something was obviously around. This was probably due to the time of day and the fact that most birds would be sheltering out of the afternoon sun.

And that was that. We spent the evening around the caravan continuing to remove ticks and enjoying the evening sunshine. Another good day out on the heathland!

Species List

Higher Hyde Heath: Siskin, Woodpigeon, Mistle Thrush, Common Buzzard, Wren, Carrion Crow, Bullfinch, Great-Spotted Woodpecker, Mallard, Linnet, Moorhen, Chaffinch, Grass Snake, Slow Worm, Sand Lizard, Common Lizard, Common Toad, Four-Spot Chaser, Black-Tailed Skimmer, Keeled Skimmer, Southern Hawker, Common Darter, Ruddy Darter, Common Blue Damselfly, Common Blue-Tailed Damselfly, Common Emerald Damselfly, Large Skipper, Small Skipper, Gatekeeper, Meadow Brown, Ringlet, Speckled Wood, Red Admiral, Comma, Peacock, Silver-Washed Fritillary, Large White, 

Tadnoll Heath: Woodpigeon, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Meadow Pipit, Wren, Magpie, Linnet, Smooth Snake, Keeled Skimmer, Golden-Ringed Dragonfly, Banded Demoiselle, Common Blue Damselfly, Small Skipper, Large Skipper, Small Heath, Gatekeeper, Grayling, Meadow Brown, Large White, 

Uni Semester 2 Week 4

Tuesday
Between lectures we sat in the cafe in the students union to kill time, and as we were sat there I spotted a Sparrowhawk gliding lazily past the window sending the pigeons crazy. The view was brief but it was something to write about.

Thursday
Wandering back at about 3.00 Friday morning I was surprised by the fact that about 10 different robins seemed to be singing. Even though this phenomenon has been described it still seems to bizarre when your there surrounded by it.

Friday
Walking to football on Friday late afternoon I spotted a very drowsy looking tree bumblebee near Broomhill. Its my first of the year, which was exciting, a sign that spring is well on its way

Sunday
Walking to Church this evening I encountered a common frog sat on the pavement, my first of the year. I decided it would probably be a better idea to move it from the pavement, even though it would mean touching it with naked hands, than leaving it there to be trod on. It was a lovely looking frog, rather large too.

Lakeland-A day out at Derwentwater

Since it was my parents 24 wedding anniversary we decided to go for a trip up to the lake district. The day started badly when I dragged myself out of bed at 6.30, only to realise half way through breakfast that it was 5.30. However, once we got to Derwentwater the day picked up considerably. First we went for a walk around the side of Derwentwater to get the day started. We did not go far, only as far as the first field. On the walk through the woods we encountered only a nuthatch, though a woodpecker was calling somewhere around us. 

At the field we stopped to have a rest and a look around. I explored the small marsh next to the reeds to see what there was about. There were a lot of common blue damselflies, including some in tandem. 

-Common Blue Damselfly

As I sat down after the exploration of the marsh the woodpecker was heard calling in the tree directly behind us. It then flew over us and into the wet woodland for about 5 minuets before flying back and landing again in the tree behind us. There we saw that it had a chick, which it called to, before flying back to the flooded woodland, where the chick followed it.

-Greater Spotted Woodpecker

It was lunchtime by the time we returned, so we set up in the park and then me, brother and dad went into town to pick up lunch. When I got back my mum pointed out a juvenile blackbird feeding on berries in the tree above our picnic site. 

-Juvenile Blackbird

After a bit, when I had wandered off to get my drink from the car and returned, my dad pointed out a male blackbird sunbathing on the opposite side of the lawn. Since it was so open, I decided to commando crawl towards it to get quite close. I managed to get quite close before it was scared off by some people asking me about it. Either way, its the most spectacular sunbathe I have seen from a blackbird. 

-Blackbird

Through lunch the juvenile blackbird we met earlier also started sunbathing at the bottom of the same tree it had been feeding in. It was much more flighty and difficult to approach, but its sunbathe was just as spectacular.

-Juvenile blackbird

The other birds during lunch were sparrows, chaffinches, a willow warbler, song thrush and a few baby blue tits. 

After lunch we decided to wander into Keswick (the local town) to see what was about. Through the park getting there I spotted a small bush crawling with bees, most of which appeared to be what I know as tree bumblebees, because I have kept an eye open for them since my dad mentioned that he would like to see one. Apparently, tree bees are the fastest spreading bee in the UK, and are one of the "Big 5" (one of the 5 species of bee not in decline), so it was nice for my dad to see one, since the only other time I have seen one was in our garden when he was at work.

-Tree Bumblebee 

Needless to say, town was pretty void of wildlife. I did however manage to find a book I was looking for in a charity shop, which was a bonus (the Silmarillion) 

After town we decided to get on the boat and go for a row around the lake, as we usually do. The first bird I saw was a Red breasted merganser female, which was nice. It also reminded me that I couldn't remember if they were mergansers or goosanders that lived on the lake, but if you read on you will see how I was reminded. 

Next we rowed to the reeds to see what was about. There was not much, only a family of graylag geese whit 3 chicks, as well as a couple of oystercatchers. On the jetty of one of the houses around the lake there was also a pied wagtail.

-Pied wagtail 

The island opposite the marsh is where we found ample barnacle geese last time, but this time we only found one pair and they were on an island further over, which is sadly more accessible than the one previously. One the island we found a pair of barnacle geese, with the female seemingly sitting, or one of the birds sitting under a tree seemingly on a nest. The other bird was watching from the beach. 

-Barnacle Geese

Just next to the geese was an oystercatcher. There was another oystercatcher round the far side going bezerk at a gull perched nearby. At first it was unclear why, but as we watched we noticed that the none calling bird had 2 well grown chicks, which we hadn't noticed before.

-Juvenile oystercatcher

We then decided to go the rocks in the middle of the reser to get a look at the gulls and cormorants settled there. On the way there another female merganser appeared in front of us.

-Red Breasted Merganser

The rocks were full with gulls, herring, lesser black backed and greater black backed, more than I can ever remember before. There were also 3 cormorants on the rocks.

-Cormorant 

We slowly made our way across the lake, made slower because I tried rowing. We made it to another of the rock piles in the lake. On the largest we thought we heard a common sandpiper, but it turned out to actually be a pair of red breasted mergansers, and there was a male here which reminded me what species they were. We were able to get quite close before they moved off, so I was able to get some reasonable photos

-Red Breasted Merganser

We then made our way to the marsh on the far side of the island to see what was going on there. From a distance we noticed that there was a flock of graylag geese and a grey heron there. We managed to get quite close to the heron before it moved off, did a loop-de-loop and came back. There was also another male merganser there too...

-Red Breasted Merganser and Grey Heron 

-Grey Heron 

We then finished our rowing trip and made our way back. After our rowing exploits we went for a coffee in the cafe opposite. While we were there I spotted that another of the same plants from the park were in the cafe, and that they were crawling with tree bees here too. So while my family settled down for a civilized cup of coffee, I sat down and photographed the bees. I have to say that I don't remember bee photography ever being as difficult as these bees seemed to want to make it. For that reason my photos were not very good.

-Tree Bumblebees

After our coffee we went for a short walk the other way around the lake. It was early evening so there was not much wildlife around, but the flowers were still out and there were lovely groups of ragged robin along the lake shore. On the bird front there was also a sand martin among the swallows in the sheep field.

-Ragged Robin

And so after that walk we started to head off home. It was a lovely day, and not just because of the splendid weather but all the lovely weather as well. 

Spring (Finally)

Sat on the driveway prior to going on holiday in glorious sunshine, a huge bumble bee flew past me, significant in that it is the first I have seen this year, maybe spring has actually arrived.

isle of wight day 7-red squirrels and whale chine

After the excitement of yesterdays excitement because of red squirrels at Alverstone mead, it was no surprise to me that my parents wanted to try and see one, so we set off there for the morning. Secretly I knew that this gave me a second chance of getting a sighting of either white-legged damselfly or small red eyed damselfly! sadly as we passed the pools it became clear that once again odonata was seriously lacking, except for the population of blue-tailed damselflies! In fact on all fronts today had even less to offer than yesterday, no buzzards, herons or anything. We arrived at the hide and waited for what I expected to be an imminent arrival from a red squirrel. I was right, a squirrel soon emerged from the wood, although it was not the same as yesterday, this was a more healthy animal, a full tail and delightful ear tufts! sadly though it was not as bold, it spent most of its time scurrying around nearby trees rather than coming to investigate us. Having said that, a photo of a squirrel in a tree looks better than one on a wooden handrail!

-red squirrel since this was the first really nice day we had, I had a lot of sites I really wanted to get round while the weather was good, the next stop was the newly purchased RSPB reserve at Brading marshes, where there were supposed to be decent numbers of dragonflies, and the records suggested that the damselfly species I wanted to track down were there too, so I was optimistic! Walking through the Field to the river yielded good numbers of butterflys including ever confusing skippers, meadow brown and marbled white as well as six spot burnet moths.

The river was quite wide, but had reed-beds either side and had a nice carpet of lillypads across most of the surface. As you could expect with this type of habitat there were slightly more unusual birds such as reed warblers which made the walk not as insect based as previous walks had been.

-reed warblers

at first there were not any dragonflies to speak off, but as I strolled down the river it became apparent that there were two emperor dragonflies defending territories along the river side. The emperor appeared to be the most common dragonfly on the island so it would have been a disappointment to not see one. the problem with these two is that neither of them wanted to land, so I had to try and get a decent shot of them in flight-not easy.

-emperor dragonfly it was a nice sight to see the spectacular insects hunting the river, but they were not the only ones, I spotted a common darter on the riverside, but sadly I flushed it trying to get a photo. there was one other dragonfly, a darter only much redder, it didn't stick around, my only view it whizzing past me-I speculate that it was a ruddy because common darters don't normally get that red!

-Common darter My mum and dad and brother had left me there and gone into Brading to get a coffee, they would pick me up when they were done. Whilst I completed a circuit to get back to Brading I found a secluded spot just off the footpath (not secluded it being in an open field, but hidden behind an overgrown river) and there I found lots of small coppers and also some cinnibar moth caterpillars.

-Cinnibar moth caterpillars By the time I caught up with my family it was lunchtime, so we headed to Ventnor, my parents intention to spend the afternoon in the sea. I however had other plans! From Ventnor I could get a bus to Blackgang chine, and from there I would be able to walk to whale chine, a really exciting site on the face of it. I checked the records for keeled skimmer and that led me to it, that being the only substantial colony on the island . But not only was the wildlife potentially very exciting, the chine itself is a massive gorge with a tiny river in it, site photos are on tomorrows post, so look out for them. other species I had listed for it were-glanville fritillary (although we were late in the season for these, I was not optimistic), the islands very rare butterfly, wasp spider-no more words needed!, and also cliff tiger beetle an island speciality, it only being found in a few places in England.

The bus journey from Ventnor went through a really spectacular part of the island, although Blackgang was a serious dump! I spent about 20mins walking to whale chine. The thing about whale chine is that the stairs down to the beach are broken about half way down-the council has said through use of signs that access to the beach is not permitted, thus washing their hands of any potential incidents. However some kind person has attached ropes to the bottom surviveing rung of stairs so access is still possible.

As soon as I let go of the rope onto the valley floor I noticed small greeny-bronze beetles scurrying around. I was expecting the beetles to be scarce and illusive not absolutely everywhere crossing the path and generally having to be careful not to tread on them. It was hardly a surprise that there weren't a great deal of other ground hugging insects. Even so, they were a real treat to watch as they scurried around, their colors looked spectacular and from their face on, they looked like formidable predators. The green tiger beetle was my favourite beetle-but now it may have competition, so lets just end it at "I love tiger beetles".

-Cliff tiger beetle Naturally i expected the keeled skimmers to live down by the small river, so i was pretty disappointed that there were none at all down there, although I couldn't exactly go all the way up, because of the fearsome brambles and the ever increasing steepness of the gorge side.

My next bus was in 1 hour, so I had an hour to kill with apparently no dragonflies to watch. There was also limited birdlife to offer, only a small family of ravens flying overhead and a few black headed gulls playing on the shore.

-raven Walking back up from the river to the makeshift path I contemplated my choices. I decided it might be an idea to head down to the beach and do a bit of fossil hunting, seeing as though there wasn't much else to do. The path to the beach lead out of the gorge and onto a platform at the base of the about 1/3 of the way up the cliff and then continued down to the beach. I spotted a pair of beetles mating, and therefore not running away from me, so I decided to take some face on photos.

-cliff tiger beetles

there were a lot of grasshoppers in the grasses. I don't really know my grasshoppers but they seem very interesting, the yellow stripe and mottled patterning is what attracted my attention to this one

-Grasshopper sp. As I walked onto the "platform" I spooked a dragonfly! It was a relief, after all the records system i had been using so far hadn't paid off. Having though this I realised that I didn't actually know for sure that it was a keeled skimmer, as it could easily be a common darter!

I tried to follow it but ended up amid a boggy pools with waist height reeds. I then knew that the dragonflies weren't using the river, they were using these pools. I decided to try and flush one from the reeds, then follow it for a photo. The pools came in clumps, but i didn't know this I thought that there was only this on, the others over a landslip. So I walked around the pool and through it on what appeared to be makeshift paths. Eventually I spooked a dragonfly and followed it. having found it landed it became clear that they were indeed keeled skimmers, though this one was a female-easily identified by the highlights on the plates behind the head!

-Keeled skimmer female

There were however a lot more, once you started looking they were turning up all over the pool. i can't tell you how excited I was. Now it was just a case of nailing the perfect photo. Luckily I didn't have to wait long, a female perched on a reed showing the whole wings without any reeds blocking the view.

-Keeled skimmer female

There were plenty of them to speak of, so i was able to gather a good portfolio of this species, although there was a decided lack of males. Having said that, the specimen below is a male, although its very immature, hence the lack of blue.

-immature male keeled skimmer

-female keeled skimmer

On my third circuit around the poor excuse for a pool I spook another dragonfly that was slight blue, So I immediately thought that I had found an adult male. Unfortunately it didn't stay still but when i finally tracked it down I became clear that once more, it was not an adult male, only a slightly more mature immature male!!

-Slightly more mature immature male keeled skimmer

on my fourth circuit around the "pool" I actually did finally find an adult male, a flash of vivid blue whizzed past me and disappeared. I walked around the pool again and again trying to track it down-after all how hard can it be to find a bright blue insect in a really dull greeny brown habitat. I walked around again and again but still no joy. With 5 mins before I had to leave to get my bus I felt disappointed, even though I had an amazing with two incredible new species. Then A casual glance into a patch of reeds I thought I had looked in before and I was blown away. I looked into the reeds and there in the middle of the reeds was a really neat and tidy spiders web with a curious zig zag pattern and in the middle was a spider-with golden stripes on its belly. I couldn't even see the other side but I had seen enough-it was a wasp spider.

I managed to get round to the spectacular side of the spider but the view was infringed by the reeds, so I had to do some habitat management to ensure that I could get the photo I wanted. I managed it, although my trainers were filled with muddy water in the process. I need say no more on this, the most spectacular of British spiders-just enjoy the photos!

Wasp spider

Dispite the spider I still felt a tinge of dissapointment for the male skimmer being so illusive, but even so I felt much better, a third tick and possible the best of the whole afternoon and holiday. I decided that I had better leave and not risk the bus, so I left. as I headed back towards the ropes I spotted a small mining bee on the path, so I decided to take a random photo just to show the variety at the site. Speaking of variety-the only other ground living insect I managed find in the site, the tiger beetles aside was a violet ground beetle, which just goes to show that the only way to survive in a valley filled with miniture killers is to become an even bigger, more powerful killer.

-small mining bee

so ends the activities for today, the best day of the holiday so far. despite the slight delay I managed to get my bus and then had a fun journey back to the caravan from newport, where my family had started the BBQ so a great ending to a great day!