my local patch and wildlife - Ian McDonald

[ian mcdonald]

A water crowfoot growing on dried mud along a path.



Vapourer moth caterpillar.



White foxglove and pollen bugs.



Common bladderwort, Utricularia vulgaris.



Female adder.

[Robert]

Ian,

A very nice set of photographs. I will have to catch up with the text. It is my busy season, but I have a great deal of curiosity about your site. Thank you for taking the time to post your diary. At some point I will have some questions regarding the time period that has elapsed since restoration started and on going changes in the habitats/environment.

[Hoy]

Hi Ian, interesting to follow you. Some plants (and animals) are well known to me, other I just know from pictures or not at all!

[ian mcdonald]

Monday was perhaps the hottest day of the year so far. When I got back to the car the temperature gauge said 35C. Wednesday was hot and sunny but a breeze was blowing, the temperature gauge read 22C. On Monday a roe deer buck ran across the track as I was travelling down a track. Further down the track a roe deer hind walked across the path. I noticed two family parties of little grebe on one of the pools. Two Grasshopper Warblers were calling from different sites, my first record of them this year. Cuckoos are still calling in different areas. The heat on Monday made walking tiring. Black headed gulls have juveniles and there are plans to try and ring some of them but they are in deep water and soft mud. The water crowfoot seen last week is Ranunculus aquatilis. It is identified by the circular nectar pit on the petals. The "new" pump is still not working. There are several family parties of Stonechat on site. Grasshopper warbler was heard again on Wednesday. Roe deer were seen again on Wednesday, in different areas. Butterflies are now more common with large heath, ringlets, large skippers, speckled wood, small whites, common blues, small tortoishell and hedge browns seen. A raptor, resembling a small female marsh harrier, was seen on Wednesday but not identified. Marsh harrier, kestrel, buzzard and hobbys were all hunting. I took three flasks of drink on Wednesday and emptied them all. I went to look at Dune Helleborine but they are not in flower yet. Only three Fragrant Orchid were seen at their site but it will be another week before they are in flower. It seemed I had the site to myself on Wednesday as no-one else was seen. Although the size of the site means there could easily have been others there. The vegetation has put on much growth in the last few weeks and bracken is obstructing some of the paths. Ticks can be a problem when pushing through tall herbs. A few plants of Scarlet Pimpernel were seen on Wednesday but my camera, a Lumix, sees red as pink.



Yellow wort, Blackstonia perfoliata.



Common sedge, Carex nigra, a variable species.



Coot.



Common water crowfoot, Ranunculus aquatilis. The round nectar pit can be seen at the base of the lower petal.



Cyperus sedge, Carex pseudocyperus.

[ian mcdonald]

The tall grass is Reed Canary Grass, Phalaris arundinacea.



Greater hay rattle, Rhinanthus angustifolius.



Bog Rosemary, Andromeda polifolia.



Great fen sedge, Cladium mariscus.



"Scarlet" Pimpernel, Anagallis arvensis.

[ian mcdonald]

Gatekeeper, Pyronia tithonus.



Stonechat.



Male marsh harrier.



Purple small-reed, Calamagrostis canescens.



Birds seen this week were, little grebe, coot, crow, reed warbler, sedge warbler, kestrel, hobby, chiffchaff, willow warbler, grasshopper warbler, marsh harrier, blackbird, swallow, swift, wood pigeon, shoveler, lapwing, blackcap, reed bunting, chaffinch, cuckoo, buzzard, black headed gull, pheasant, lesser black back gull, stonechat, whitethroat, linnet, crane, mallard, grey lag goose, goldfinch, teal, wren, yellowhammer and meadow pipit.

[ian mcdonald]

This week has been very hot and dry. Some of the shallower pools have dried. The black headed gull chicks are well grown now and are swimming about on a couple of deeper pools. Some adults are still sitting on nests. Both coots and little grebes have young with them and are fishing for water weeds to feed them. Marsh harriers are hunting low over the site and the occasional Hobby is hunting dragonfly. Several times I have seen something glinting on paths and have seen dragonfly wings. Cuckoos are still calling but the heat seems to be keeping bird calls to a minimum. On Monday I accompanied a naturalist counting butterfly species and numbers. Along a grassy track a good number of insects were noted. These included large, small and essex skippers. Both dragonfly and damsels are active in the sun and heat. While photographing an Essex skipper we noticed three damsel fly mating. One was an emerald damsel but the other two were a different species. A couple of roe deer were seen and I was told by a local farmer that the roe deer rut was starting. As I was leaving on Wednesday a small fox ran onto the track.



Young plants of royal fern.



Vervain.



Round leaved sundew with flowers.



One of the dragonfly.

[ian mcdonald]

Another dragonfly.



Agrimony.



Fragrant orchid, some of the orchids have been eaten.



Essex skipper.



Caterpillar of cinnabar moth on ragwort.

[ian mcdonald]

Three is a crowd.



A hawker eating a darter.



Dune helleborine in flower, some have already set seed.

[ian mcdonald]

Birds seen this week were, black headed gull, coot, little grebe, marsh harrier, hobby, crow, willow warbler, sedge warbler, sparrow hawk, crane, cuckoo, grey lag geese, wren, lapwing, reed bunting, wood pigeon, moorhen, whitethroat, blackcap, chaffinch, chiffchaff, stonechat, meadow pipit, linnet, blackbird, teal, mallard, pheasant, buzzard, blue tit and jay. Butterflies were, large skipper, small skipper, Essex skipper, ringlet, meadow brown, comma, small tortoishell and peacock.

[Robert]

Ian,

Some very nice photographs. 

[ian mcdonald]

After several weeks away I visited the site again yesterday. Some of the shallow pools have evaporated to leave damp peat. A couple of years ago a Sundew Plume Moth was found in a pit-fall trap. This was the first record since the late 1800s for the county. Sundew plume moths are scarce in the UK. A couple of local naturalists thought that the species probably occurred on the site continuously but had not been recorded. There are no other colonies near enough for the species to have travelled here from another site. The local naturalists decided to search for the moth where sundew grows. Sundews can be found in quite a few places across the site. I met one of the naturalists carrying out their survey yesterday and more than twenty individual moths were seen. Also found were a caterpillar and a pupa, see photos. The size of the pupa is about 5 mm. The moths are hard to photograph as they take short flights at any disturbance.



A dried out pool.



Sundew plume moth caterpillar.



Pupa.



Sundew plume moth.

Among the birds seen were great spotted woodpecker, jay, marsh harrier, hobby, reed bunting, teal, lapwing, grey lag geese and snipe.

[Robert]

Hi Ian,

Glad to have you back.

It is very good news to hear concerning the Sundew Plume Moth!     

Nice photographs. Congratulations! A very nice image of the adult Sundew Moth.

My wife asks, does the Sundew eat the moths?

[ian mcdonald]

Hello Robert, the sundew does not affect the moth. The pupa usually attaches to the flower stem of the sundew. While looking at the moths a damselfly caught and ate one of the moths.

[Robert]

Ian,

Thank you for the information.

While looking at the moths a damselfly caught and ate one of the moths.

  For me such moments are priceless.

On my last outing I took the time to count the tree rings on a large Red Fir, Abies magnifica, that was cut down. The tree was over 200 years old! Based in the tree rings, the tree must have started growing in 1780, + or -.

Doing bird counts is very important to my research. Many migratory birds are disappearing (some local species too - maybe victims of West Nile Virus, climate change, development). I have not seen a Cedar Waxwing in over 30 years! The numbers of many Warblers are down, as well as other species. I was pleased to see two Warbler species on my last outing.