Highgate Common 03 April 2012

Whilst the rest of the Highgate volunteer work party were building some Dormouse nest boxes for the reserve, myself and another volunteer went out onto the reserve in search of some Emperor Moths (Saturnia pavonia). The males fly in the daytime in search of the females which fly at night. (click on link for photo).

Unfortunately we didn't find any as the weather wasn't on our side. The warm and sunny weather we had been enjoying only the week before had gone and instead we were greeted with a much cooler and greyer day which threatened rain.

It wasn't all doom and gloom though as we did find a total of four Bloody-nosed Beetles (Timarcha tenebricosa)! Pretty good going for the start of April and just rewards for getting absolutely drenched by a torrential downpour just moments late.

Timarcha tenebricosa

Timarcha tenebricosa

Timarcha tenebricosa

Baggeridge Country Park 25 March 2012

I went for a quick walk at Baggeridge Country Park one Sunday as something to do. I headed over to the Toposcope and found some mining bees popping in and out of their holes. These were Andrena clarkella and are some of the earliest mining bees to emerge in the spring.

 Andrena clarkella

 Andrena clarkella

 Andrena clarkella

This species of Andrena is best separated from others in its genera by the rusty red rear legs.

Highgate Common 28th February 2012

I had a stroke of luck a couple of weeks ago as I was leaving a work party on Highgate Common. I spotted a bug crawling on the trainee warden's bag (Phillip Playford) and managed to grab a few photos. I was excited because I recognised the bug as something I had seen recently on iSpot but I also thought that it probably wasn't that rare.

Coreus marginatus

The bug in question was a Dock bug (Coreus marginatus) and British bugs describes it as "common and widespread in southern Britain, including Ireland, where it may be found in a variety of dry and damp habitats". The big clue here is that it is widespread in "southern Britain". As far as Staffordshire is concerned the county is on the far NW edge of the Dock bug's normal range here in the UK, with only sporadic reports further north and west.

My sighting turned out to be a first for Highgate Common and only the second ever county record, the other being from Penn Common which is only just down the road from me.

This just goes to prove that if you keep looking you will eventually be rewarded with something exciting. Also if I hadn't taken the trouble to report my sighting to the county recorder it would not have been nearly as interesting to me as I wouldn't have found out how uncommon these things are in Staffordshire.

There is tremendous value in reporting sightings to your county recorder because without them we would have a poorer understanding of what flora and fauna are located in the county and we cannot hope to protect something if we don't know where it lives.

For many things you don't have to be an expert either. Simply take a photo of a specimen and then put it on somewhere like iSpot where a community of knowledgeable people may be able to help you identify what it is. Once you have a firm idea of what it is you have photographed you can then contact your county recording centre with your sighting.

The county recording centre for Staffordshire is the "Staffordshire Ecological Record".

Some things will be unidentifiable from a photograph, either because there are similar species which look the same and can only be identified through dissection or because you didn't capture all of the identifying features in the photograph.

When recording plants it is a good idea to take a notebook and ruler/tape measure with you. Some plants look very similar to each other in colour and shape but one species might be very tall and the other very short so a sense of scale can be a useful identification aid. A selection of photos can also help, especially with plants. Remember to take photos of not just the flower but also the leaves, stem and a photo of the whole plant.

Other sightings that day included Turkeytail bracket fungi (Trametes versicolor) and an Angle Shades caterpillar (Phologophora meticulosa).

Trametes versicolor

Phologophora meticulosa

Phologophora meticulosa

Angle shades caterpillars are interesting in that as well as this brown form they can also be bright green.

For what ever reason the insects seemed particularly interested in bags that day as this caterpillar was found on my bag as I got to the car, hence the metallic grey background in the photos.

This gives me an idea for an experiment with rucksacks :-)

In other news the Redpoll have finally found my nyjer seed feeder so hopefully I will be able to get some better photos in due course.

Bits and bobs February 2012

I've managed a few trips out this month which bucks the trend of recent months. The truth is that a lot of my time recently has been spent planing a move down to Devon but for reasons that I won't go into here I have decided against a move down south.

In my opinion South Staffs is just as good for wildlife as any other county as long as you take the time to look.

For instance, by keeping my eyes peeled for even the smallest of creatures I managed to find this moth taking shelter on a Silver Birch tree on Highgate Common:

Spring Usher (Agriopis leucophaearia)

I particularly like the name Spring Usher as it aptly describes when this species emerges as an adult, which is anywhere between February and March. The female moth is wingless and the larvae feed mainly on Oak.

Despite early signs of spring there were still plenty of signs of winter.

The work party at Highgate Common could hear a large number of birds causing a very loud commotion just the other side of some trees. They were that loud (the birds not the work party) that the common consensus was that they were probably Starlings.

On closer inspection it turned out to be a flock of Linnet! Although there were probably less than 100 birds it was still the largest group of Linnet I remember seeing.

Although Linnet are known to form large flocks in winter they are rather gregarious birds all year round and will often breed in small colonies of up to 20 individuals.

Talking of birds, a few weekends ago I was lucky enough to take part in some ringing at an orchard in Worcestershire. The cold weather had driven large numbers of Fieldfare to the orchards where there were plenty of apples for them to eat.

Apparently Fieldfare don't actually like eating apples when they have a choice, they only turn to them when more desirable food sources run out.

This is the same for a lot of animal species, even us humans. If you are anything like me, when you have done your weekly shop you will eat your favourite things first and leave less desirable foods until last. Birds are no different.

This is why a lot of the time you will see a bush full of berries until very late in the winter. It is not that the birds are deliberately saving these berries for harder times, it is just that there are other things around that they would rather eat.

As it turned out a lot of the apples had already been decimated by the Fieldfare in preceding weeks and there weren't a lot left so we only managed to catch roughly 60 birds.

For whatever reason I didn't think to take any photos of the Fieldfare but I did take some photos of some personal highlights for me a Jay (ringing tick) and a Sparrowhawk.

Jay (Garrulus glandarius)

Jay (Garrulus glandarius)

Sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus)

Sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus)

I was also shown an old Dormouse nest which was another personal first.

Dormouse (Muscardinus avellanarius) nest

Dormouse (Muscardinus avellanarius) nest

Dormice are one of only a select few British mammals that truly hibernate during winter. However it is highly unlikely that one would be hibernating in this nest, they would have found a warmer spot to spend the winter.

February truly has been a month of firsts as just yesterday I had my first garden sighting of Lesser Redpoll (Carduelis cabaret).

I only managed to get some record shots as I couldn't get very close to them, the light was appalling and my hands were shaking from the excitement! I mainly focused on a rather pale individual that I was hoping was a Mealy Redpoll (Carduelis flammea) but the general consensus is that it was just probably a rather pale Lesser Redpoll.

"normal British" Lesser Redpoll 

Pale Lesser Redpoll

Pale Lesser Redpoll on left with slightly darker bird on right

Pale Lesser Redpoll, the pink on the breast makes this a male

Pale Lesser Redpoll

Pale Lesser Redpoll on left with much darker bird on right

Pale Lesser Redpoll on left with slightly darker bird on right

The Redpoll were feeding with a flock of the loosely related Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis). I am hoping that the Goldfinch will show the Redpoll where my nyjer seed feeder is, then I will be able to get some better photos!

RSPB Arne 3rd February 2012

I paid a visit to a very cold Dorset last Friday and thought that I would drop into RSPB Arne for a couple of hours whilst I was down there.

Unfortunately due to restricted time I didn't get to see all that RSPB Arne has to offer but I was very impressed with the limited amount that I saw.

Things got off to a good start when I saw some Sika Deer off the track to the main car park.

From the Car Park I had the choice of taking either the Shipstal Point trail which eventually leads to views over Poole Harbour or the Coombe Heath trail to Middlebere Lake (which is more like a tidal creek than a lake).

Middlebere Lake normally holds good numbers of Avocet so I thought I would take the Coombe Heath trail. I saw little of note over the heath other than a small party of Meadow Pipit and a Kestrel. I expected little else given the intensely cold weather, with most of the small birds preferring to feed in the car park, woodland and probably in the farm area.

However Coombe Heath did offer expansive views of the area which was very beautiful and picturesque. I didn't get many shots of the scenery as I was only sporting my telephoto lens but I did get some less picturesque photos of scrub/forest clearance and burning to the west of the reserve.

There is one hide and a viewing screen looking over Middlemere Lake. In some gorse close to the hide I heard a Dartford Warbler singing quietly away. I also got to see it fleetingly before it turned and flew off to sing from another song post further off. Unfortunately I didn't get any photos. I also didn't get any photos of what greeted me once in the hide - a stunning female Sika Deer very close to the hide. I was making too much noise and it scarpered as quick as a flash.

I was promised by regular visitors to the reserve that Middlemere Lake was normally full of wading birds, but this wasn't to be on my visit as it was almost completely frozen over! Overnight temperatures had approached about -10 degrees Celsius so it is hardly surprising but still ever so slightly disappointing.

The local Brent Geese had a quick wander over the frozen creek...

...but soon took to grazing on a field nearby.

Whilst in the hide I also saw a superb male Marsh Harrier quartering over the reed bed in front of the Brent Geese and a Common Buzzard in the trees behind the Brent Geese.

On my way back to the car park I encountered a mixed flock of winter thrushes in the overflow car park.

So overall a very enjoyable couple of hours spent on a lovely reserve. I dearly hope to visit it again sometime so that I can properly explore all it has to offer.

Highgate Common 10th January 2012

It was ladybird central at the volunteer work party today at Highgate Common.

We saw at least a dozen 7 spot ladybirds (Coccinella septempunctata), one 14 spot ladybird (Propylea 14-punctata) and one eyed ladybird (Anatis ocellata) .

Coccinella septempunctata

Anatis ocellata

Propylea 14-punctata - photo taken last year

No doubt the unseasonably mild weather has brought them all out of hibernation. We also found a shield bug and a hoverfly but I didn't manage to photograph any of these for identification.

Late news from 2011... Richard Southwell of the Butterfly Conservation group found some Vapourer moth (Orgyia antiqua) eggs during a work party in December and I was able to photograph them. We also found a Satellite moth (Eupsilia transversa).

Orgyia antiqua

Vapourer moth was only discovered on Highgate in 2011 but now we have breeding evidence too! It is not that uncommon a moth but it is exciting to get a first for you local patch. Satellite moth is also new to Highgate so two firsts in one day!

Highgate Common 6th December 2011

Highgate Common

Today was my first free Tuesday for quite some time and so I took the opportunity to go down to Highgate Common and join their volunteer work party.

It was a chilly day with plenty of frost around first thing but that didn't put me off as I had about 5 layers on to counteract the cold!

We were asked to cut down some Silver Birch (Betula pendula) saplings which were encroaching onto the main heathland area of the Common.

We donned our gloves and hard hats and used both tree loppers and bow saws to remove the saplings and small trees.

I put together a few before and after shots so you can see the progress we made. (as always you can click on the photos to get a bigger picture).

Before

after

before

after

As you can see we kept the big trees and only removed the small ones. As well as temporarily halting the encroachment of Silver Birch in this area it also improved the view from the picnic table.

We didn't see a lot of wildlife while we were working. I did find a Harlequin Ladybird (Harmonia axyridis) on one of the trees we had cut down. When I picked it up to have a closer look it started to excrete a yellow substance from its body. This liquid supposedly has a foul odour, a bit like old leaves (I didn't think to smell it), and is a self-defence mechanism called "reflex-bleeding". Most ladybird species reflex-bleed if agitated to deter predators. It obviously didn't like me disturbing it and soon took flight.

There was a Fly Agaric (Amanita muscaria) mushroom in the area that we were working but unfortunately it was not in a photographic state as it had been stood on and looked rather beaten up.

Cutting down the saplings and then cutting them up into smaller pieces was hot work and I soon had to remove some of my layers. We also had a fire going and this helped to keep us warm.

I played around a little with the colours in the last photo to try and highlight the flames in the fire.

Not all of the wood was burnt; we did set some aside to make a wood pile. The wood pile will provide shelter for a number of animals and invertebrates and as it rots down it will provide food for various invertebrates and their larvae, helping to improve the biodiversity on the site.

Wood set aside for habitat pile