TwO Owls Blog

Sunday 15 September 2024

August Highlights

August from a bird point of view was pretty poor as Jackie and I did very little birding, I continued out on a few surveys on the Purbeck NNR, otherwise it was family month spending time with the grandchildren. On the few occasions we were able to get out the only birding highlight was when we had a walk around Hydes Heath at Arne when we had 3 Osprey and a family party of Spotted Flycatcher.

2 of 3 Osprey seen over the edge of Wareham Channel from Hydes Heath Arne

Spotted Flycatcher © Nick Hull

My personal highlight of the month was during a reptile survey it was a cool morning sunny and light wind you would think was perfect, we managed Slow Worm, Grass Snake, Smooth Snake and an Adder, which was very nice particularly the Adder as we don't often find then. It wasn't until I lifted the last cover that really made the morning, under the last cover were 7 Smooth Snake, an adult female and 6 very recently born young.

Smooth Snake photograph taken under licence © Nick Hull

There is only 4 juveniles in shot the other 2 were underneath the adult and not visible from the angle the shot was taken. The adult will stay with the newly born young for a few days and then it's off to fend for themselves. The sloughed skin maybe or may not be hers it would be interesting to know if females slough before they give birth or after. This female looks very shiny so possibly she has sloughed recently.

Moths that turned up in the trap over August were much the norm for the time of year several Jersey Tiger found their way to the trap and around the garden was probably the most colourful moth of the month.

Jersey Tiger © Nick Hull

This next moth was the first ever caught in the garden which is always nice and it's the first macro moth which has been new for quite a while as mainly these days it's the small micro which are new.

Dark Spectacle © Nick Hull

This was quickly followed by another garden first in the guise of a September Thorn another new macro for the garden list.

September Thorn © Nick Hull

In July's blog I post a photograph of a green Fleabane Tortoise Beetle Cassida murraea, well on a recent odonata survey I came across another beetle this time it was orange in colour. It turned out that this was the same species in a different colour form.

Cassida murraea Fleabane Tortiose Beetle © Nick Hull

Out of the 167 species of Hoverfly that are commonly found in the UK some are big and some are small they very from black to bright yellow and black. Some mimic bumble and honey bees or Hornets others just look like other flies but most are very good pollinators and like bees can be found around the garden flowers. They range in size from being very small to very large here are a few from our wildlife garden in August.

male_Xanthogramma pedissequum or Superb-Dayglower © Nick Hull

Eupeodes corollae © Nick Hull

Volucella zonaria or Hornet Hoverfly © Nick Hull

On the Odonata surveys I saw the usual common species for the time of year The Emperor, Migrant, Southern and Brown Hawker, Common and Ruddy Darter, Keeled Skimmer and Azure, Common Blue, Blue-tailed, Small Red, Emeral and Red-eyed Damselfly. So a nice selection in and around the ponds some of which I haven't been to before, so it was very nice to explore new areas.

Emerald Damselfly © Nick Hull

Ceriagroin tenellum - Small Red Damselfly © Nick Hull

Orthetrum coerulescens Keeled Skimmer © Nick Hull

The last photograph of the Keeled Skimmer provoked some conversations about what sex it was as teneral males look similar to female but this one has the golden yellow abdomen but is showing a translucent blue film all over. It is thought this is a young male which has just started colouring up to the pale blue of an adult male.

Tuesday 6 August 2024

July Butterflies, Moths + Inverts

July is always a slow month for birds though towards the end of the month the autumn migration starts with non-breeding birds beginning to turn-up in and around the harbour. Green and Common Sandpiper, Greenshank, Whimbrel, Black-tailed Godwit and Curlew numbers start to increase abate slowly.

It's this time of year Jackie and I tend to try and catchup on the Butterfly and Dragonfly species and when the weather is good I'm out surveying the Purbeck National Nature Reserve invertebrates.

Bird wise it wasn't until the 16th July we visited Arne Where we saw a Whimbrel in the morning and returned in the evening so Jackie could catch-up with Nightjar. Then it wasn't until the 28th July, while we were doing our Osprey Watch, I managed to see a brief view of a Spotted Flycatcher which just creeps in on the 10km list. Otherwise it was a quiet month on the bird front for us seeing only 79 species.

Panoramic view from the Middlebere Lookout at RSPB Arne

We also had our first Cinnabar caterpillars of the year as always on the Ragwort along the path to the outlook.

Cinnabar caterpillar on Ragwort - Arne © Nick Hull

On the 17th Jackie wanted to catchup on a few butterfly species not yet seen particularly Silver-washed Fritillary and she had remembered that we once had them in Wareham Forest. As it turned out to be a hot day it proved to be a good choice as there was plenty of shade making our walk comfortable. We had hardly started and we started seeing Ringlet and Gatekeeper along the forest ride.

Ringlet with wings open - Wareham Forest © Nick Hull

We also came acros a couple of Long-horn Beetle feeding on the bramble and Fleabane which hopefully I've identified correctly. The yellow and black one being Rutpela maculata and the Brown and Black one being Stenurella melanura.

Rutpela maculata on Bramble & Stenurella melanura on Fleebane © Nick Hull

Later in the walk we came across a handful of Silver-studded Blue mainly in the areas of bell heather which edged areas of the forest track.

Silver-studded Blue © Nick Hull

We walked just over a mile and and had no luck with seeing a fritillary. It wasn't until we were almost back to the van when Jackie found one on the Bramble but it flew into the wood and disappeared. Then I found a Speckled Wood and then a Silver-washed Fritillary flew in and landed nearby enabling me to take a couple of very quick shots. In fact the best shot of the fritillary had a parasitic wasp which photo-bombed.

Phot-bombing parasitic Wasp and Silver-washed Fritillary © Nick Hull

We recorded 12 species of butterfly in a total of a mile and a half walk, Gatekeeper and Ringlet produced the larger counts but it was a very enjoyable couple of hours in an area we hadn't walked in a long time.

After lunch we had a short walk on Hartland Moor as Jackie wanted Grayling to add to her list. We walked perhaps 200m and we managed to find her a Grayling and I found some Purbeck Mason Wasp burrows in an area not recorded before so a real plus.

Female Purbeck Mason Wasp © Nick Hull

A friend Terry and myself have been trying to see a few clearwings, day flying moths which are mainly found by attracted them with the use of synthetic pheromone. As they are very difficult to see or come across because they keep themselves at the tops of trees. As another friend has been successful from his garden which is around 800m in a direct line from mine I thought I'd give it ago. So on the 18th the weather was hot and fine so I started with Sallow Clearwing lure as we have Sallow nearby no luck. Then I tried Current Clearwing no luck. I then went for Lunar Hornet Moth, set it up and went to get a coffee I came back to drink it whilst watching the lure. I had only just sat down and took a mouthful and saw what I thought was a European Hornet around the Hemp Agronomy and then it headed straight to the lure and there it was a Lunar Hornet Moth an absolute stunner. The first I'd seen or lured to the garden.

Lunar Hornet Moth - home garden © Nick Hull

Lunar Hornet Moth are on the wing from Mid June to early August. Adult are rarely seen but rest freshly emerged on Willow. The caterpillars feed Willow, Sallow and possibly Poplar particular those in damp areas.

We had a visit to Badbury Rings on the 24th hoping to seen a few butterflies that we had seen so far this year. It turned out a little cool and overcast and very little was on the wing. Though to say we saw nothing would be lie. We had a few Common Blue Damselflies and we came across a very smart male Banded Demioselle and there were hundreds of Burnet on the wing. Jackie found saw a Painted Lady missed by me as I was trying out a pheromone for clearwing moth without luck a freshly emerged Six-spot Burnet which had just pumped up it's wings.

Common Blue Damselfly or Common Bluet © Nick Hull

Banded Demioselle - Badbury Rings Nick Hull

Freshly emerged Six-spot Burnet - Badbury Rings © Nick Hull

The next location that produced was on the 26th July we had the grandchildren and spent the morning working in the garden, after lunch we headed out to Silverlake to try and find Scarlet Darter or some call it Broad Scarlet they are a stunning dragonfly. After arriving we walked around a small lake where we had been told they could be seen. There were two guys already watching one and I quickly joined them and fired off a few shots which I'm glad I did as soon after it flew off hunting over the edges of the lake. We continued around the lake and I had a speedy hawker dragonfly go past me showing a very pale blue band around the front of the abdomen though the view was brief I was sure it was a Lesser Emperor Dragonfly. The shot below was taken in France a few years ago whilst on holiday just to show you how they look.

Lesser Emperor Dragonfly - France © Nick Hull

This was our target dragonfly we have seen many in Normandy France but they are a real rarity here in the UK. Though with the changing climate I think we will see them breeding here soon.

Scarlet Darter or Broad Scarlet - Silverlake © Nick Hull

Since writing the above text I've had news that there has been females (2) found along with the males (5) and they have been seen in cop and laying so hopefully this will be the start a new breeding species for the UK.

Whilst we were there we had another find which was a new beetle species for us, a small green and black beetle on the Fleabane called Cassida murraea commonly called Fleabane Tortiose Beetle.

Cassida murraea - Fleabane Tortiose Beetle © Nick Hull

We ended our time here as we walked back toward the car park I picked up my first Painted Lady of the year catching up with Jackie as she had one on our visit to Badbury Rings on the 24th.

Painted Lady - Silverlake © Nick Hull

July is over what will August bring?

Sunday 7 July 2024

In search of Birds, Odonata, Lepidoptera & Orchids

June saw the weather improve and start to make thing seem more like it was summer at last. What does seem concerning is the lack of insects generally, it seems the wet winter and spring has had a detrimental effect on the early emerging species. Nonetheless Jackie and myself haven't done too badly connecting with this season's butterflies and dragonflies.

First we will start with the birds we managed 92 species in June and added 7 species to the year list though one of them doesn't officially count as it isn't accepted as a sustainable introduced population yet, but were still very nice to see, that being Great Bustard.

Our first visit was local on the 2nd out to Arne which turn out to be a pretty quiet day best was a view of an Osprey over Shipstal.

Osprey over Shipstal Beach © Nick Hull

Also carried out a reptile survey on the 3rd though it started cool then it turned very hot by the time we finished, we had a little luck with finding one or two Smooth Snake, Common Lizard and Sand Lizard. After this we spent time trying to find interesting inverts for the Spring Watch film crew.

Common Lizard - Arne © Nick Hull

Smooth Snake - Arne © Nick Hull (taken under license)

A walk with friends in Wareham Forest on the 4th we added a Common Crossbill which was chipping merrily as it flew over us. It was here that we found our first Bee Orchids of the year which are always nice to see.

Bee Orchids - Wareham Forest © Nick Hull

Next day (5th) we headed up onto the northern chalk to Martin Down, again with friends, the morning was a little clouded and cool so not brilliant for butterflies. We headed out and walking down to the Burnt-tip Orchids area we were seeing lots of Skylark, a few Corn Bunting and Yellowhammer and a handful of butterflies. Small Blue was the first then Common Blue, Meadow Brown and Small Heath. We had passed the rifle butts and possibly halfway to the orchid location when Jackie said "there's a Marsh Fritillary"

Marsh Fritillary - Martin Down © Nick Hull

This was a butterfly we missed last year so we was very pleased to have found one and it was only another hundred metres to the orchids. Just a small stand and we were a bit late for the best show but one or two were still looking ok. We also saw Common Spotted and Fragrant Orchids.

Burnt Orchid - Martin Down © Nick Hull

On the return walk to the car park we added a few other butterflies such as Dingy and Large Skipper, Small and Common Blue, Meadow Brown and Small Heath. We also had good views of a Corn Bunting singing his dangling keys song.

Corn Bunting - Martin Down © Nick Hull

Jackie and I stayed on having a picnic lunch and visited Kitts Grave area afterwards the sun came out and the warmth brought all the butterflies out. We added Brown Argus, Green Hairstreak, Brimstone, Small Copper, Green-veined, Small and Large White and added a couple of day flying moths Mother Shipton and Five-spot Burnet.

On the 6th I was out again with Terry searching for wildlife locations for the tv camera crews as they thought they would do something on dragonflies and damselflies. We found quite a few but they didn't make the cut like so much but it doesn't take away the fact we had a great day finding odonata and getting a few shots for ourselves.

Four-spotted-Chaser_L.q.praenubila - Arne © Nick Hull

Small Red Damselfly - Arne © Nick Hull

On the 10th we headed up on to Salisbury Plain along with a few friends who wanted to see the Great Bustards which have been reintroduced and seem to be doing very well. We were informed that there were nine females on nests this year. Whilst we were there we also saw Grey and Red-legged Partridge, Stone Curlew and several Red Kite.

Female Great Bustard © Nick Hull

Male Great Bustard © Nick Hull

After visiting the plain we headed over to Bentley Wood where we had lunch and a walk for butterflies. Here we added our first Grizzled Skipper of the year and a varient of Five-spot Burnet (Z-trifolii-palustrella) which was an interesting find. We ended our day here with a pair of Spotted Flycatcher and singing Firecrest in the car park.

On the 16th we did our Osprey watch and had a excellent display from a pair of Hobby feeding over the fields which I have to say was a little distracting from the job we were doing.

On the 17th we were over to Durlston Country Park where we had a very nice walk but it was fairly quiet bird wise. Even the butterflies were thin on the ground but we did add Lulworth Skipper to our year list, found some more Bee Orchids along with many Common Spotted Orchid and Pyramidal Orchid. I managed some nice shots of the Fulmar cruising along the cliffs at eye level.

After getting home I was checking out the bee hotels which I found to be pretty well full and spotted a small bee on the post so quickly took a couple of shots and from these photos I was able to identify it as Hylaeus communis_(Common Yellow-face Bee) a new species for the garden. Around ten minutes later I saw a wasp with a long ovipositor fly by me and land on the front of the bee hotel. I took a series of shots and again checking the reference to confirm my thoughts it turn out to be Gasteruption jaculator a parasitic wasp species. Amazingly the ovipositor is more or less the length of its body. In fact it was a species that I've wanted to see for a very long time and to get it in the garden was perfect.

On the 18th Jackie had arranged for us to pickup friends to go and see the Roseate Tern pair that were nesting at Normandy Lagoon near Lymington. So we decided on a little earlier start than usual to get there before there were to many people walking the coastal path. We made good time and found a parking spot and headed out along the coastal path to where we could see three birders with scopes. As we joined them and set up they kindly directed us to the location of the nest. The sitting bird was somewhat concealed by vegetation but we patiently waited until we picked up a adult Roseate flying in across the lagoon towards the nest site and we watched a change-over at the nest and the sitting bird leave and fly out towards the Solent. We stayed and watched another change over sometime later and this time the bird that was relieved flew around the lagoon and dropped into the water and had a bath giving good scope views.

Whilst we were there we noticed that every now and again the odd Little Tern would fly in and then leave again and I managed to get a few shots of one and caught it in a very odd position.

I also managed to catch a few of the other species that were around the lagoon such as this Redshank who lived up to its name of warden of the marsh giving its alarm call not long after we arrived.

This pair of Avocet had a couple of growing chicks just out of view and deemed this Little Egret was getting to close and went into attack mode.

This next shot I quite like it was as the Avocet was coming back after seeing off the Little Egret calling as though it was pleased with the job he/she had done.

On the 26th and the 28th I was out doing some surveying for rare inverts Stag Beetles. We found none of the latter but came across some interesting species some being recordable, such as the Mottle Bee-fly.

Terry, who I do many of my surveys with, found this little pot which is the cell made by the Heath Potter Wasp which places a caterpillar inside and lays an egg and the developing larvae will eat the caterpillar and then unseal the pot and away to start the process again. This pot is still sealed so the wasp larvae hasn't left yet.

We also came across the very pink nymph grasshopper which we think will be a Field Grasshopper when grows up.

Debbie one of the other surveyors found this caterpillar I have to admit I didn't know what species it would be but Terry had seen one before and it turns out to be the caterpillar of the Red Sword-grass moth.

One of the last finds was this white crab flower spider Misumena vatia we were hoping to find the pink variant or even a white and pink striped but we had to make do with a very nice white individual on a foxglove.

This bring the summary of June nature watching to and end roll-on July..