July is always a strange month as mid summer is a quiet time for birds accept for the odd breeding survey for Nightjar etc. Which this year I decided not to do and have a little break and put a little more effort in on the local patch for inverts. Ian found two Downland Villa bee-fly Villa cingulate which are a bit of a rarity and the fact they were out of normal habitat here at Lytchett Bay I tried to find them to no avail. None-the-less you never not see something and with the very hot weather we decided to stay local.
On the 2nd Jackie and I joined friends to visit Winterbourne Downs RSPB reserve in Wiltshire to see if we could see Stone Curlew. It was fortunately a cool morning so there was little heat haze and almost as we arrived at the view point I spotted a Stone Curlew. I directed the others to where I was looking and they replied "yes got it" then I realised they had a different bird which was to the right of my juvenile. We then managed to pick out another adult which disappeared behind vegetation leaving a single adult and two juveniles in view.
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| Spot the Stone Curlews © Nick Hull |
Walking back to the car park I managed to get a couple of butterflies in the viewfinder one of them being a Ringlet but had no rings.
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| Ringless Ringlet - Winterbourne Down © Nick Hull |
After we had our fill of Stone Curlews we headed off to Bentley Wood for Purple Emperor Butterflies but we drew a blank. Though we did see a number of other butterfly species including Silver washed Fritillary and Purple Hairstreaks.
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| Silver-washed Fritillary - Bentley Wood © Nick Hull |
On the 3rd we had two of our teenage grandchildren, so we decided to go and see if we could find Heath Tiger Beetles. They like to see rare species or local scarce species as they say in their lifetime you never know what will happen and they might not get a chance to see the species in the future.
Obviously when out we try and look for anything that moves and our first find was a Heath Dumble Dor beetle (Trypocopris pyrenaeus) This species is more or less confined to the heathlands of Dorset, Hampshire and Surrey. They are a good size with a shiny blue sheen to their elytra which lacks distinct striae.
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| Heath Dumble Dor Trypocopris pyrenaeus © Nick Hull |
You may notice a small mite hitching a lift many species of beetle can carry these around and they do them no harm in fact there is some evedence that when the beetle lays her eggs in her chosen dung these mites hop off and help care for the eggs.
We continued to the area where I have found the Tiger Beetles in the past and with a pretty thorough search we came across three unfortunately the first two took flight and disappeared into the heather. Then I caught sight of another that pitched in on a sandy patch and were were able to best pretty good views before it to decided to go off into the heather.
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| Heath Tiger Beetle Cicindela sylvatica © Nick Hull |
Heath Tiger beetle are also known as Wood Tiger beetle they are the largest of the British tiger species measuring in up to 18mm. Their population has declined by around 50% over the last 25years or so. Like the last species above they are more or less only found in Dorset, Hampshire, Surrey and Sussex.
As we walked back I found several Mottled Beefly (Thyridanthrax fenestratus) These like other beefly are a parasitoid and Mottled's host is Heath Sand-wasp (Ammophila pubescent) and indeed we saw a number of the Heath Sand-wasps along the track too. Again this species is mainly confined to the lowland heathland in the UK.
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| Mottled Beefly Thyridanthrax fenestratus © Nick Hull |
I thought I would include the Heath Sand Wasp Ammophila pubescent for completeness. They are slightly smaller than there relative Ammophila sabulosa the Red-banded Sand Wasp but frequents the same lowland heaths they predate of heather feeding moth caterpillars.
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| Heath Sand Wasp Ammophila pubescent © Nick Hull |
By the time we were back at the van the day was pretty hot and we decided to call it a day and head home for lunch.
We visited Blashford Lake HWT reserve on the 8th, it was fairly quiet only the usual summer regular species like Blackcap, Garden Warbler, Common Tern and of course Sand Martin which there were around fifty out front of the Goosander Hide and they were good entertainment flying around feeding then swooping in to their nest holes below the hide.
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| Sand Martin flying in to it's nest hole - Blashford Lakes © Nick Hull |
When we left the hide we spotted a moth showing rather scarlet underwing as we watched, it flew into a bush and rested up. It turned out to be our first Jersey Tiger of the year.
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| Jersey Tiger - Blashford Lakes © Nick Hull |
On the 9th Jackie and I had an excursion up to the northern chalk and the Cranborne Chase and Wyke Down in search of Quail. Well we blanked and the only consolation was we had good views of Corn Bunting and Hobby though we had brief views of Grey Partridge though the partridge did put on an evening chorus from in the long grass.
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| Corn Bunting sing from top of an electricity pole © Nick Hull |
This is the recording of the Grey Partridge you can hear one calling some distance away then one starts calling much closer.
We stayed until the moon started to rise over the wood in the hope we might see an owl but none showed themselves so we called it a day and went home.
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| Moon rise Wyke Down © Nick Hull |
From the 10th to the 16th we stayed local either around the garden at home or around Lytchett Bay mainly due to bruising my ribs when the scope fell from the tripod and I trapped it between my ribs and the van to prevent it dropping on to the hard road. All I can say is it was very painful for a few days. So it was just a case of recording inverts around the bay and visiting the garden. There wasn't anything that really stood out from the usual that we would expect to find. Though I did find a number of Pantaloon Bees feeding on the Fleabane across the road.
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| Pantaloon Bee Dasypoda hirtipes © Nick Hull |
Also we had a first for the garden though not rare but way overdue to visit the wildlife garden a female Emperor Dragonfly came and rested in the elder for a while giving me time to take a few shots.
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| female Emperor Dragonfly - Home Garden © Nick Hull |
I ran the moth traps on the night of the 11th and had good numbers of 197 moths of 82 species with 19 species new for the year and two species new for the garden Long-winged Pearl Anania lancealis and Hemp-agrimoney Plume Adaina microdactyla.
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| Long-winged Pearl Anania lancealis © Nick Hull |
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| Hemp-agrimoney Plume Adaina microdactyla © Nick Hull |
On the 17th Jackie's garden group were visiting Bennet's Water Garden in Weymouth and as I had been told it was a good place for Odonata I decided to go as well. It was an enjoyable morning though we had the odd shower and the sun didn't really come out until after we had left.
I did see a few Odonata Emperor Dragonfly, Black-tailed Skimmer, Common Darter and Common Blue, Blue-tailed Damselflies and Small Red-eyed Damselfly. Though the Green-eyed Hawker or Norfolk Hawker as it was previously known as couldn't be found.
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| Small Red-eyed Damselfly - Bennets Water Gardens © Nick Hull |
On the 23rd Jackie suggested that we popped to Silverlake again this would be our fourth visit to see if we could connect with Broad Scarlet, Red-veined Darter and Lesser Emperor. The last of these I did see on our first visit but I wanted to see if I could get a photograph of one.
When we arrived there was very few people around which was good as the dragonflies would not have been disturbed to much. So Jackie and I walked around the lake which originally was a gravel pit. There were lots of Black-tailed Skimmer and Small Red-eyed Damselflies a few Common Blue Damselflies. Then I picked up a red darter but it flew past but it looked a little like a Common Darter but it didn't land. As we approached the top end of the lake I picked up a another or same red coloured darter sat on the ground and as I was about to take a shot a voice from further round shouts out there is a Red-veined Darter near where you are.
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| Red-veined Darter - Silverlake © Nick Hull |
I took a closer look and indeed that was what I was looking at so shot off a few shots, then Jackie and I moved on and it was then we realised that the person that called out to us was Brett, a birding friend from Weymouth. So we had a catch-up whilst looking for the other species, it didn't take long before we saw a Lesser Emperor and Common Emerald Damselflies and it was about this point when Jackie felt she had done enough and went back to the van for a snack.
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| Common Emerald Danselfly Silverlake © Nick Hull |
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| Lesser Emperor - Silverlake © Nick Hull |
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| Broad Scarlet (Darter) - Silverlake © Nick Hull |
On the 28th July we had the grandchildren and it is alway hard to know what to do to keep them occupied. Well, a few days before I was our on a refresher wasp and bee identification walk on Hartland Moor with the Purbeck Natural History Forum. During are walk we came across a Nomada Bee which we couldn't identify in the field and it got us chatting and during the conversion Purbeck Nomad Bee came up. This is a species last recorded at Durlston CP in 1982 and thought to be extinct and it happens that the youngster like Durlston, so that solved a problem. Well I showed them what we were looking for and off we went searching Wild Carrot and Ragwort it main food plant. We also searched for the Andrena bee that it parasitise on. Unfortunately the weather wasn't great it was cool and a bit windy and inverts were hard to find.
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| Eriothrix rufomaculatus - Durlston CP © Nick Hull |
Though we did find things, like this Red-sided Eriothrix (Eriothrix rufomaculatus) they are a common fly which parasitise on moths. We also came across this small picturewing or wingwaver This one was
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| Four-spot-Wingwaver (Herina lugubris) © Nick Hull |
on Wild Carrot where it was living up to its name by waving it's wings.
We also found a Ichneumon Wasp Ichneumon bucculentus these are another parasitic species which appears to be under recorded though this may be due to Dorset doesn't have a recorder for this group of species.
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| Ichneumon bucculentus - Durlston CP © Nick Hull |
The only other highlights of the month have been what I call by-catch in the moth trap this can be anything from wasps and Hornets to flies, Shieldbug and various sized beetles which find there way in attracted by the MV/UV lights. When I find them I like to try and get an identification so I can add them to the garden checklist which grows slowly each year.
Recently I've had a few good finds in that none have been particularly rare or scarce but interesting in that I haven't recorded them before, such as this diving beetle. It's strange I don't think we think of diving beetles being able to fly but they do very well. This is Colybetes fuscus and is fairly large species at 15mm -19mm and likes well vegetated lakes and pond. They are a widespread and common species.
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| Colybetes fuscus - © Nick Hull |
Another beetle which I've not come across before though have seen others in the genus was this Rove beetle species at around 25mm it's a good size and similar to the Devil Coachhorse (Ocypus olens) which initially I thought it was going to be. When I had it in the pot and had a close look at it I realised that its jaws were smaller and checking the references narrowed it down to Quedius dilatatus who's common name is Hornet Rove Beetle as they spens much of there early life in Hornet nests and as adult feed on diptera but they also will visit sap-runs on oak and beech trees. Their larvae grow within the nest detritus, eating other insects and, maybe, the dead and dying hornets too. As many as ten adult beetles and larvae may be found in a nest, and while they do not appear to prey on the hornets or their larvae, the nest must be occupied by hornets for the beetles to persist.
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| Quedius dilatatus Hornet-Rove-Beetle © Nick Hull |
The third beetle was a longhorn beetle which I ended up talking to Tony, my beetle expert, and as it would need genital determination to decide which species it was I decided just to aggregate the record so it's either Leiopus nebulosus or Leiopus linnei. None-the-less it is a truly stunning beetle with amazing long antenna.
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| Leiopus nebulosus agg. © Nick Hull |
Well that sums up July with little in the way of birds but autumn migration has started with waders moving back through and into the harbour it will be interesting what wildlife August brings and how much Jackie and I get to see.
