Butterflies and bees

Having waited at base all yesterday for a scheduled delivery that never arrived, we were keen to spend some time outdoors this afternoon. We visited our 'usual' lockdown haunt and were pleased to see a couple of bees on the Ragwort. The male Red-tailed Bumblebee above was the first of its kind I had seen for some weeks. 

We looked hard in case there were any Cinnabar larvae, but there was no sign today of the distinctive stripy caterpillars.

We found a new track that ran between swathes of thistles and long grass, and looked ideal for insects.

I came across the name of this yellow daisy-like flower very recently, but find I have forgotten it. Please feel free to leave a comment if you know. (Update: 24 August. My thanks to Conehead54, who tells me it is Common Fleabane). 

All in all David counted the four Holly Blues, four Speckled Wood, forty-six Small Whites, one Red Admiral and one Comma... in addition to the butterfly you see in the photo above. I had thought it was a faded Gatekeeper and that its 'second' white spots had failed to show, but I'm pretty sure it is a Meadow Brown.  

Comma, underside

 You can see the white 'comma' quite clearly on the underwing of the butterfly above.

The same Comma

When we eventually found a Red Admiral, it was perching with its wings closed. I waited and waited, and in my haste to catch the moment when the wings opened, I cut off the antennae in my shot: what a shame. 

I believe I have mentioned before that the footpath passes beside a barley field. As you can see the grain is ripening well. Barley always reminds me of the west wind in the song by Sting.

We are halfway through a fascinating documentary by writer, naturalist and poet, Helen Macdonald, about urban wildlife around the M25. The diversity not only of species but also of habitat is astonishing in this very busy area that circumnavigates London. 

Our current 'exercise spot' here in Suffolk hardly bears any resemblance to the M25 and yet it is a place adjacent to the port of Felixstowe with goods trains, bulging with containers, bustling to and fro at frequent intervals. The port is in fact Britain’s busiest container port, and one of the largest in Europe.

Industry sandwiched between trees and hedges

Given how close the barley field footpath is to such a hub of heavy industry, we have been delighted to discover a healthy diversity of species over the last few weeks. Slightly to our surprise (given how few butterflies are showing in the garden right now), it was satisfying to find good numbers of butterflies on the wing this afternoon, but there are definitely signs that the season is changing...

National Meadows Day (in Miniature)

Today is National Meadows Day here in the UK. This particular 'celebration' has wild flowers has its focus, but I have added inverted commas as the news is not all good. I read on the magnificent meadows site about '7.5 million acres of meadows and flower-rich grasslands that have been lost since the 1930s'. The English Heritage site tells much the same story here.

Due to my shielding (which continues in many respects until August) I have not been out in a 'proper' meadow for far too long, so I have chosen to post a few pictures of our garden which is currently a micro-meadow with a path for my daily exercise. I share the path with Blackbirds and think it must help them to see what is lurking at the base of the long grass.

Is this a Carder bee of sorts?

We simply allowed the lawn to grow, and it was not only grass that grew but Knapweed,

You can see where the Nursery-web spiderlings hatched out: we watched it happen!

Ox-eye daisies,

and a plant with globular blue flower heads that looks as if it might be a garden escape, perhaps a species of Echinops or Eryngeum. Do let me know if you recognise it! It seems to attract ladybirds, and will, I hope, attract bees when the blue flowers open.

Last year's seed head with this year's pupa, which should darken soon.

It has been a joy to see more Meadow Browns than we have had before,

Ringlets, which we have not had before...

and more Skipper butterflies than there have been in previous years.

Butterfly Conservation's Suffolk branch supplied us with seeds for insects, which we grew in a trough. These are now a cluster of meadow flowers in the form of Cornflowers and Corn marigolds. I have also grown Poppies from seed.

I still recall Nursery School afternoons when the boys and girls my class marched off in a crocodile to Kippington Meadow in Kent. Part of our time in the meadow included forming a large circle to sing (and skip along to) 'In and out the dusty bluebells'. Meadows are so important for biodiversity and I feel sad that I have not been able to go out and see a bluebell this year. But I wonder how many children never have the chance to run wild among the buttercups and butterflies in swathes of long grass.

Day 12 #30DaysWild: Butterfly Watching

The 'say no to the mow' personal-pledge we made at the inspirational Suffolk Wildlife Trust Summit last year is beginning to pay off. We now have Meadow Brown butterflies in our micro-meadow. I had not seen a single butterfly for some days, and then today in a rare bright moment, I went outside and was greeted by a welcome flutter of wings. I saw six (or possibly seven) of these insects in total. What a joy to have them right outside our french window. 

Back in 2012, soon after we returned to East Anglia, I remember finding a large grassy area almost awash with Meadow Browns at Burgh Castle, one of the Saxon Shore forts. Since then I have seen a fair few, but I'm not sure I have ever seen six at once in our garden before. I do hope there will be many more. I shall log this morning's sighting on the Garden Butterfly Survey I am doing this year with Butterfly Conservation. So far this June I have seen one Small Copper, one Holly Blue and one Small White, so today's sighting boosts my month's total considerably.   

...And if you haven't seen them already, do take a look here at ten 5-line puffin poems I posted earlier this week on my lockdown blog, The Glow of Emerald Light. The poets whose work is represented are from England, Scotland and the USA.

Insects in the Grounds of Helmingham Hall

I seem to have been chasing my tail a bit recently, so here are a few pretty pictures of Helmingham Hall and the insects in the grounds. You may have seen the hall on the Antiques Roadshow recently or perhaps on a previous Who do you think you are? programme. I tried to keep a casual eye open for bees on flower heads as we strolled around, particularly in the walled garden. But we saw some other insects, too ...

I think the creature above is a Variable Damselfly and the one below is an immature Large Red.

The moat makes an ideal environment for odonata.

Inside the walled garden we smiled at the topiary rabbits ...

and a frog prince!

It was good to see a few Meadow Browns, my first of the season.

I'm wondering if these were leaf or Flea Beeetles of some variety, possibly Crepidodera aurata. 

We noticed a couple of Broad-bodied Chasers on the vertical posts.

The next few photos show bees I noticed on the flower heads ...

This bee favoured a beautiful Delphinium.

You can see David here by the knot garden, with this fragrant patch of lavender and old-fashioned roses just in front of him. Despite the grey weather, the scent was one of pure summer!

Tree Following ~ Silver Birch in July

This post is the fifth in my Tree Following series, part of a wider project run by Lucy Corrander from the Loose and Leafy blog. I am following a Silver Birch in Suffolk, UK. You will find the other Tree Follower links for July 2014 here ... so do take the chance to go on a virtual exploration of the arboreal world!


Diary Entry

Technically this entry should have appeared a month ago, but I had already added my May-June contribution via Mr Linky when the sighting took place, so here it is.

Tuesday 10 June 2014, noon

I was looking out from my window ten minutes ago when a flicker of movement caught my eye from the fir tree adjacent to my Silver Birch. A young Grey Squirrel jumped to the ground and headed towards the trunk of the birch. There was a scuffle in the dense foliage of the Weigela, and a small squirrel head appeared at a height of 150 cm, very close to the coconut feeders that hang from the Silver Birch. I have a feeling the youngster may have lost its balance at that point as it emerged from the base of the shrub and scampered over to the decking. A moment later a Magpie landed just over a metre away. The Grey Squirrel looked small and vulnerable. The bird, however, only had eyes for the feeder, and the youngster hopped safely over to the far side of the garden. I often watch Grey Squirrels from my window as they chase along the tall trees that border the Local Nature Reserve, particularly when the trunks are bare, but I have not seen a Grey Squirrel on our side of the garden fence for some time. I hope this one will return and make it up the trunk of the Silver Birch to the feeders. 

Grey Squirrel (one I took earlier - no camera to hand on 10 June)

* * *

As of 7 July 2014, the squirrel has not been seen again ... yet. The only other animals to report this month are the bats that continue to flit and dive outside my window at dusk.

The Silver Birch is still a mass of green leaves, though shades of brown have crept in among them, reminding me that the longest day is now well and truly behind us. I keep reminding myself that most schools in England have yet to break up for their summer vacation!

The brown shades belong to the female catkins, which are filling out in response to wind pollination. The seeds or 'nutlets' are dispersed on the breeze. Like sycamore keys, the seeds have wings to enable them to travel. One or two have landed on us in the garden.

There are also a few yellow leaves like the one below, suggesting some kind of stress to the tree. I guessed this might be due to drought or mineral imbalance, but it seems from BBC Lancashire's Ask the Gardener programme that it may be due to waterlogged conditions around the roots. Of course, the weather conditions here in Suffolk are very different to those in the north-west, so who knows; but we did have a lot of rain in the county at times last winter.

I was particularly interested to discover that Silver Birch leaves attract aphids, which in turn attract Ladybirds. There is even a species of Silver Birch aphid (Euceraphis betulae). I have not seen any Ladybirds on the tree to date, but I noticed this striking pair on a nettle in the vicinity: 

14-spot yellow ladybirds (small, native species)

When it comes to birds, the garden has been somewhat quieter this month. The Blue tit and Starling families have fledged.

However, the following birds have deigned to put in the odd appearance on the Silver Birch itself or on the feeders that hang from its branches ...

Sightings include ...

• TFb2  Great tit (several frequently on feeder)
• TFb4  Blackbird (one male frequently below feeder, another on the feeder - and a female)
• TFb6  Blue tit (several frequently on feeder)
• TFb7  Robin (one or two appearances, including today)
• TFb8  Magpie (about three frequently dive-bombing feeder)
• TFb9  Wood Pigeon (up to ten perching around the feeder area)
• TFb10 Dunnock (two frequently below feeder)  
• TFb11 Starling (infrequent appearances of up to three birds) 

Previous birds not seen this month (and admittedly I was not at base all the time) ...

• TFb1 Great Spotted Woodpecker 
• TFb3 Long-tailed Tit
• TFb5 Song Thrush 
• TFb12 Carrion Crow (on fence at back of Silver Birch) - first seen on 14 May 2014
• TFb13 Goldfinch

 
On the insect front, this month's sightings include ...

• TFi5 Skipper Butterfly (three, definitely the first time I have seen these in my home patch)
• TFi6 Meadow Brown Butterfly (two, definitely the first time I have seen these in my home patch)
• TFi7 Large White Butterfly (one)
• TFi8 14-spot Yellow Ladybirds (two)
• TFi14 Blackfly (colony) 
• TFi15 Marmalade Hoverfly (one) 
• TFi16 Shield bug (still identifying exact species)

There have also been plenty of moths. Sadly my moth ID skills are sadly lacking. 

TFi5 Skipper butterfly (I'm not sure yet which variety)

TFi15 Marmalade Hoverfly on flowers beneath Silver Birch

Previous sightings around the Silver Birch include ...

• TFi1 Small Tortoiseshell Butterfly [March]
• TFi2 Buff-tailed Bumblebee [March] 
• TFi3 Brimstone Butterfly [April]
• TFi4 7-spot Ladybirds [April]
• TFi9 Small White Butterfly [May]
• TFi10 Orange tip Butterfly [May]
• TFi11 Harlequin ladybird [May]
• TFi12 Garden Chafer (Phyllopertha horticola) [June] 
• TFi13 Ruby-tail Wasp [June]   

Of course it is often hard to tell whether the flora and fauna that I spot in, on, around or under the Silver Birch - or on the feeders that hang from its branches - are there specifically on account of the tree.

Next month will be August: where is the year going? But July is always a good month for growth and wildlife, so I shall keep my eyes and ears open meanwhile, as I continue to follow the Silver Birch. Thank you for calling by ... and for those of you who have been reading my posts on Skye and Mull, there will be a few more coming soon. 


MY PREVIOUS TREE FOLLOWING POSTS

• May to June 2014
• April to May 2014
• March to April 2014
• February to March 2014