Dragonfly Days...

We once had a Migrant Hawker in the garden on the day of the Autumn Equinox so I always associate this species with the end of summer. However, we are only just past mid-August this year, so I mustn't get ahead of myself. 

It is, of course, always special to find one of these dragons in the garden, regardless of the day on the calendar. David took the photograph above this morning while we were enjoying coffee outside. I had a strong hunch it was a Migrant Hawker, and the yellow 'golf tee' mark at S2 near the top of the abdomen confirms this.  

We have noticed that leaves are beginning to turn already. I expect the heatwaves have been a contributory factor. I love the bright red colour of this Virginia Creeper (or is it Russian Vine?), but I hope the other leaves won't follow suit too speedily.  

I wonder who will find these Blackberries! We have various bits of bramble around the perimeter of the garden: we encourage it to grow and hope it will entice wildlife. 

 

White Buddleia and the Insects it Attracts

Pollen galore: my favourite White Buddleia photo

We inherited a white variety of Buddleia when we moved in to our current home back in 2012, and each year I complain that I wish it was a Black Knight or one of the purple species like B. Davidii that are particularly attractive to butterflies. But for a few short days before the flowers turn to a rusty brown, it looks beautiful. Followers of this blog will know that during the strict lockdown I kept a close eye on some of the plants, including self-seeded ones, in the garden, charting the insects that landed on them. I decided to 'watch' the Buddleia this year, and the photos in this post represent some of my sightings, including the total number of butterfly species seen on the bush. I need to spend more time watching and photographing the bees. And I note we should be dead-heading to allow new inflorescences to form.

 The Comma was the first butterfly to land on the white flowers this year.

I also noticed a couple of Large Whites...

...and quite good numbers of Red Admirals.

We have not seen a Peacock for a few days, but there were one or two about last week. A couple of years years ago I bought a beautiful Peacock butterfly card while we were on holiday in Galloway. When I unwrapped it, it seemed that the writing inside was the wrong way up.

What I have since discovered is that Peacocks often prefer to take an upside-down pose, like the one in my photo below: the image and the writing on the card matched each other after all!

A Bristly Caterpillar and Two Common Darter Dragonflies

This was really going to be a post about dragonflies, but since I have seen so few, I have decided to write about the quiet corner near the river Orwell where we have been keeping an eye out for wildlife. We saw the rather large Cinnabar moth larva in the photo above a few days ago. It was the only one we could find.

We have watched a few Common Darter dragonflies, largely perching on bare branches above the bramble bushes. 

Is that a bit of twig hanging down in the photo below?

I have missed seeing the odonata we usually enjoy, but despite the lockdown (or perhaps because of it) there have been some surprise wildlife sightings along the way.

In other news: we are excited to report that David saw a (second) Common Lizard in the garden at the weekend. I am about to inform our local Wildlife Trust. I had rather assumed that the first had been deposited by a bird, but now we have two sightings, this seems less likely.

Largely Lepidoptera (on a Very Hot Day!)

We enjoyed views of ripening barley from a very peaceful country lane (I think everyone must have headed for the beach at nearby Felixstowe), and were able to do two Big Butterfly Counts: you can see what we saw in the lists below. We were particularly excited by the numbers of Speckled Wood.

Between the first and the second count I caught sight of the moth in the photo above. It was pretty small but had very distinctive wavy bands. By my reckoning it is a Yellow Shell, but please correct me. I have only seen this species once before, and the last time was on Mull, a very different area to East Anglia! I have posted the photo on iSpot.  

These were the results from out first count...

And our second...

Today has been sweltering at times (the image below bears this out...), and it still feels pretty warm and sticky at 11pm. 

Tomorrow is the last day of this year's Big Butterfly Count, so do keep your eyes open and report your sightings to Butterfly Conservation, using the charts they supply via the website or app...

David on our butterfly count beside the fields of ripening barley

Purple Hairstreak in my Garden Butterfly Survey Records for July 2020

I am glad to report that, despite numerous overcast days, my Garden Butterfly Survey numbers for July were considerably up on my June figures. 

We have been particularly delighted to see a Purple Hairstreak and two Brown Argus (verified on iSpot) in the garden for the first time since we moved here to our Suffolk home some eight or nine years ago. The Purple Hairstreak, like the two Green Hairstreaks earlier in the year, did not stay long. The photo above was the only one I managed to take; but I'm pleased to have a record shot, especially as this was my first sighting ever of the species, despite looking (hard!) in the Wood of Cree in the Galloway Forest and around the oaks at Suffolk Wildlife Trust's Carlton Marshes in previous summers. 

Please bear in mind that for the Garden Butterfly Survey the largest number of a species seen on a given count is what shows up in the chart, rather than the total number of butterflies seen in the whole month. Our number of Small Whites, for example, seen and recorded in the garden through the month greatly exceeds 14, but we never saw more than 14 at a time. Likewise, we actually had two Brown Argus sightings, but these are recorded as '1' because we saw one of these butterflies on two occasions, rather than two at once.

In other garden news: we saw a Common Lizard in the garden for the first time. I wonder if there are more about or whether it was attracted by the ants or the long grass.

A(nother) Flying Ant Day in Suffolk

I have been keeping my eye on a number of ants' nests in our wild garden for some days. There appeared to be little activity until yesterday afternoon. We were having a cup of tea and a slice of chocolate cake when we noticed plumes of insects rising into the air. A few minutes later our regular garden birds, especially the Blue tits and Blackbirds, started swooping and fluttering for the airborne ants. It was quite a spectacle to watch.  

David made a short video recording which you can view here:

Mating Butterflies

The butterflies in the garden were very 'busy' today despite strong winds and very overcast conditions. I hope this means our local population will eventually increase!

We also had a fleeting visit from a White Plume moth. Perhaps it mistook the overcast conditions for evening. Sadly it came and went too quickly for my camera, but what a stunning sight! It could have been Tinkerbell from Peter Pan...

Damselfly Deliberations

Photo credit: David Gill 2020

I posted my photograph of this damselfly in my previous post about Aldeburgh sightings. 

My somewhat limited damselfly ID skills are rather rusty at present as I have only seen about five of these insects this season due to my shielding. Two of you offered identifications for which I am very grateful. However, I am left with a dilemma: is this a Small Red-eyed Damselfly or is it a female Common Blue? 

I have decided to pursue the matter a little further by (a) posting further photographs, the ones in this post which were taken by David (and used with his permission!), and (b) posting the photos on iSpot so that others also have the chance to have a look and offer an opinion. I will let you know how I get on. Meanwhile, please feel free, as ever, to let me know your thoughts in the Comments section. Thank you!

Photo credit: David Gill 2020

Photo credit: David Gill 2020

Photo credit: David Gill 2020

P.S. Update as of 23 July 2020. Many thanks to A.J. Parr, the Dragonfly Recorder for Suffolk, who has informed me that this is a female Small Red-eyed Damselfly, quite probably part of a local (Thorpeness) population. He explains that a female Common Blue would have 'only one, not two, dark streaks on the side of the thorax'.

A 'Floral' Afternoon on the Beach at Aldeburgh

We spent a little time on the beach at Aldeburgh yesterday afternoon. As expected there were a lot of people out and about on the footpath that runs between the car park and the beach, but there were very few people on the shingle and only three in the sea. As you can see there was nobody in the vicinity of the iconic Scallop.

My thanks to Conehead54 for advising me that this is Fennel (see comments)

There were few birds about, just the odd gull overhead and a single juvenile on the beach. There did not seem to many insects either, so I decided to photograph some of the plants. Many, if not most of these, are fragile and rare; and consequently cannot be picked.

I think this is Restharrow

This may be Common Restharrow. I find I am a bit rusty on my wildflower names. The insect is probably a Cinnamon Bug. I hadn't realised it was there until I uploaded the photograph.

Possibly a Blue-tailed Damselfly: what do you think? (* see below)

There was a straggly clump of bramble near the footpath, and David noticed this rather well-camouflaged damselfly.  

The leaves in the photo above look similar to a Bindweed. But I really don't know whether I am on the right track with this red and yellow bud.

There were a few clumps of Ragwort, so we kept a close eye out for Cinnabar caterpillars. I am wondering if the insect in the photo above is a type of (possibly damaged) Earwig. Do let me know if you recognise it, and meanwhile, I shall post it on the iSpot site. 

Lady's bedstraw?

There seem to be quite a few yellow plants along this stretch of coast. I presume there must be a reason: could it be linked to salt-tolerance?

Yellow Toadflax

I always get confused when it comes to saxifrages and stonecrops. I wonder whether the clump of vegetation below may be related to Biting Stonecrop.

White Campion is fairly distinct, but Sea Campion and Bladder Campion are not so easy to tell apart. However, I believe the plant below is Sea Campion. There were quite a few clumps on the shingle ridge.

I don't often encounter Groundsel these days, but we came across a small specimen (below) near the upper edge of the beach. 

And here is the juvenile gull!

I love the patterning on its scapulars and coverts.

Lichen is usually an indicator of clear air. Aldeburgh is considered a healthy, if bracing, place to live. 

The sea, the sea...

I'm guessing this is a variety of Yarrow above.

The yellow flowers of the Horned Poppy are unmistakable.  

We noticed a couple of 'mermaid's purses'.  

There were  several clumps of this yellow plant in the photo below; and in one of the dandelion-like flower heads, I noticed what I thought at first was a small moth. Closer inspection suggested a bee of some sort, and I hope someone on iSpot will be able to enlighten me. I apologise for the poor quality: stem and insect were rocking to and fro in the wind.

The photo below shows how empty the beach had become by about 4.30 in the afternoon. The village with the tower is Thorpeness.

Sea Kale, in the pictures above and below, seems to grow well here on the stony beach.

It is a plant protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act of 1981 and should not be picked.

I am always intrigued by these lookout poles. In my childhood we knew them as 'bear poles'.

We kept looking at the stems of Ragwort...

... and eventually found one 6-spot Burnet moth ...

... and a single striped Cinnabar caterpillar. 

The plant in the photo below is the Sea Pea, another legally-protected plant that is well adapted to the harsh terrain. Its low-lying nature means that it is sheltered from the force of the winds on this exposed east coast. 

And finally, as we returned to the point where the beach joins the path, I noticed a few red Poppies. 

P.S. My thanks to the author of Odo-meter and Imperfect and Tense blogs for informing me that the damselfly seems to be a female Small Red-eyed specimen, a variety new to me. Further thanks to Conehead54 for indicating that the same damselfly is a female Common Blue. I will see if we have a better photograph which may possibly make a more definitive ID possible. Watch this space!