Tree Following for July and Early August 2016

 Welcome to my Tree Following post for July and early August 2016. 

These tree posts form part of a wider project initiated by Lucy Corrander from the Loose and Leafy blog and continued by Pat at The Squirrelbasket. 

I am based in Suffolk, UK, where I have been keeping an eye on a Silver birch, B. pendula. I have added in a small Cherry sapling, Prunus avium Sylvia, for my second tree.

You will find the other Tree Follower links by clicking through to the Mr Linky button here ... so do take the chance to have a look at the new posts!

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Every so often something inspires me to write a short diary post about my trees, so here is one about the Silver Birch ...

Diary for 21 July 2016
Time: 12.46 (afternoon)
Conditions: warm, dry and cloudy

I looked out and saw the mother Magpie with her single offspring. They made their way together to the base of the feeder on the Silver Birch and began pecking around beneath it, giving out the occasional squeaky call. Suddenly a Jay flew in, and landed on the coconut and proceeded to feed. After a few moments, perhaps disturbed by the Magpies, the bird flew off over our fence towards a large oak tree that borders the local nature reserve. I was about to return to my desk when I realised that the Jay had now been joined by a mate (or adolescent offspring), and the two birds disappeared together.

If we have Jays and Magpies rearing young in our neck of the woods, it can hardly bode well for the smaller garden birds, and yet the population of Blue tits and Great tits, in particular, seems healthy at the moment ...

Jay

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This post is largely for an odd numbered month (July), so I will only post the sightings seen since the last round-up. My next Tree Following post (August and early September) will include the complete list.

Highlights this month have included the appearance of two new butterflies for my garden record, the Gatekeeper and the Holly Blue. The Gatekeeper made a beeline for the patch of garden around the Cherry Tree. The Holly Blue was spotted in the same patch - but, not surprisingly - on a Holly. I do not expect that my chosen trees had anything to do with its arrival in the garden, but I include this butterfly because it touched down within a metre of the Cherry.

We experienced a 'flying ant day' - pictures here.

Gatekeeper

Holly Blue

The season is turning fast. Daylight gives way to dusk at about 8.30pm. The first leaves on the Silver Birch are turning yellow. The seedhead catkins are a rich brown.

First of the turning leaves, Silver Birch, August 2016

Silver Birch (and part of the bird feeder)

Silver Birch seeds caught in spider's web on a post

Silver Birch - seed cases, August 2016

Cherry tree, 5 August 2016

Cherry tree, holed leaf, 5 August 2016

The patch around the Cherry has been weeded, and the little tree has had a growth spurt. I suspect a Leafcutter bee is taking rounded chunks out of its leaves. I rather fear that wasp season is about to begin, and last year we had a few hornets, too ...

Avian sightings

• TFb1   Great Spotted Woodpecker (a male)
• TFb2   Great tit (several, often on feeder) 
• TFb3   Long-tailed Tit (large family, including juveniles)
• TFb4   Blackbird (several)  
• TFb6   Blue tit (several frequently on feeder, including juveniles)
• TFb7   Robin (the feisty Robin has put in frequent appearances)
• TFb8   Magpie (several)
• TFb9   Wood Pigeon (up to ten perching around the feeder area)
• TFb10 Dunnock (two)  
• TFb14 Jay (two)
• TFb21 Chaffinch (one, 5 August 2016)
• TFb23 Collared Dove (a pair, one pecking directly underneath the Silver Birch)

Mammal sighting

• TFm4 Grey Squirrel  [Jan/Feb 2016] [Feb/Mar 2016] [Mar/Apr 2016] [Jul/Aug 2016]

 No new mammals this month.


Insect sightings

• TFi7   Large White Butterfly [July 2014] [Jul/Aug 2016]
• TFi15 Marmalade Hoverfly [July 2014] [Jul/Aug 2015] [Jul/Aug 2016]
• TFi22 Green bottle flies [August 2014] [May/June 2015] [Jul/Aug 2016]
• TFi23 Ants [August 2014] [Apr/May 2015]  [May/June 2015] [Jul/Aug 2015] [Sept/Oct 2015 Acer negundo] [Jun/July 2016] [Jul/Aug 2016]
• TFi28 Unidentified Moth [Nov/Dec 2014] [Feb/Mar 2015] [Jul/Aug 2015] [Sept/Oct 2015]
  [Jan/Feb 2016] [June/July 2016] [Jul/Aug 2016]
• TFi39  Gatekeeper Butterfly *New* [Jul/Aug 2016]
• TFi40  Holly Blue Butterfly *New* [Jul/Aug 2016]

And finally ...

MY PREVIOUS TREE FOLLOWING POSTS

• June 2016 to July 2016
• May 2016 to June 2016
• April 2016 to May 2016
• March 2016 to April 2016
• February 2016 to March 2016
• January 2016 to February 2016
• December 2015 to January 2016
• November to December 2015
• October to November 2015
• September to October 2015
• August to September 2015
• July to August 2015
• June to July 2015
• May to June 2015
• April to May 2015
• March to April 2015
• February to March 2015
• January to February 2015
• November to December 2014
• October to November 2014
• September to October 2014
• August to September 2014
• July to August 2014 
• June to July 2014
• May to June 2014 
• April to May 2014
• March to April 2014
• February to March 2014

Ladybird with a black blotch

I am always on the look-out for unusual Ladybirds! And in my neck of the woods I have seen very few Ladybirds of any kind in recent days.

The one in these photos was making the most of the aphids on the Nasturtium leaves at the RSPB Flatford Wildlife Garden last weekend.

It looks large in the photos, but it was 7-spot-sized rather than Harlequin. The large black blotch on the elytra intrigued me. I was informed by the UK Ladybird Survey that a previous Ladybird with unusual markings was indeed a 7-spot, but that the insect in question had probably suffered from frost damage or had received its markings on account of a genetic mutation. The black blotch on this Flatford Ladybird shows up particularly well in the last photo, as the insect scuttles into the Nasturtium plant.

STOP PRESS: on the subject of collecting insect data (as opposed to the current craze for imaginary figures ...), take a look at this thought-provoking post from the Centre for Hydrology and Ecology.

Brown Hawker Dragonfly - Flatford Mill

We saw reasonable numbers of butterflies in the RSPB Wildlife Garden at Flatford when we were doing the Big Butterfly Count, but we were both feeling that dragonflies and damselflies were hard to find when this huge Brown Hawker caught our eye. It is a female, and those bronze wings look stunning when the sun catches them. The male of the species has additional blue markings.

Flatford Mill, Constable's inspiration for The Haywain

Incidentally, if you live within range of the Suffolk coast, you might be interested in one of the Poetry in Aldeburgh events (Saturday 5 November, 10-12 noon), a Poetry and Drawing Workshop. This session will take Constable's landscapes as a starting point (alongside poetry). The leaders hope to include drawing from observation and from the imagination.

Two More Big Butterfly Counts - still time to take part!

Red Admiral (and bee!) - a highlight of the 30 July count

We have done two more Big Butterfly Counts since my last butterfly post. The count continues until 7 August, and sightings can be logged on the site until the end of the month, so do see if you can join in.

Whites were showing in reasonable numbers (the count lasts for 15 minutes) on both occasions; but as you can see, we failed to see either of the specified day-flying moths. Other notable omissions are the Small Tortoiseshell and the Painted Lady. 

The Red Admiral in the photo was nectaring in the glorious grounds of Beth Chatto Gardens.

#FLYINGANTDAY (Flying Ant Day, 2016)

Yesterday was the day of the ants.

Our garden was bristling with movement. Ants were everywhere. Apparently we were rather behind schedule here in Suffolk, as others have already experienced the annual ant explosion.

You can see a large Queen in the centre of the photo above. This is the season when male ants prepare to mate with these Queens, who subsequently shed their wings and turn their attention to nest building in our sandy soil. The males are very active until they have mated, but once this key airborne activity has taken place, it is only a matter of days before they die.

The Royal Society of Biology, in association with the University of Gloucestershire, is asking for sighting records so I shall be logging mine here. 

This is my poster, which I shall tweet with the hashtag, #flyingantday ...

... and if you see flying ants, you can post one, too!

More Butterflies (including another Big Butterfly Count) and Moths

We spent Saturday at NT Wicken Fen in Cambridgeshire. It was a very hot day and we hoped that we might see good numbers of odonata and lepidoptera.

We decided to do a second Big Butterfly Count - this time along the Butterfly Walk. We saw other butterflies, too, such as the Small Tortoiseshell and the Peacock, but the ones in the list above were the ones we were able to count during the allocated time.

I mentioned in my previous post that there are two day-flying moths that can be counted alongside butterflies for the purpose of this particular survey, namely the Silver Y (a migratory species) and the Six-spot Burnet. I have seen both these species this year (the Silver Y sighting was a first for me), but not during a count.

The Silver Y in the photos below was at NT Dunwich Heath, nectaring on bell heather.

You can make out the tail of the letter 'y' on the left forewing

Frontal view

So then we come to the Six-spot Burnet.

The photo below (my apologies for the lack of focus: I blame the breeze which caused the grass to sway!) was taken at Minsmere ...

... where we also saw the adult moths taking to the air on their maiden voyages ...

There is another day-flying (but also night-flying) moth that we sometimes see here in Suffolk, the Cinnabar moth. Its caterpillars stand out against the grass and can often be seen on Ragwort. Here is a photo:

And here is the adult moth in a picture I took at Snape Maltings in early June ...

cropped close-up

Butterflies and the 2016 Big Butterfly Count

David and I put aside fifteen minutes at the weekend to do a butterfly survey at Dunwich Heath for the Big Butterfly Count. The heather has been superb this year, and the Small Whites were certainly out in force, as you can see from our results above. 

If you would like to take part in the count, you will find the instructions here.

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I keep checking our own garden for butterflies. We have had one or two Large and Small Whites. Sadly the Skippers we had last year have not reappeared although we have refrained from mowing a patch of the yellow flowers (a form of Hawkweed?) that attracted them in 2015. 

We saw few butterflies during our holiday along the Solway. I think we were just a bit early, given the chilly weather that we had at times. 

There was a good show of Meadow Browns at Castle Acre priory last weekend. There were also a couple of Small Tortoiseshells in the monks' herb garden. 

We saw a few Common Blues in a patch of heath at Dunwich some days ago.

NT Sutton Hoo has a few Small Coppers on the wing. They favoured sheltered lines of brushed-down grass in among the longer stems. 

To add a bit of colour, here is a selection of the butterfly photos I have taken so far this year. The occasional moth species may squeak in, too.

No butterflies here, but a photo to show you the setting (Castle Acre Priory, Norfolk) for the next six pics.

Small Tortoiseshell in the nettle patch (July) ...

... and on this thyme-like plant.

Travel-worn Small Tortoiseshell, at one with the old stone path

Another Small Tortoiseshell ...

... enjoying the monks' herb garden at Castle Acre

A Meadow brown, one of many

At this point we leave Castle Acre... and move to NT Sutton Hoo.

Small Copper in the long grass

A Large Skipper (I think this was at Sutton Hoo, but am not 100% sure)

Small Skipper

And moving on to other sites:

Red Admiral on yellow lichen

Painted Lady: I believe I have only seen one this season ...

... and here it is with its wings closed.

 The next two photos were taken on Dunwich Heath in rather dense area of vegetation.

Common Blue (I think) ...

... and with wings closed.

 And here is a butterfly in my garden ...

Small White

The next two photos were taken en route to Scotland (we took quite a detour though!) at Gibraltar Point near Skegness ...

The orange-spotted caterpillar of the Brown-tail moth (moth, not butterfly) ...

... and the tent from which it emerges.

The next photo shows a Peacock butterfly caterpillar. Look at those spines! This one was seen at Minsmere some weeks ago. 

 My final caterpillar is a Drinker Moth larva. I noticed it at Flatford Mill back in the spring.

The Big Butterfly Count is largely about ... butterflies, though it does include a couple of moths, the Silver Y and the colourful 6-spot Burnet, two species I want to cover in a future post.

I hope the inclusion of a couple of different moth species - in addition to the photos of lepidoptera in the larval stage - has not detracted from the butterflies in this post. I thought it would be fun to show a selection of my 2016 sightings to date. Some are little more than record shots, but they all add a little flourish to my personal observation list. I am no expert and, as ever, would be delighted to hear from anyone who can correct an ID!

I will leave you with a photo of the beautifully recreated monks' herb garden at Castle Acre, which was a haven for butterflies when we were there last Saturday.