Chasing Dragons

This time of year is not always the best for watching birds - some are on nests, some hidden away with their youngsters, some moulting and only a few non-breeding migrants returning just yet. But it is the time to go searching for other treasures of nature.

They won't all be rare, of course, but who could ignore the fiery flash of a Red Admiral butterfly skittering among the thistles?

And who could pass by the poise of a Banded Demoiselle? And the photo reveals that this particular demoiselle has notably hairy legs!

There are still some birds to be found at the two reserves my brother and I visited last week. A watchful Grey Heron poses in one of the shallow pools of the reedbed. Nothing escapes that piercing yellow eye.

Great Mullein is a plant of roadsides, railway lines and waste places. It's impressively tall but only a small section of its flower spike is in bloom at any one time. When you look closely it's rather pretty; I've seen a lot less showy plants that are tended lovingly by gardeners.

Here's what I was really hunting for - dragons! Well, dragonflies anyway. This is the female, or perhaps an immature male, of the Ruddy Darter. 

Here's the male, which looks quite different. They are a common species around the reedbeds, flooded gravel pits and slow-moving rivers that feature heavily on our local nature reserves.

What's the collective noun for a group of Seven-Spot Ladybirds? 4 x 7 = 28! though there were actually far more of them than the picture shows.

A Painted Lady butterfly. The first one I've had a chance to photograph this year. They fly here from mainland Europe most summers and every few years we get a sizeable influx. I'll not tell you how many pictures I took before it agreed to turn to the right position.

While I was busy photographing the insects a young Muntjac deer tiptoed across the marshy ground. Even if the lack of little horns didn't give away that it was a very young individual, its complete innocence and heedlessness would have betrayed its youthful naivety. 

Damselflies everywhere! Two Common Blues and a Blue-Tailed Damselfly soak up the morning sun.

This is the Maiden Pink, a speciality of the sandy soils of Breckland - but a very uncommon one these days. It is threatened by both over-grazing and under-grazing of the heathland. Too much grazing and the plants are devoured by sheep, too little grazing and scrub encroaches, overwhelming the tiny flowers. These were growing in a small garden of native plants near the visitor centre at Lakenheath Fen RSPB reserve.

Back to the dragonflies. A Four-Spotted Chaser perches on its favourite reed. The dark spots on the wings give it its name. There are two spots on each of the four wings, 2 x 4 =  4 ? Hmmm...

One little yellow triangle just behind the wings though definitely equals a Norfolk Hawker. These were once restricted to the Norfolk Broads but, happily, they have now spread to other places - though they are still a threatened species and I always feel privileged to see one. And, indeed, all the other treasures found on my rambles.

Take care.

Flying Visit

 A short post to show you two "flying" things that made an impression during the last few days:

Scarlet Tiger Moth

As I was about to pull up the kitchen blind the other morning I noticed the shape of a large moth silhouetted by the sun. I gave the blind a gentle tap so that it didn't get rolled up inside as I pulled on the cord. And there it was, in all its glory, the outrageous harlequin-patterned Scarlet Tiger Moth. Mostly it keeps the bright red hindwing hidden, but if a predator comes near it gives a sudden flash of fire which is enough to scare off most wary creatures. But not the determined focus of my macro lens.

It seemed very drowsy and unwilling to fly, but half an hour later it had departed through the open window and was happily feeding on the nectar from my potted plants.

The Flying Scotsman

Our second "flying" friend was the "Flying Scotsman" locomotive. Les came over the other morning with the news that he'd seen someone at Shepreth level-crossing who was waiting to photograph the historic steam train as it made its way from King's Cross to Great Yarmouth. We hurried down to the local station and, after a minor delay, the great train puffed into view.

According to Wikipedia, "LNER Class A3 4472 Flying Scotsman is a 4-6-2 "Pacific" steam locomotive built in 1923 for the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) at Doncaster Works to a design of Nigel Gresley". So that means that it's celebrating its centenary this year. It was also the first steam train to top 100 mph. 

And now I must fly!

Take care.

Checking In

I haven't been anywhere that's yielded a set of photos lately, though I've still been out and about, finding a few bits and pieces, here and there.

This was the sky over Stockbridge Meadow at Unreasonable O'clock one morning, sunrise being about 04:30 in these latitudes at this time of year.

A little later in the day there'll be some butterflies about. This is the widespread but rather beautiful Red Admiral.

And here's a Comma which gets its name from a tiny white punctuation mark on its underwing, completely ignoring the obvious fact that the wings are a completely different shape to any other butterfly on these islands - scalloped and indented like a piece of jigsaw puzzle.

This tiny, moth-like butterfly is a Large Skipper.

And here's a dragonfly that's just gone! I liked the soft, dreamy look of the reeds so took a photo anyway.

Backlit grasses can look soft and delicate in the early morning light.

And a damselfly that didn't fly away! A male Azure Damselfly, if I'm not mistaken. 

My nearest RSPB bird reserve at Fowlmere had a visit from seven Little Egrets recently (one insisted on feeding on the other side of the mere!) Before 1990 we were lucky to get a dozen or so Little Egrets visiting the UK each year: now there are over 700 breeding pairs here in summer and even more visiting during winter. 

Fowlmere's resident Barn Owls can often be seen around their nest-box. I also had another birding trip to Smithy Fen, one of the less salubrious parts of Cambridgeshire......

....but there's a flooded field there which is particularly attractive to birds and over 150 species have been logged there over the last few years. The latest celebrity to take up a brief residence there is Marg the Stork. Nobody knows where this White Stork has come from, though a few overshoot their usual migration stop most years.

We'll pop back to Stockbridge Meadow for the last couple of shots of the early morning light.

*******

YouTube's mysterious and inscrutable algorithm has decided recently that I like guitar music. For once it's got something right.....

"Why worry" (a song by Mark Knopfler) 

played by Muriel Anderson on a Brunner Compact Harp Guitar.

Take care.

It's The Little Things

Children have a different view of the world from grown-ups. They have little use for grand views or beautiful countryside, but have a seemingly inbuilt obsession with messy corners inhabited by creepy-crawlies and squirmy-wormies - life on a smaller and more manageable scale. The kind of thing which adults usually don't even notice. Somehow I've managed to retain some of my childish inquisitiveness; so here are a few insects and wild flowers that have entertained me recently.

Small Tortoiseshell Butterfly 

One of our more familiar garden butterflies which everyone sees at least a few times every summer. But how many of us notice the jewel-like blue crescents along the edges of the wings? They can be very territorial and will chase any other butterflies that encroach on what they consider to be their bit of the flowerbed. According to the Wildlife Trusts' website the males "court" the females "by drumming their antennae on the females hindwings". Now that's something to look out for.

Bee Orchids

I mentioned these in a recent post, so I thought I'd better find some for you. I also mentioned how wild orchids sometimes appear in unlikely places and these are a case in point, growing on a small patch of grass in a street in the modern village of Bar Hill. The flowers are supposed to mimic bees and thus attract real bees in to pollinate them. It must work as Bee Orchids are not that rare.

Scarce Chaser Dragonfly

Despite the name Scarce Chasers are not that scarce - not around the many old flooded gravel pits around here anyway. That's the female in the picture above.

Yellow Wort

This tiny flower is a specialist of chalky soils and, while it can turn up in specially managed hay-meadows, it's just as likely to be found in abandoned quarries or, as here, on a heap of waste soil left over from excavating a small farm reservoir. Yellow Wort is actually a member of the Gentian family, but one that is very easily overlooked.

Pyramidal Orchid

From the same heap of soil as the Yellow Wort, comes this Pyramidal Orchid. There are also Bee Orchids, Common Spotted Orchids and vast numbers of Ox-Eye Daisies on the same site. Pyramidal Orchids have occasional moments of nationwide fame when they get on the News for appearing in thousands on a particular traffic roundabout.

Cardinal Beetle

It's amazing how such a handsome little chap can be so little known. The Red-Headed Cardinal Beetle is a fairly common insect of gardens, parks and hedgerows.

Bedstraw Broomrape

The Broomrapes are a very odd group of flowers which lack any green leaves. Instead of photosynthesising they rely on gaining their nutrients from the roots of other plants, in this case Lady's Bedstraw. This particular example was found growing on sand dunes on the North Norfolk Coast. The host plant, Lady's Bedstraw, is a fairly unspectacular yellow flower which gets its name from the fact that it was once used for stuffing hay mattresses, to which it gave a pleasant scent.

Black-Tailed Skimmer Dragonfly

Another dragonfly which benefits greatly from the proliferation of flooded gravel pits, which have been left to serve as nature reserves in this area. If you get interested in dragonflies then you have to get used to the idea that males and females of the same species can look very different from each other. Birds often have females that are duller versions of the males, but with dragonflies no such rules apply. Here for example is the female Black-Tailed Skimmer:

And that concludes this round up of some of the smaller things in life. But we ignore them at our peril, for it's these tiny organisms that form the foundation on which the whole of the world's ecosystems are built. Children know best.

Take care.

Little Beauties

Let me introduce you to some very small friends that I've been trying to learn about on my recent walks....

There are a lot more of these little beings around than you might realise. Here I stooped to photograph one, noticed another nearby, then found one more when I looked at the shot on the computer. Left to right: a Seven-Spot Ladybird, some sort of Skipper butterfly and an unidentified fly lurking in the shadows.

A Common Darter pauses (and poses) on a little fishing platform on a village pond. They are not at all difficult to find, though they don't always co-operate with the photographer. They are also a bit tricky in that they change colour depending on their age....

Here's a less mature male. If you look really closely you can see a yellowish stripe on the legs which confirms they are both Common Darters, though I confess I can rarely see this until I look at the photos.

No problems with this little butterfly - at least not once it settles. It's a Small Copper, which always gets a smile in this part of the world; "copper" being the everyday word for a policeman.

If you're a small, defenceless hoverfly it's a good idea to look like one of the hard gang, like a wasp for example. Its disguise is good enough to fool most predators (and many people). Its Sunday name is Helophilus pendulus, but its stripy thorax gives it the nickname of "the footballer". 

This slender (almost to the point of invisibility) damselfly is probably a Willow Emerald. If not for the sun catching its wings I'd have passed by without noticing it.

It's pretty enough to be a butterfly, but in fact it's a Five-Spot Burnet moth. 

A Gatekeeper butterfly feeds on the nectar of some Ragwort. It gets its common name from its habit of hanging around near gates, though its other name of Hedge Brown suggests that you might find it anywhere along a hedgerow. Perhaps it's just that we see it as we pass through the gates.

This gorgeous fellow is a male Southern Hawker, another fairly common dragonfly in the UK. Females are only slightly less jewel-like being just lime-green and black, lacking the bright blue colour.

And we'll finish off with a Painted Lady butterfly. They are a migratory species that arrives here from Europe during some summers, though they seem to be getting more frequent in recent years.

Take care.

June's Garden

Like any other garden, the University's Botanic Garden in Cambridge would be nothing without the tireless efforts of an army of workers.

No, not the human workers, though they are certainly busy at this time of year too, but the countless thousands of bees who slave away from dawn till dusk, collecting nectar and pollinating the plants.

And they were certainly out in force yesterday - making honey while the sun shines, I suppose.

All along in front of the Glasshouse Range, in one of the most prominent positions on the site, are the specially created Bee Borders, full of the plants that are most attractive to the busy insects.

And there are hives full of honey bees right in among the flowers; accommodation on the job, so as to speak.

The borders are not only ideal for the bees, they look very pretty too, and the hope is that visitors will be inspired to plant up their own gardens with similar flowers. There's even a list of suitable plants which you can pick up on your way out.

The flowers you'll see here vary throughout the summer, but there is a constant supply of nectar for the bees. At present the borders have a strong vertical emphasis created mainly by the towering spikes of foxgloves and delphiniums.

As well as the important research carried out by the University, the gardens also provide information boards to enlighten less knowledgeable visitors.

Although many of these boards are clearly designed with children in mind, grown-up explorers can learn a lot too. Well, did you know that plants like foxgloves have a lower lip specially designed as a landing-pad for bees? Not only is it a convenient perch, but it has cone-shaped cells which give the bee a better grip as it alights on the plant.

Yes, there are lots of other plants too; I just got rather carried away with photographing foxgloves.

All in all it's a paradise where bees and other pollinating insects can live out their brief but important lives - and it's an extremely pleasant place for us less industrious individuals to while away an hour or two.

Human visitors come here from all over the world and yesterday there was also an insect that had made quite an impressive journey on beautiful but delicate wings...

It's a Painted Lady butterfly, the first I've seen this year, looking rather washed out and tatty after flying over from mainland Europe. Apparently there's been quite an influx of them along the coast in the last week or two. Maybe we'll have another bumper year for them during 2019.


Take care.