Socks and Nightjars

I enjoy waiting for churring nightjars. You can take in the silence and view the stars while the mist rises over the heath. Very atmospheric. There's also the supporting cast while you wait. Last night I was treated to a high-flying noctule bat, roding woodcock, and competing cuckoos, but alas, no long eared owls this year.

Having watched Bill Oddie and his hankerchief-waving antics on BBC's Springwatch, I thought I would try the same. I don't stock hankies however, and the laundry basket was devoid of anything white except my white socks looking slightly not-so-white having been round several meadows the previous day.

After the first bout of churring from his usual tree, a rapid double-flick and whip-like 'crack' of the sock had him coming to investigate, circling within 4 meters showing the white wing and tail flashes. After a few circuits, he left for more churring, but more likely due to the strong sock odour.

In summary, if out on the heath and handkerchief-less, I can fully recommend the sock method.

Surprise Demoiselle

Yet another hunt for rare orchids around some local limewoods came to nought. However, there's always the possibility of the unexpected and bumping into this banded demoiselle at a forest pool was a pleasant surprise.

banded demoiselle

banded demoiselle

banded demoiselle

They normally like slow flowing rivers, so what it was doing here, I know not.

banded demoiselle

Less suprising were the large red damselflies which are now appearing.

large red damselfly

I knew a common lizard liked basking in this spot, so I spent some time slowly creeping into position. At one point, several young were basking with her.

common lizard

common lizard

These long-horn beetles looked quite exotic on the umbelifer flower heads

long horn beetle

long horn beetle

First Darter

Another new dragonfly species emerging from the recently designated Bannister Wetlands National Nature Reserve today (hell any puddle can get designated nowadays).

This common darter was drying out in the meadow. That makes 3 species of damselfly and 2 of dragons up to now. No frog spawn seems to survive and I'm beginning to wonder if the large dragonfly larva population and lack of tadpoles in the pond are connected?


Common darter female

Space Aliens Found

I have come to conclusion that for the searching naturalist:

% success = [ d/(36 x c) + (0.9 x g) ]%


where:
d = number of days per year out in the field
g = quality of gen (0=non-existent or crap, 100=top quality gen)
c = dependent on which country you are in. For UK use approx 1. For Sweden use approx. c= 100. This is because Sweden is one huge wildlife habitat with only a few bits that are crap. The inverse is, sadly, true of the UK.

Normally, this means you can find what you are after in the UK much more easily, whereas in Sweden you can search for days and the forests seem deathly quiet.

But even in the UK, where the likely areas of habitat are relatively small, it seems for orchids at least, you still need good gen. After a couple of days of trying to find some bee orchids at likely looking places, I gave up and managed to get hold of some good solid gen. Many thanks to Graham for the supply of this.

Bee orchid. 8 spikes at the first site.

I managed to miss the showers and they looked good against the dark sky

is it just me, or does it actually look like that space alien 'Stitch' from disney's "Lilo and Stitch"? I just can't make a bee out at all.

also southern marsh orchid at same site

and common broomrape. I think it was parasitic on the clover

Nearby was the pale St. John's wort. Check out those black-dotted sepals.

At another coversands site, I couldn't find the bee orchids, but I was impressed and flummoxed by this. I guess it is some kind of sedge but couldn't find it in any of my references.

At a third site, there was 2 bee orchid spikes, several southern marsh orchids and these common spotted orchids.

Sunny Day

Today was hot and humid, so a cycle along the Humber bank was in order. After checking on the local Marsh Harriers, I was concentrating on the local butterflies, hoping for some common blues, maybe a late brown argus, along with a dash of orchid spotting thrown in.

Brown argus was not playing, but the common blues were out in force, with the odd ringlet, red admiral and painted lady.


male common blue


ringlet

As it happened my orchid gen was duff. As compensation, this bank of common valerian was quite impressive. The best I could find was some common spotted orchids.


common valerian

southern marsh orchid

oxeye daisy on the humber bank

impressive poppy display

A new ditch, only cut a year ago seems to have developed into a dragonly hotspot. Emperor dragonly and lots of emerging black-tailed skimmers there today.

black-tailed skimmer

black-tailed skimmer

A good mix of species for the all-rounder. What a great day, but I really must get some better orchid gen.

Damsel day

I decided today was a good time to brush up on the minutae of blue damselfly identification. With a sunny day forecast I headed off to a local site with at least 4 species on the wing. They are all little blue jobs, but with some effort and a good field guide, I did manage to get the hang of separating them in the end.

I learnt at least three things today:

1. I need a new pair of binoculars. My trusty Bushnell natureview 8x40 are now more than 10 years old and although I prefer to use the eco-friendly 'make do' attitude to most of my kit, I have come to the conclusion that I really do need something that will focus down to my feet, rather than 4 meters away.

2.Variable damselflies are a bugger to photograph.

3. I need a new pair of binoculars.

Luckily I already had the other essential piece of kit: "field guide to the dragonflies of britain and europe" by Dijkstra/Lewington, so at least I could identify anything I could get a good view of.

My main technique was to photograph each damsel on the FZ7 on full macro zoom, then use the review screen to look for the key id features:

- size and shape of the antihumeral stripe (top of the thorax)

- black shape on segment 2 (behind the wings)

not an ideal method, but as it happened, it did have the attraction of forcing me to get to know the jizz of each damsel just based on its size/shape and flight. The variable damselflies in particular seemed to have a very 'jerky' low flight and would not settle which made photography a tad difficult.

Common blue damselfly

- antihumeral strips thick, unbroken

- mushroom shape on S2

male

male

male

immature female (dull-form)

azure damselfly:

-antihumeral stripe thin, unbroken

-U mark on S2

male

mating pair

variable damselfly:

- antihumeral stripe is exclaimation mark

- Y mark on S2

male

male

male

male

female

female

mating pair

Dragon emergence

The first dragonflies have emerged from my new pond after only the second summer. I found the empty larva cases of 2 broad-bodied chasers and today the first male was zooming around after a female yesterday.

All that sweat and back ache now seems worth it.


male BB Chaser


empty BB Chaser larva case

Flamborough

On our annual Flamborough familiy holiday, I managed a short trip to Bempton for my annual seabird fix. 250,000-ish seabirds are still an impressive sight worth seeing each year. Just get there early before the crowds arrive and you've got it all to yourself.


best spot for close-up views of puffin and razorbill is north landing at low tide. Walk out into the bay on either side and they fly right past your head on the way to/from the cliffs. Nice cave too.


razorbills at Bempton



seabird city at Bempton - there's so much going on it's sometimes difficult to know where to look. For the second year running I spotted a gannet removing a guillimot egg from a nesting individual within range and threw it over the cliff. Probably a common occurance as their numbers expand further and take over more nesting ledges.

gannet flight shot attempts

Bempton cliffs looking east towards Flamborough head

First Dragons

A nice sunny day at last, so a short trip to a local wetland to find some of the first dragonflies of the year seemed a good idea.

Found a female 4-spotted chaser (Libellula quadrimaculata) emerging about half a meter from the water.


4-spotted chaser emerging from laval skin


opening the wings


pumping and drying wings

head shot

female ready for lift off


The main reason for the trip was to find the Hairy Hawker (Brachytron pratense). The males were hawking low down as advertised, only rarely settling for any length of time.

Noticably shorter and stubbier than more familiar hawkers and it helps they are out earlier than most other dragons. Sides green, interupted by two black lines.

Hairy Dragonfly male