Nature – Page 10 – Enviro-Mentalist

Insects, insects, and some flowers

No nature notes for two weeks, it is not due to a lack of things to see, just a time issue. Where to start – probably insects. The weather has been pretty variable, some sun, rain, thunder, lightning, it was just hail and snow that were missing. This seems to have had a different effect on insects. I don’t know what is happening where you are, but I don’t think I have seen a single butterfly in the last two weeks. I am not sure if it is just a natural hiatus, some are in caterpillar form, others are waiting for the correct plants, but it does seem odd.

What are about in abundance are damselflies. A walk round a lake on a sunny day reveals them in numbers. I managed to take some of my best pictures ever. This was taken along the path, and is my first bit of insect porn. I love the colours of the damselflies against the green of the leaf. I think that these are common blue damselflies, but they are apparently very similar to the azure and variable blue damselflies and I am just not good enough yet. There were also lots of large red damselflies about. Last week I also saw a lot of Blue Tailed damselflies which flew up whenever I brushed past some grass by the lake.

The sage is flowering now, and is bringing a lot of honey and bumble bees to the garden whilst the birds foot trefoil is attracting them to the back which is good because that is where my broad beans (the first time I have tried growing them) are flowering.

Wild flowers are still in abundance, although lots have gone to seed. The grasses, for those not attacked by their pollen, are looking pretty in both the sun and the rain an around the lake there are a lot of flag iris about, looking bright amongst the green.

The garden is covered in birds every morning. The finches, green, gold and bullfinches turn up every day, making a lot of noise and getting through a lot of sunflower hearts. We also had the first baby great tits last weekend. In recent years they have always appeared over the Bank Holiday weekend at the end of May. This year they are a week late. They usually turn up at the same time as the baby blue tits, both can be distinguished from their parents by the more squeaky noise they make and the fact that they look as though they have faded in the wash. However, I haven’t seen any blue tits yet, even though the ones on Springwatch have fledged.

A plethora of flowers.

In a week of generally cooler weather, it appears that the exodus of damselflies from the pond has slowed down, although as I am at work there is a chance that I missed some of them. However, this may be just as well, there have been lots of young sparrows and starlings generally kicking up a racket in the garden, but we have also had a young greenfinch feeding on the sunflower hearts. You can tell these apart from the adults by their stripiness.

I have seen very few butterflies this week, but, now that the first of our honeysuckles has come out in flower I am hoping to see a lot more bees just outside the kitchen window.

Most of the trees now seem to have their summer foliage on, even the ash and the oak are clothed in green.

Onto the flowers….. I went out looking for orchids this week, but the place I saw them last year appears to have been mown to within an inch of its life. However, there are a lot more flowers out there waiting for you. Firstly, brightening up many a hedgerow and road side is the pink campion. I spoke to someone a couple of years ago from the Peterborough area who said that at that end of the River Nene they mainly have white campions whilst the Northampton end is populated by the pink campion. This is a perennial plant, the pink apparently being a product of the white and red campion.

Not to be outdone by my favourite rose, rosa rugosa, the dog roses, rosa canina, are starting to appear in the hedgrows. These are mainly shades of pink, but some are almost white. This is James’s favourite, and we have some growing in the garden which we have grown from seed that we collected from the industrial estate. He wouldn’t let me plant Rosa Rugosa, maybe it was to make sure I kept going to work! Speaking of which, I no longer have to stop and snort, there are so many flowers out now that the air is filled with the scent in the morning.

My final spot of the week are the cheerful ox-eye daisies (leucanthemum vulgare), members of the chrysanthemum family which are showing up at the roadsides now. You will have to excuse the picture, there are not many in the estate, and I have not managed to get to the edge of town where there are lots of them across from the scout hut. Interestingly, many herbivorous insects do not like the daisy, the juice is apparently very bitter, so it used to be mixed with animal bedding in order to deter flies.

Nature just keeps on coming.

It seems as though all my posts are notes on nature, and, I apologise a little for that, but, when there is so much happening, so much that is new to look at every day, it is easy to forget about new governments and ash clouds, and to just get carried away with the song of blackcaps and the sight of butterflies, more of which later.

So, on the what’s new front, what is new? For starters, my favourite rose, rosa rugosa, is beginning to flower. I know they look blousy and flowery in their barbie pink and startling white, but the smell has to rival honeysuckle as my favourite scent. Fortunately they are a favourite on industrial estates allowing me to stop every day to get a snort on my way to work. Other flowers are out too, buttercups are now the yellow flower of choice for all self-respecting roadsides, as their predecessor dandelions seem to be going to seed.

There are other newcomers in the flower world if you look closely, including the very delicate looking vetch. This member of the legume family seems to be fairly abundant once you start looking for it, mainly preferring slightly shadier conditions.

Many of the shrubs and trees appear to be flowering, with the hawthorn in full flower on both shady and sunny sides of the street. Dogwood and sorbus (aka Mountain Ash or Rowan) are also showing off their white flowers, and the horse chestnuts are in full bloom.

I have no new birds to report, but the starlings and sparrows seem to have fledged and they are now busy repairing their nests (possibly with the aid of leaves pulled from my sweet peas) ready for the next brood.

On the insect front, I saw both a Holly Blue and a couple of Cabbage Whites in the garden today. I am still chasing a picture of one of the Orange Tip butterflies that are patrolling verges and hedgerows, but in the mean time I did get a less than satisfactory picture of a Speckled Wood with its wings closed, an insect which is appearing in ever increasing numbers along the old railway track.

Today was also a good day for damselflies, with numbers emerging from the pond getting into double figures – the bamboo and rhubarb appearing to be good places to sit in the sun!

In the garden, perhaps half of the lettuces I planted out last week are still surviving, but one of my courgette seedlings has passed away, and my beans are awaiting the installation of a suitable climbing frame so they can be planted out (small hint there). The bees are still making use of the pulmonaria, but are also being attracted to the aquilegia which is now in flower – although mainly in shades of purple and pink – oh, how I covet the white ones I saw round the corner!

Dare I hope? Is Summer coming?

This week continued to be unseasonably cold, with frost on some mornings – irritating for those who drive to work, but not for me. However, on Monday I did notice the first hawthorn flowers of this Spring, but only in one place. Everywhere else is green, with the buds just waiting to open, but not yet. Many of the ornamental cherries have lost their flowers and are looking a shadow of their former selves, but their place is being taken by wild and bird cherries (prunus padus). The latter are fairly distinctive having a spike of white flowers – they seem quite popular in industrial estates – the name is due to the popularity of their bitter fruits with birds.

In the verges there are now some buttercups competing with the dandelions, but I was surprised to see some clover flowering already on the industrial estate. I didn’t think it would be out this early, so that shows how little I know.

I have no new bird sightings for the week although the number of house martins seems to be increasing which is good news because there is some concern about the numbers returning from their wintering grounds. We have started feeding mealworms to the garden birds in the last week (not a cheap hobby as they can easily eat their own bodyweight in worms every day – or so it seems). The main takers are about six sparrows and one great tit. The starlings would be the main takers if we hadn’t put them behind bars (the mealworms that is, not the starlings), so, instead, they have taken to waiting for a sparrow to land with a mealworm and then they attack it. Some have learned to fly straight off with their booty and avoid the ambush. Other birds are making regular appearances with chaffinches, goldfinches and greenfinches as well as a robin and blue tit visiting each morning. At work I have been lucky enough to watch a few pairs of bullfinches from my office window – they have been on the grass eating the seeds of the dandelions.

I finally saw a speckled wood butterfly this morning, well, about 4 or 5. They were busy patrolling the nettles and garlic mustard on the old railway track as we walked back from town. There were a couple of orange tips about as well. Hopefully there will be more if the weather stays warm. Today was also the day for my first damselfly of the year. I spotted this large red damselfly in the garden, its wings sparkled in the sunlight as it flew up from near the pond to rest on the bamboo. I found a larva case on a plant nearby so I think it may have emerged today.

All in all it has been quite a good week for nature spotting in Northamptonshire.

The first week of May.

At the end of April it was easy to be fooled into thinking that Summer was just around the corner. This week has reminded me just how variable the British weather can be. Whilst it has not been completely full of grey skies and gloom, I was a bit put out to see the hail come pouring down on several occasions – still ’twas a Bank Holiday Monday.

But, before I get too melancholic (also note, I will be complaining if it is too hot in the Summer, should we get one), I still found plenty of new things this week (new for the year, I am not claiming to have made any exciting discoveries).

On the insect front, the weather has made it pretty dismal, orange tip butterflies still taunt me when I have no camera handy, but otherwise I have not seen many insects about. There are still some bees foraging, workers as well as queens, and a few wasps to be seen.

As far as flowers go, it appears everything is awash with dandelions and daisies, and, it seems the first dandelions have set seed already. One flower that is also adding some colour is Herb Robert (Geranium Robertianum), a cransebill that grows in hedgerows. This plant was used in medieval times for its medicinal properties, being used as a remedy for nosebleeds and toothache as well as dysentry. The leaves, if rubbed on the skin, apparently repel mosquitoes, which I am not surprised by. This plant often turns up in the garden, and, if you pull it up and are not wearing gloves, its not very pleasant smell stays with you for some time. Whilst it is supposed to attract many insects, I must confess that I do not like to leave it in my garden as it does self seed quite prolifically.

Speaking of gardens, my beans are growing quite well now after the threat of moving them indoors. The lemon balm is providing plenty of leaves for herbal teas and the bluebells are flowering well, showing up particularly in the less than ideal light we have had over the last week.

However, it is the bird news that I find most exciting this week. On Sunday, a visit to the Country Park showed that the terns were back. Although there were plenty of swifts, swallows and house martins there did not seem to be any sign of the hobbies that often hunt them at this time of year. However, a check of Northants Bird Sightings seemed to suggest that the hobbies were back and some of those terns may have been arctic terns, unless they were being frightened off by the peregrine! I sometimes think my timing may be a little off! In the garden we have had two young blackbirds around, and I can say with certainty that there are young in the starling’s nest in the gutter outside my window! I also heard and then saw my first blackcap of the year on the old railway track. I am trying to improve my recognition of birdsong, the blackcap sounds a little like a robin, but more ‘burbling’.

All in all, considering the weather, it does not appear to have been too bad a week.

Not all bees are bumblebees.

OK, another post about bees, and, it is partly an excuse to put another picture of a bee on my blog, but there is a point I want to make. There has been a lot of concern about honey bees and the sudden collapse of hives (often this concern is motivated by the potential disaster for farmers and lost revenues), there has also been some publicity regarding bumble bees, following this I joined the Bumble Bee Conservation Trust, but what about other bees? Other bees I hear you say – well, yes, what about solitary bees. Before this Spring I didn’t really think about other types of bee, but once I started looking at them, the diversity amongst this set of insects becomes quite amazing.

In addition to the tawny mining bee that I mentioned in an earlier post, I have also come across the little chapess in the photo in my garden. Once again I turned to I Spot as I had no idea what this was. She was almost totally black, with a long proboscis and was totally obsessed with my pulmonaria. She is in fact a hairy footed flower bee – what a fantastic name (anthophora plumipes). Both this bee and the tawny mining bee are solitary bees. In this species the females are black apart from their pollen baskets whilst the males are more of a gingery colour. They have particularly long tongues which they cannot fully retract, which is quite noticeable as they hover in front of flowers. Although I have never noticed one before they are quite widespread in the South of England and are common visitors to gardens.

So, now you know, not all bees are bumble bees or honey bees, not all are stripy and (like the tawny mining bee) not all bees sting.

Nature Notes for the end of April.

Wow, what a busy week for nature this week. First of all the most obvious signs of Summer appeared this week with my first swallow on Tuesday and my first swift on Saturday. I saw a single swallow whilst driving back through the Northamptonshire countryside, but the swift was one of several in the sky above Daventry town centre.

Whilst out photographing architecture on Tuesday I noticed that there were a lot more flowers in the hedgerows and churchyards. One of the most delicate of these is the Cuckoo Flower or Lady’s Smock, Cardamine Pratensis. This flower (a member of the brassica family) has delicate pale pink flowers on a spike. It grows best close to water, but can be found in churchyards and in ditches. The plant is edible and is widespread through the UK. It is also one of the flowers that is recorded as part of the Nature’s Calendar phenology study. Cuckoo flowers are food for the larvae of orange-tip butterflies, of which I saw a number on Tuesday, but they were more interested in the nettle flowers than the cuckoo flowers.

Other flowers that are out, although thought to be a little late this year are the bluebells. I went to photograph some on Tuesday at Everdon Stubbs and they were just starting to come out. There were also a few wood anenomes still flowering along with celandines and stitchwort. Also on the wing were brimstones, but I am still waiting to see my first speckled wood butterfly of the year – I did have a look along the old railway track on Friday, but there were none to be seen.

A trip to Badby Woods on Saturday was a different matter, the bluebells were much more in evidence, starting to give that hazy look when there are so many it is not possible to focus properly. The bluebells, as expected were attracting a large number of bees and hoverflies. I was hoping to hear a cuckoo in the woods, but was disappointed, perhaps it was drowned out by the racket made by chiffchaffs and great tits.

However, a very welcome sound heard as we were walking towards the woods was the wheezy song of a yellowhammer. I used to regularly hear these in the fields around Daventry, but since Lang Farm has been built I have to travel further into the countryside to hear their call.

This week’s nature roundup.

It seems that the warm weather has really started things moving this week. And, the more you look, the more you find.

For a starter, many of the trees and plants are bursting into flower. Cowslips (primula veris) are springing up everywhere – the one posing in this picture was taken next to the car park at work. These are fairly common on open ground around the UK and have uses in traditional medicine for the treatment of headaches, although some people are allergic to them. Also noticeable is the preponderance of dandelions decorating roadsides (and dare I say gardens) at the moment, providing a useful nectar source for the increasing number of bees.

Speaking of bees, there do seem to be a lot about at the moment. Most noticeable are the massive red-tailed and buff-tailed bumble bee queens flying about, but, if you look closely, you may see other types of bee that you hadn’t noticed before. One of these, again spotted as I was leaving work, was a tawny mining bee (adrena fulva). I don’t remember seeing these before, but they are bright orange and, although fairly small and constantly on the move, they are not easy to miss. These are solitary bees that often make their home in lawns, digging a hole to lay their eggs in and to provide a safe place for the young bees for which they collect pollen. The picture that I took was the best I could get as they seem quite jumpy and do not settle for long even when sunning themselves.

Also of note this week are the increasing number of house martins that can be heard, if not seen, in the skies above Daventry, the first bluebells starting to open and a few more butterflies on the wing.

In the garden, the courgette seeds that I planted last weekend are coming up, although my beans, which are outside, whilst presumably enjoying the sunny days are not appreciating the frosty nights and are refusing to put in an appearance. Tulips are in full bloom and the blackcurrant and blackberry are coming back to life. I am also contemplating pulling my first rhubarb of the season.

Imposter

Those of you who know me realise that I have developed a bit of an obsession with photographing bees. This is mainly because they are there, but I am also developing a bit of an interest in them.

My macro photography improved tremendously last year as I photographed any insect I could find in the garden (it also had the advantage that I didn’t have to travel more than a few metres). However, Winter came long with the absence of insects. Now, the sun is shining and the bees are back and after my enforced hiatus I spent a happy few hours last weekend trying to capture bees on my digital camera.

It is only when you start looking that you see the diversity that is around you. Whilst watching the bees my attention was caught by this little chap – a funny shape for a bee if ever I saw one. I thought I would look on the Open University’s I-Spot website. This is a fantastic resource where you can upload photos or write descriptions of nature which you need help identifying or which you would just like a second opinion about.

Fortunately there was another picture of my insect on the front page, and, it is not a bee, it is a bee-fly, Bombylius Major being the largest and most common, and corresponding to my friend. It is, as noted, much chunkier than a bee with spindly legs, but is as furry as a bee, and hovers around flowers in a similar way to hoverflies (primoses being one of its favourites) with its proboscis out probing for nectar.

The larvae of a bee-fly are not at all nice though, they live in the nests of solitary bees living off the food stores and grubs of the bees. Although they are quite common at this time of year, this is the first I have ever seen.

New for this week – coming to the Natural World near you.

So, what has happened in the last 7 days or so? It would appear to be quite a lot, other than a rather exciting ash cloud that has managed to reduce the carbon output of Europe and leave all those planes on the ground.

Firstly, or rather lastly, on Saturday I first heard, and then saw, my first housemartin of the year. They were fairly high up and did not stick around for long, so I think they may have been on their way to elsewhere rather than birds returning to hang about in Dav.

I saw the housemartin whilst sitting in the garden watching bees. You may have noticed that there is a lot of blossom about at the moment, not only is the blackthorn still flowering, but there are cherry blossoms on almost every housing estate, and, along with the blossom there are the associated bees. The main attraction in our garden at the moment as far as bees are concerned is the blue Pulmonaria Trevi Fountain as evidenced by cette photo la, with rather lovely bumblebee attached. Also out in numbers this week have been the native two and seven spot ladybirds, as yet though, there are no harlequins that I have seen.

In terms of wild flowers that are out at the moment, one of my favourites is the forget-me-not. James calls these devil flowers, because they self seed everywhere. Indeed the one in the picture found its own way into the front garden. Has anyone ever planted a forget-me-not, or do they ‘just appear’?

On the garden front, I am pleased to report that the gooseberry has loads of flower buds on. I am hoping that the sawfly don’t find where we’ve hidden it and that our huge rosemary will help disguise it – fingers crossed! I have also planted my courgette seeds and french bean seeds, ready for planting out in a couple of months.