Nature – Page 4 – Enviro-Mentalist

Three bees are better than two bees

I decided to do this month’s bee walk on Saturday even though it was a bit breezy and not very warm. I checked the weather forecast and saw cold and potentially rain for the next week or so and figured that the sunshine and a warmer week running up to Saturday might have been enough to tempt the bees out. Unfortunately I was wrong.

During the bee survey (which lasted over an hour) we saw a grand total of three bumblebees (one unidentified, one carder bee and one red-tailed). There was plenty out there for them to eat and we saw plenty of hoverflies and solitary bees, but virtually no bumbles. After we had finished the survey and were walking home we found another two bees, but still five was a bit unexpected.

However, I don’t think the colder weather was to blame, after all, bumbles are furry little creatures and can manage the cold better than a lot of other insects. I think this was a matter of timing. Early in the year bumble queens, the only bumbles to overwinter, emerge from their winter quarters looking for food and somewhere to nest for the year. Once they have enough nutrition they lay create a wax cup that they fill with nectar and create a pollen ball in which they lay their eggs. After a few days these hatch into larvae which then remain in the nest for a few weeks until they metamorphose into a bee. During this time the queen has to brood the eggs and larvae to keep them warm (hence the nectar) and she can only go out foraging for short periods of time. Hence, I think most of the queens were in their nests and the first lot of workers have probably not emerged yet so there is a paucity of bumblebees at the moment.

Unmistakeable

I think that spring has finally arrived when the chiffchaffs are calling, but this can be misleading. However, once the butterflies are out, and, in particular, the ones that didn’t overwinter as adults, then I know spring is here.

There are a few butterflies that are due out in the first weeks of April. One of the most distinctive (well, the males, anyway), is the orange tip.

These butterflies are found along many lanes, and are particularly fond of garlic mustard (as shown above) and cuckoo flower which are amongst the food plants of the caterpillar. The female orange tip looks like the male, but without the orange tips, so could be confused with some of the other whites. But once the wings are folded it is again unmistakeable with green mottling on the underside. Although they are usually seen in May, if the weather is warm they might be out in April. However, blink and you will miss them – they will be more or less gone by the middle of June.

Today’s new discovery

Today seemed like a good day to go insect hunting. The sun was out, the sky was blue and, for a change, it was warm. As the back garden seemed mainly to have flies in it and little else (other than a rather lovely toad) of interest, I put my boots on and we went for a walk along some of our bee transect.

However, we hadn’t even got as far as the old railway track before the butterflies were out showing themselves. And, to be fair, the front garden had a couple of bees (red-tailed and tree bee) as well as a basking small tortoiseshell.

We walked for a mile or two, and saw butterflies in many of the sections we went along, although, noticeably, not in the newer housing sections – good job as they probably would have starved. There are four, possibly five, butterflies that overwinter as adults – the jury is out on the red admiral which normal migrates over. The definite four are Brimstone, Comma, Small Tortoiseshell and Peacock and all of these were out in abundance, sometimes a couple on the same flower. Dandelions seemed to be the flower of choice for the small torts, peacocks were a bit more interested in the willows and flowering cherries whilst the commas were mainly on viburnum tinus. As for the brimstones, they were just dashing about like mad things.

So, I took lots of photos, had a big smile on my face, saw some bees and discovered that in contrast to the rest of them, commas have white legs.

On the upper side of their wings commas are a beautiful bright orange, but underneath they look like an old dried up leaf – move along birdies, nothing to eat here, type of leaf – a dull, brown, raggedy old leaf. This is in fact the only butterfly with such jaggedy wings, although they are perfectly symmetrical in shape. However, they are named for the small, white, comma shaped mark on the underside of the wing. I suppose it is better than being called a dried up old leaf butterfly.

As usual, I only saw single specimens of these, as they are one of the few spring butterflies that isn’t often seen in any groups with others of its kind.

Have you seen this butterfly?

Once the weather finally makes up its mind to be warm for more than a few hours, have a look for this butterfly, the Speckled Wood, Pararge aegeria.

It’s quite a common butterfly and should be out and about in the beginning of April. Like many of the browns, it tends to breed on grasses, and this one likes soft grasses in dappled shade. In Daventry there will usually be quite a few along the old railway track and in the country park. The sunlight usually picks up their distinctive yellow spots (numbers and markings vary) and often several will be seen having a bit of a tussle in the air.

The Wider Countryside Butterfly Survey and Butterfly Recorders’ Meeting

As I previously mentioned, I was asked to talk about the WCBS at the recent National Butterfly Recorders’ Meeting. This was a nerve-wracking moment as I don’t do a lot of public speaking and there was a room full of butterfly greats there – Matthew Oates really should have his own accompanying drum roll. However, I did managed ten minutes with virtually nothing included about butterflies; for me it was about the people who do the surveys.

I started co-ordinating the butterfly survey for Beds and Northants 3 years ago, and inherited 10 surveyed 1km squares which is not very many in an area of 3000 km2. It had been higher, but the previous co-ordinator had gone off chasing swallowtails in Norfolk (and he did three of the squares). We are now regularly surveying over 20 sites (over 30 if you include those from the BTO).

My presentation was about how we had increased to more than 20 squares and, with the help of some volunteers from the BTO, had amassed records of nearly 35,000 butterflies (more details on the actual butterflies in another post).

I’ve tried various ways of upping the numbers: Twitter, the local wildlife trust, and local wildlife groups, but only some have had any affect. Maybe I am targeting the wrong people. I had a bit of luck at the local AGM – after all these are people who like butterflies enough to spend a Saturday afternoon at a meeting, and I will try this again this year. I’m also going to try and target local areas with a lot of empty squares and see if we can get some of them covered as well as talking to the local agricultural college and university.

It really is a nice survey to do and is seen as one of the best scientific surveys that Butterfly Conservation carry out – mainly due to the random allocation of the squares. It also targets the more common butterflies as it is carried out in July and August – just two visits on a sunny afternoon are required so it isn’t a massive time commitment.

I get a lot of good feedback from volunteers about the survey – some really do love it and look forward to it each year. The question is – how do I persuade more people to come and do their bit for butterflies and for citizen science? Answers on a postcard please…

Charming Goldfinches

Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed a complete lack of greenfinches in their garden this winter. I know the Big Garden Birdwatch has seen a big drop, but I can’t remember the last time I saw one anywhere, even in the country park.

What I do get a lot of are goldfinches – one of my favourite birds (although they are not as high up as bullfinches and long-tailed tits). We tend to get at least four or five a day in the winter, but we’ve had up to two dozen – quite a lot with only one bird feeder – but I have plans for next year… In the summer we tend to get some adults and fledglings in the garden, the chicks staying with us for some time. You can usually tell they’ve arrived by the cacophony of begging noises coming from outside.

However, whilst watching the birds I started to wonder if it would be possible to tell how many individuals come into the garden. I think the short answer is going to be not a chance, but it did lead me to wonder if there is an easy way to tell males and females apart.

According to many websites, yes you can. The males have more extensive red masks and black feathers around their beaks – the females also have shorter wings and white or grey feathers around their beaks. There is also a difference in the extent of the brown on their wings. Not simple, but doable with some effort. It was then that I came across and excellent blog by a bird ringer who dispelled all of these myths with examples of birds he’d caught and sexed with certainty (and there were plenty even he couldn’t be sure about).

However, there are some differences I have spotted, such as the size of the white spots on the wing tips and, how white they are. I am not sure if this will change with time, along with the black tip to some of the beaks – so it will be worth checking again in the summer when the only birds about will be adults. See the photos below – goldfinch 1 has mainly white spots with a hint of beige, but goldfinch 2 has spots that are much closer to beige than brown.

More work required methinks, ho hum, I will just have to stand at the window watching birds for hours.

However, as these charming birds are not very long lived in the wild it is probably just as well that I can’t differentiate them.

BTW if you wondered, apparently the name charm for a flock of goldfinches comes from the noise they make rather than their appearance.

The National Butterfly Recorders’ Meeting

Every year Butterfly Conservation hold a Recorders’ meeting in Birmingham, this year I was asked to talk to the Recorders (more on this in a later post), so I went along for just the second time. It is a day with a wide and varied schedule of talks and one that is open to anyone with an interest in butterflies. These are the highlights of just some of the talks, but there were others scattered in between (although I admit to losing the plot with the talk about butterflies and nitrogen – too statistical for me) so plenty for everyone.

The day opened with a talk by the always interesting Richard Fox who gave highlights of 2014 in terms of butterflies – prior to the full results that were saved until the end of the day. The year was dominated by tortoiseshells. The familiar small tortoiseshell continued its recovery from its precipitous decline earlier in the decade (something that I think has been reflected in Northamptonshire and Bedfordshire) but the real star was the influx of the Scarce Tortoiseshell from the continent. Prior to 2014 there were only 2 records – last year there were 19 (and some have been seen this year already).

Zoe Randle spoke about the importance and use of Citizen Science for conservation. It was so useful to know that the data that volunteers submit through the various schemes run by Butterfly Conservation is put to use with 170 peer reviewed papers making use of the data – papers that have been cited 7,000 times.

A local highlight was the work done in Northamptonshire to try and reverse the decline of the Wood White. This is a three year project that has just come to an end having been funded mainly through the SITA landfill grants but also receiving money from the local Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire Butterfly Conservation group. Through working with the Forestry Commission to clear the rides through the woods and uncover the ditches running alongside these rides they have increased the number of wood whites seen for less than a dozen in 2009 to over 150 in 2013 and over 250 in 2o14. The challenge is now on to keep this going now the official project is over and to replicate it elsewhere.

It it always a pleasure to hear Matthew Oates talking, this time about how the National Trust is prioritising the work it is doing on its land to improve the environment- particularly its farmland.

One of the more scientific talks of the day was from Bristol University researcher – Jon Bridle, who has been investigating whether the Brown Argus, a butterfly that has increased its distribution, possibly due to changing climate, has done so because of any evolutionary changes. The work focused on the chosen food plant of the butterfly as in two areas of the UK where it had an established presence it had two different food plants – geranium molle and rock rose. It appears that in the new areas they use exclusively the geranium on which to lay their eggs – those moved to areas with just rock rose didn’t lay at all. However, when butterflies in areas of rock rose were moved to the new areas they were just as happy, if not happier using the geranium. Interesting don’t you think.

The final talk gave details of the results of the various butterfly recording schemes for the last year – with the winners and losers described. However, they will be doing a press release later in the week, so if I told you the results now I’d have to kill you. Best keep them to myself.

My first bumblebee walk

This year I signed up to do my first proper wildlife survey (one step up from the annual Big Garden Birdwatch or Big Butterfly Count, both of which I do most years). I have developed an interest in Bumblebees, I’m not sure why, I think it is through a combination of watching them through my macro lens and also because of all the information that is now out there due to the worry over the disappearance of pollinators.

The Bumblebee Conservation Trust launched it’s BeeWalk last year. It is asking volunteers to choose a 1-2km walk (as compared to a lot of surveys where the walks are in randomly allocated squares) and to walk it once a month between March and October, preferably in warm, dry and still conditions, and recording any bees spotted along the way.

I chose my route in an area where I knew I would have no trouble getting to once a month (in fact I tend to visit most parts of it every week) and then refined it to take in as many different habitats as I could. It starts in an industrial estate, heads past some fields, some new houses with some scrubby bits, more fields and more grasslands and houses. Not overly inspirational, but I am hopeful for some bumbles this summer.

What I wasn’t too hopeful about was my chances of seeing some bumbles this weekend. The weather has not been exactly warm, but with the forecast for today looking better than the rest of the week, and March rapidly vanishing into the realms of memory, I thought I’d better get my bum in gear and get out there looking for bees. This is actually a good time of year to start learning about bees because there are only the queens of true bumblebees generally about. There are no males, very few workers and none of those pesky cuckoo bees to confuse an amateur.

However, I was pleasantly surprised as there were actually some bees out. Due to a lack of flowers to be seen on the ground, I had to look up into the trees to find them, and it took a while to get my eye in. However, during the 1 hour walk I managed to spot 8 bees of three different species (and two butterflies, one hoverfly and a lacewing).

Most of the bees, with the exception of two queens which were quartering the ground under some hedgerows, were feeding on willow catkins (I have no idea if these were from goat willow, crack willow or grey willow as I didn’t even realise that there were as many different types until I looked online). When most people think of bees, they think of flowers, and if they think of trees at all they think of cherry blossom. However, at this time of year, the catkins of willow trees are an important source of nectar and pollen for bees and other insects. This became evident when we stood under one of the willows watching the honeybees in the tree. It sounded as though we were stood near to a hive. We spotted more than a dozen and they were so covered in willow pollen that they were glinting in the sunlight, looking as golden as the catkins themselves.

The next time I’m out and about I’ll definitely make a bee-line for the willows and see what’s buzzing.

Spring? Where?

Signs of spring have a been a bit few and far between so far this year, although I have managed to find some in the last week.

There has been a dearth of insects about – so far, apart from a probably very short lived peacock butterfly on 2nd January, I’ve seen a solitary brimstone, and five bees – all apart from one were Bombus terrestris (the buff-tailed bee). This is a good time of year (well, if it gets a bit warmer it will be) for learning to ID our bumblebees as for the next month or so there will only be queens of true bumblebees about. None of those pesky cuckoo bees or males to confuse matters. For more info on bumblebee ID, the Bumblebee Conservation Trust has loads of help. Even the views I did get of the bees were from a distance:

I found one lurking on some broom and a couple of others sunning themselves on trees.

However, it is probably a good thing that there aren’t many invertebrates braving the cold at the moment (although I was told today that 2015 temperatures have been normal for this time of year) as I’m not sure if it is just that I’m looking in the wrong place, but I’ve not seen many flowers in bloom yet. I have some snowdrops and hellebores in the garden, but by the roadsides I’m not even seeing many dandelions which flower for most of the year.

The willows are only just breaking out and it took me until the beginning of this week to find any celandines in flower – a bloom I usually associate with February. However, find them I did, and, what’s more I also heard my first chiffchaff of the year (about a week earlier than I expected) – trying to drown out the sound of traffic on the Bedford Road. So maybe spring is on its way after all.

RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch

Every year towards the end of January the RSPB ask members of the public in the UK to spend an hour counting the birds in their garden. Every year I have stood at my window for an hour in the morning, often before Mr Enviro-Mentalist gets up, to count my feathered friends. This year I nearly gave it a miss due to laziness as much as anything, nothing to do with cancelling my RSPB membership.

But, this afternoon I thought I would make the effort and watch the birds whilst I pottered about and caught up on a few things on the internet. But, once in front of the window I was hooked and I abandoned all thoughts of ~~doing something else~~ multitasking. I had to watch the birds so I could count them, otherwise I might miss one. It suddenly occurred to me that I couldn’t remember the last time I had spent more than 5 minutes just watching my back garden birds. They are usually just a distraction when making breakfast or washing up – particularly in the winter when it is dark for the majority of the time I’m at home.

So, I stood and waited and watched. Would the usual suspects turn up. Would I see more goldfinches than anything else? Not quite; the house sparrows won 6-5, but it was a close run thing and might be skewed by the fact that I could distinguish between male and female sparrows so didn’t need to see them all at once.

I found myself wondering why there was only one dunnock in the garden – usually there are two or three. Did I usually only see a male chaffinch in the garden in winter, would there normally be a female with him, or did she usually show up later in the year when he was in his spring finery. Were the two robins paired, is that why they tolerated each other? During some of the lulls in garden activity I found myself watching the jackdaws fly over, as well as the wood pigeons (I was hoping these didn’t land in the garden as I’d already had a pair in during the first half hour and they often stop other birds from coming in).

Other questions kept popping up – where were the greenfinches? In fact, when was the last time I saw a greenfinch in the garden? Did I usually ask myself this during the Big Garden Birdwatch? Perhaps I did or was it deja vu? I think maybe they turn up in the spring unless it’s a really cold winter. Why are there so few starlings? Do the goldfinches send scouts out to look for food then zoom in when one calls, or do they tend to have a particular path they fly round? Is it the same goldfinches that squabble, or is it one in particular that starts the fights. Is it an age/hierarchy or gender thing?

I noticed the startling that did appear made use of the pond for bathing, as did the blackbirds, but the sparrows had all discovered a seed tray that had filled with water that they preferred as a bath and for drinking. The robin has now learned to cling on to the fat ball feeder as have the sparrows, and the blackbirds continue to throw compost around the patio.

In the end, all the usual suspects put in an appearance except the blue tits. As I got towards the end of the hour, I debated whether they would show. It was unusual for them not to be in the garden. Sure enough, they turned up, but not until 30 minutes after I finished, so they don’t count for this year’s birdwatch.

With hindsight I realised that I should do this more often, call myself a naturalist? How am I going to check whether the new cats that appear have had a detrimental effect, whether the goldfinches are going up or down in number or the time of year when the greenfinches appear if I don’t keep a regular check? How am I going to answer any of the questions I thought of today? I feel like I’ve been missing out on my back garden entertainment. I might not have a garden that attracts red kites or woodpeckers like some garden birdwatchers do, but once you start looking even the sparrows become worth watching.