A day devoted to insects

The Safari had a plan today provided the weather behaved itself. It didn't last night, we went to get the moth trap out of the garage only to find it was pouring down so yet again no mothing. This morning when we took Frank out early the rain was still  failing and the ground suggested it had been most of the night, cruel - we really want decent night's mothing everyone else seems to be doing quite well at the moment after a poor start to the season.

We knew we weren't going to be able to get out until after lunch but the weather brightened up mid-morning and although the wind was still a bit brisk it looked good out there. Calls to CR and BD made for an excursion to our former Patch 1. CR offered to pick us up on the way as he was passing. We waited on the corner for him and got a mega surprise. We've only heard Swifts screaming once at Base Camp this summer and they were way high and just passing through. Today we got to the corner of the street and immediately heard a Swift scream overhead. Looking up we saw three wheeling around just above the rooftops. We watched in awe as they sped round, we lost two but the third surprised us even more, it sped along the eaves of the nearby house then did a loop and shot without slowing straight under the eaves into the nest cavity Swifts used last year - dare we hope they're back and will stay around now?

The sun shone warm and bright but it was still a bit too windy for what we were hoping for. As soon as we got to the site we heard a grasshopper stridulating and eventually tracked it down deep in the grass.

Large Skippers and Meadow Browns were all over the place and we also saw a really bright Comma which didn't stay still long enough for a pic. 

There were loads of Grass Bugs (Leptopterna dolabrata) flitting about too.

Down beneath the bug was a Nursery Web Spider's nest covered in rain drops.

We had a rummage round the now horrendously well vegetated bit to see if our main quarry was about. It wasn't but a Red Admiral flew by and we saw a couple or three Speckled Woods as well as a nicely settled Large Skipper.   

Who knew butterflies had eyelashes? We didn't but they certainly do!

While we were moochiing arund more (or the same) Swifts flew circuits overhead and two Siskins (171) passed over, They've been on the move along the coast some mornings recently but we never expected them heading inland in the middle of the afternoon. 

BD joined us and it was time to stand around THE tree hoping the main event would take place.

A second BD and all round butterfly aficionado joined us.

It took a while but eventually after a few probables we did get to see White Letter Hairstreaks dancing around the tree top. Our best count was three but we only saw one settled through the binoculars but it didn't stay long enough for a pic and the tree would have been shaking around too much in the wind anyway. Great to see them again and right on cue too.

The younger BD did get a pic of one which magically appeared nectaring on a Bramble right by him.
There were so many insects we just didn't know where to turn, bees, butterflies, bugs, beetles, hoverflies, parasitic wasps, the lot - the place was buzzing! Not buzzing were the Cleggs that seemed to be homing in on CR. If they weren't so vicious they'd be almost beautiful.

What do they see through those bizarrely patterned eyes, throbbing veins probably.

A Wolf Spider guarded its eggsac against all comers.

We tried to get a better angle

 And then it saw us and legged it

Time to try another site for something completely different.

We were hoping for Short Winged Coneheads and Ruddy Darters. We found neither but there were several 4-Spotted Chasers and an Emperor Dragonfly. At the edge of the pond there was a good show of Tubular Water Dropwort, a rare plant that's doing OK round these parts. 

Disturbing the vegetation with the sweep net kicked up lots of tiny insects including a bright shiny beetle, Alder Beetle?

It's so shiny you can see our reflection on its carapace

Small as it was it dwarfed the so small it was impossible to photograph tiny red beetle we found.

Lots of damselflies were around including Common Blues and Blue Tailed Damselflies. We think this is an immature female Blue Tailed Damsel. 

On the walk out we spotted a Wasp apparently curled up asleep nestled in a Thistly cradle. It wasn't asleep but dead. And when we looked at our pics we noticed the black blob next to it...something parasitically sinister???

walking back to the car through the cemetery we saw that many areas hadn't been mown and there was a plethora of wildflowers on show. We hope this is a deliberate policy decision by the cemetery managers cos it's brilliant.

In there are White Clover, Self Heal, a Hawkbit sp, Ribwort Plantain as far as we can tell.

So ended another great afternoon on safari with good friends no more than a mile from Base Camp.
Where to next? Not sure what's happening tomorrow, maybe mostly family stuff but there'll no doubt be something to see if we keep our eyes and ears open.
In the meantime let us know who's sucking all the blood in your your outback.

It's like real summer on the beach

The Safari has had a couple school groups on the beach over the last two days. Yesterday's group also did some pond dipping and mini-beat hunting. While the children were rummaging around for interesting insects we spotted this delicious flower in our wild annuals bed. We're not sure what it iss,  but assume it came from the seed packet which was supposed to contain, Field Poppies, Cornflowers, Corn Marigolds, Corn Cockles and Corn Chamomile. Whatever it is it's a looker - over to you...

Here's a rubbish out of focus shot of the lanceolate leaves if that helps.

Find of the day yesterday was on the way in to work when we saw that last year's Ergot had reappeared on the Sea Lyme Grass.

Don't think we'll be harvesting those seeds to make any bread with!

We've been taking school groups exploring the beach for over 10 years now and almost without fail every trip someone will find something we've not seen before. Almost invariably it's one of the children because there's more of them and they really hunt, which is really exciting for them to have found something the 'expert' hasn't seen, but this time it was one of the teachers who made the find with one of the last sweeps of the net - how often does it that happen like that too! This was a school from the hill country of East Lancashire so the teacher was just as excited to find something new as the children are.

It's 'only' a Common Prawn but what are the black things stuck to its legs? We've never seen anything like that before - could it be eggs, she's carrying a load underneath her, could it be a species of sponge? Shame it was a bit dull and the phone cam's resolution isn't quite so good as it would have been in bright sunlight.

Today another group was scouring a different part of the beach nearer town. Sea conditions were absolutely ideal for them to spot any Bottlenosed Dolphins that might happen to be passing by but none did although earlier, before they arrived, we had seen a rather distant Grey Seal.

Trying to get the youngsters to stay away from the numerous jellyfish was counter-productive we might have been better telling them to pick them up and put them in their pockets...no, they'd have done that too. There were a good many Moon Jellyfish and a few mainly small Compass Jellyfish.

One of the little ones picked up some 'brains', better known as Whelks eggs. But then another child found some enormous ones. We should had got a pic of them side by side to show you how much larger these are to the 'normal' ones - each 'egg' is about 5x regular size and almost pure white rather than a buttery cream colour.

Are they from an ordinary Whelk or some sort of as yet undiscovered Super Whelk crawling around in the sand out there in the depths.

Once again towards the end of the session a shell was shown to us that at first glance looked like the many Tower Shells that had been stuck under our nose for inspection. This one, however, looked just that little bit different to hold our attention. A little longer than the Tower Shells and on closer inspection has a set of fine longitudinal ridges. The ridges weren't striking enough for it to be a Common Wentle Trap Shell, which are far from common here.

A rummage round a few on-line marine encyclopaedias suggest it could be Turton's Wentle Trap Shell (Epitonium turtonis) - a new one for us and consequently another great find by the kiddies. You just never know what they're going to hand you next! We'll await confirmation from DB who graduated from her Marine Biology degree yesterday so big congratulations to her.

Both groups found a rather strange blob like amphipod which we've yet to identify. They both could have been large Speckled Sea Lice without the speckles but they were more free swimming rather than trundling around in the sand at the bottom of the trays. Who knows what they'll eventually turn out to be identified as. 

All great fun exploring the wildlife out on the beach in the sunshine, it's what summer is for!

Where to next? It's the weekend and we're hoping for a moth or two, might be some butterfly action too if the weather stays good.

In the meantime let us know who's exploring things unknown in your ourback.

National Whale & Dolphin Watch is coming up shortly - details of where we'll be and when will be posted here until the event ends

 

The Isle of May in May

The Safari has another guest blog for you today from our A Focus On  Nature youngster Alicia who was lucky enough to spend some of her holidays on Scotland's superb seabird colony, the Isle of May. It's somewhere the Safari has never been and reading Alicia's account it's somewhere we really must try to get to.

Isle of May Blog

In the month of May, my family visited the borders of Scotland. My Dad and I had booked a boat trip to the Isle of May so we could see some of the Seabirds which live there – the whole boat trip was weather dependent, however thankfully the weather was in our favour and the Island did not disappoint.

We arrived on the Isle of May around 10.30am, and already from the boat I had seen a variety of seabirds including Gannets, Puffins and Guillemots. As  we landed and walked up towards the visitor centre, we walked through the middle of an Arctic Tern colony – it was amazing! They screeched and swooped at us a bit – and hovered around our heads. I think that Arctic Terns are extremely beautiful, and they make me think of angels or butterflies. We headed off with our guide to one side of the Island, where we stayed for an hour. There were hundreds of Puffins: flying, by burrows, feeding, fishing – it was truly fascinating to watch them. I saw a Greater black-backed gull eating a Puffin which was really interesting to watch - if slightly gruesome!

 Puffin with a catch of sand eels

I sat on the edge of the cliff looking down between two huge cliff faces where I could look directly onto the nests of Razorbills and Kittiwakes. It was lovely to see the birds so close, but not at all concerned by us being there with a relatively close view of their private lives!

After taking lots of photographs and being buffeted about by the strong sea-winds, we headed back towards the other side of the Island. On the way I saw lots of female Eider ducks at the edge of the path where our guide explained they built their nests. Some of the ducks were extremely hard to spot! As we were walking to the other side, we saw lots more Puffins all sitting together – a circus of Puffins! They make such lovely sounds when they are calling to each other which I love. However I think that out of all the seabirds, Arctic Terns are my favourite.

Eventually we reached the other side of the Island which was a lot more sheltered! I counted at least fifteen Grey Seals in the bay, which was great. We were also surrounded by Razorbills whilst we had lunch – they came fairly close and kept repeating their call which I think sounds a bit like a chain-saw.

 Razorbills in conversation

We saw pairs of Cormorants and Shags which already had large chicks – this was good to see because in recent years there has been a decline in many seabirds, so it was great to see some success already!

After an hour or so we started our way back towards the Visitor Centre. To get there we had to walk along a path which went right through the Arctic Tern colony. Being the shortest person there, I wasn't too worried about being 'attacked' by the Terns – however this proved not to be the case. The terns swooped and dived at me the most out of the 13 of us – they screeched and screamed, it was impressive! They would hover above me before diving with their beak wide open straight towards my face – I took hundreds of photos and was constantly ducking to avoid being clipped by a wing! When I eventually managed to reach the visitor centre I continued to take photos of the Terns, not only on the ground and in the air but on the visitor centre's roof which was covered in beautiful pale pink Thrift!

 Tern attack!

Time flies when you're having fun and soon we had to leave the Isle of May, but this wasn't quite the end of our adventure yet – next stop, Bass Rock!

I went to Bass Rock for the first time last year and was astounded by the Gannets, so I was very excited to be going round the rock on the way back.

Bass Rock has the country's largest colony of European Gannets and it is truly incredible. The Gannets swirled around my head in the sky and looked quite pterodactyl-like, they flew past our boat effortlessly, overtaking us without even trying. When we paused by Bass Rock I watched them on their nests and bringing in seaweed as nesting material for their partners. Gannets fly so effortlessly, I envy them hugely – not only do they get to walk on land, they can dive in the sea and fly through the air – they get the best of all worlds and I can only dream of such things!

 Gannet collecting seaweed

My first visit to the Isle of May was a huge success – I'd seen everything I'd wanted to see and more, and I loved every minute of it. The highlight for me was definitely the Arctic Terns, they're so beautiful and they make such incredible migrations every year. It would be tragic if we lost seabirds like the Arctic Tern because not only would we lose a beautiful species of bird, we would lose a spectacle in nature – the magnificent journey that so many of the seabirds undergo to come to Scotland and England to breed every year.

I loved the Isle of May and Bass Rock, and hopefully next year I can go again.

By Alicia, Aged 15                                                    June 2015

Now doesn't that sound like a very special place you just have to visit, many thanks to Alicia for sharing her adventures.

Where to next? We've had a school group on the beach and mini-beast safari-ing today and another on the beach tomorrow so we should have plenty for you.

In the meantime let us know who's all at sea in your outback. 

After the plants come the insects

The Safari wasn't able to get out much over the weekend with much family business to attend too but we were able to get the moth trap out on Friday night, the following morning we opened it to find the best catch of the year so far, 21 Heart & Darts making up the bulk of the incumbents including this rather pale sandy form.

The first Marbled Beauty of the year is always pleasing to see, if we can get the trap out next weekend no doubt there'll be more. Five Dark Arches signaled the arrival of this species in numbers but we didn't get any Large Yellow Underwings - - yet! Our final macro-moth was one we didn't recognise and an anguished trawl through the field guide has us plumbing first for one species then another, we finally settled on 'probably' Dusky Brocade and posted it on the social media forums. Annoyingly it started to try to warm up as son as we got the camera, it had been stock still in the pot for ages upto that point. The general consensus was that Dusky Brocade was the correct ID but we did get a couple of respondents for both of the other possibles; it's gone on the tally as Dusky Brocade.

A small number of common micro-moths were in the depths, most numerous were four Chrysoteuchia culmella aka Grass Veneers.

As the sun came up and the weather warmed large numbers of Broad Centurion Flies started to take to the wing.

Also out were a few Flesh Flies - we just love those white feet!

There wasn't much at all on the sea today neither early doors nor at lunchtime. 

A look at the wild garden between cold heavy showers showed how fast Cinnabar moth caterpillars can grow.

Where to next? Hoping for better weather and more time for safari-ing tomorrow.
In the meantime let us know who's flitting around your outback.

All a bit of a do

The Safari was at a summer fair entitled A Bit of a Do today and great fun it was too in the summer sunshine. Shame the gusty wind kept blowing all our leaflets all over the place despite being weighed down with a variety of objects like a lump of coal and a heavy bunch of keys.

In between chatting to the public we kept an eye out for any wildlife on the move. Overhead the local gulls were supplemented by just one Swift, this is the second nearest we've had to Base Camp about a mile away!

The rough field adjacent to the festivities was well worth a look in the lulls when folk were being entertained by activities on the stage. We caught a female Common Blue butterfly in a disposable drinks cup to show the children. A male was also out there with two Meadow Browns, Large and Small Whites and numerous Silver Y moths. A striking Emperor dragonfly also put in an appearance to the accompaniment of a Meadow Grasshopper.

There were plenty of Bumblebees were out too attracted by the plethora of wildflowers.  

One there we couldn't identify, we weren't sure if it was a wildflower or a garden escape even. Apparently according to our good friend and gardening guru KS it's Triteleia laxa known by several common names, including Ithuriel's spear and Grassnut. It is native to California where it is a common wildflower. Bonny looking thing where-ever it comes from.

Nearby was a tiny Wild Pansy, the only one we found despite wandering over most of the field.

But it was the clovers that were top of the bill. After trying in vain, maybe we were a week to early, at the nature reserve to find a couple of species recently there they were right under our feet in abundance today.

Hop Trefoil was the first we came across.

A little further into the field was a drier sparser patch that had lots of clumps of  Hare's Foot Clover

More mooching about had us finding a Kidney Vetch, a species we've not seen at the nature reserve for many years now.

Another sparse patch gave us find of the day, a single flowerhead of the now quite scarce Cornflower. A beauty! It's amazing what's in the seedbank if it's given a chance to show itself. Shame this area is earmarked for re-development. It was a school that was demolished and the ground leveled out and then had a thin layer of soil graded over it and subsequently left to its own devices.

Last but not least was a Speckled Wood butterfly that flew over our display table as we were packing up at the end of the afternoon.

A great day in the sunshine letting folk know how great our local wildlife is and how we really need to take up renewable energy much more that we're doing so far. 

Where to next? A family bereavement has forced last minute changes to whatever plans we may have had for tomorrow.

In the meantime let us know what was hiding in plain sight on a plain site in your outback.

Another dolphin day

The Safari has been a bit busy these last couple of days. We've missed some Bottlenosed Dolphins, we've been on the beach with another gang of Brownies but in the same place as the last post so not much different was found apart from a very nicely marked Blenny.

Best catch  of the day for the Brownies was reserved for just about the last dip of the net before packing up when one of them pulled out a small dark Eel-like fish, the first 5-bearded Rockling of the year.
We also had BD and Young Un AB (By eck he's not so young anymore - towers over the Safari he does) helping redesign and rebuild the work's bug hotel. Some time was spend looking for any inverts in the garden, pick of the bunch was this stunning freshly emerged Narrow Bordered 5-spot Burnet moth.

The tiny Deptford Pink wasn't out for BD's macro lens but three flowers had opened the following day.

Hope Little CV doesn't have those fingerprints on his database!

Yesterday we had an all day offsite Schools Science Conference so there was no opportunity for any wildlifing but we did take our big box of shells for the children to look at, it's amazing how few of them actually go to the beach even though it's no more than a mile or so away at the most from all their  homes. From the lab window we could see the Bowland Fells, no sign of any Hen Harriers well we were never going to see any anyway as the Establishment have made sure they've all been bumped off to a very devious masterplan. Please support this years peaceful protest Hen Harrier Day 9th August at several venues around the country.

Today we've been office bound and wasn't able to get out early doors. we did get out at lunchtime but it was dire. A wander round the garden was much more rewarding in the sunshine with Meadow Brown, Small Tortoiseshell, Large White butterflies and a Silver Y moth. Lots of bumblebees too, at least four species, a mining bee and a shed load of Grass Veneer moths and we heard our first work's Meadow Grasshopper of the year.

Back in the office we saw we'd missed a phone call, a quick email revealed we'd missed a pod of Bottlenosed Dolphins coming down from the north quite close in. B*gger!!! Not to worry a text alerted us to the fact they were still about not far to the south of us. Grabbing the camera and bins we dashed out but were (slightly) disappointed to see they'd now gone into the river channel and were well out of range for pics but still gave a great display as they fed actively. No matter how far away they are a Dolphin Day is always a good day.

There seems to be a bit of a pattern to their appearances emerging, not that they appear everyday. But to stand the best chance of connecting with them. They have been appearing to the north about half to three quarters of an hour after high tide then working their way down southwards - how many? Varies but between 6 and 30 according to reports - taking them about an hour to get from North Shore to us at South Promenade and beyond. Today they were quite close in for some of their journey south one of them being reported as being between the end of North Pier and the seawall!!! Well worth having a look if you can, we can't tomorrow as we're exhibiting at a summer fete.

Where to next? We'll be keeping an eye out for interesting wildlife at the fair, might even take a few pots in case there's something to show the kids.

In the meantime let us know who's just to bright red in your outback.