Nature Notes

[ErrolTheDragon]

There's a gardening thread which may overlap with this one but I thought people might like to share nature sightings as the season changes. What we see if we can get out for a walk, plants coming into leaf and bloom, creatures in the garden, birds flying overhead - whatever.

Yesterday along the canal: busy wrens, 3 butterflies (tortoiseshell I think). Lots of Lords and Ladies arrow-shaped leaves. A little bank of primroses, lots of celandines and some wood anemones. Yellow iris leaves starting to shoot up in the edge of the canal.

Today's walk, the new bright spots included greater willowherb and a lovely clump of chicory.

Yesterday I spotted what I think is a Common Orchid. Today’s find were some lizards basking in the sun, and I’ve included a bad photo of one of the red squirrels (still in IOW).

Anyone know if this is a butterfly or a moth?

It's a Burnet moth. There's a few species and subspecies, I believe, I don't know the difference.

The other black and red moth is the cinnabar but that's less spotty.

Great photos both of you!

I saw a family of tufted ducks, with really young chicks for this time of the year. We tried to count them, but they were all following their mum’s lead and diving every few seconds, so it was impossible to keep track which ones we had and hadn’t yet counted 😄

It can be hard enough to count a large brood of mallards, even without any diving!

I got out before it was too hot this morning, and set off along the towpath. It's quite overgrown, mostly with meadowsweet now, filling the air with almost sickly fragrance - cut in places by privet hedges in bloom and alive with happy bees.
It's very pretty though, especially where it's mingled with cranesbills and greater willowherb. The canal itself is gilded with yellow water lilies.

But eventually as it got warmer, I started getting horseflied (usually I walk with DH and they prefer him) so I returned along the lanes.

bigbutterflycount.butterfly-conservation.org/
Hope the links work. Just download the app and spend 15 minute counting butterflies

Yes, the link works.
Trouble is, apart from the big flashy ones I find it hard to tell which is which - they don't stay still long enough! A couple of weeks ago we came across an earnest group with nets etc - on the hunt for High Brown Fritilliaries, iirc, but somewhat disappointed they'd only found Dark Greens so far. Having looked at photos, I'm not sure how you tell them apart other than by catching them.
Ive not looked at the details of the survey... maybe the focus is on the more easily identified types. As my buddleia is coming into bloom I should have quite a few soon, though I don't think the Hylotelephium* spectabile will be out within the survey limits.

*aka sedum spectabile. It's been been reclassified, I have to look up the new name.

I'm terrible at butterflies, although we have quite a lot on the wildflower meadow which I've been trying to identify.

The pond is starting to attract chasers and damselflies which I could watch all afternoon.

I've not actually looked at the app yet. Wasn't sure if it was just a count of moths and butterflies

Thanks for sharing that @Thirstquenching. I usually take part, but somehow this had completely passed me by!

If I remember correctly, they only want you to count a relatively small number of more easily identifiable species of butterflies. I think there are a few moths on the list too, but what you count depends on where you live. E.g. where I live, there’s not a great abundance of species. One of the UK’s most plentiful butterfly, the brimstone, is a real rarity in my area, but we do get some other butterflies that may be more unusual in other places.

Speaking of butterflies…I saw my first comma butterfly of the year yesterday. I’m sure they’re fluttering all over the place in some other parts of the U.K., but are less common here.

Some of them obviously depend on the time of year - I was seeing quite a few brimstones earlier in the year but none recently - I'm not sure what their breeding cycle is exactly, presumably the timing of this count is for this years crop rather than the overwintered parents.

My field guide to butterflies and other insects, revised 1989, has commas only south of the Mersey-Wash line, but I started seeing them in Lancashire not long after we moved here in 1995 and the one I saw recently might have been in Cumbria. They've definitely expanded their range.

That’s interesting. My field guide to butterflies, published September 2020, shows a distribution map for commas that covers almost all of the U.K., with the exception of the Scottish highlands and a small area in Snowdonia. Clearly they have expanded their range a fair bit!

I did the butterfly count yesterday, only to find that the app wasn’t interested in any of the small heaths we were seeing 😕 I thought we’d end up recording nothing, but were saved by some six spot burnets. Fortunately the app did consider those worthy of being recorded. I’m just glad I wasn’t doing the count with small children. I think mine would have been very disappointed if nearly all the butterflies we were seeing were not left unrecorded

Aw that's a shame. We get my son caterpillars every year and he watches the life cycle then releases them when they are ready. Great learning experience. Did the ladybird larvae one year aswell

DH and I managed a walk without children today at halsdon nature reserve. I saw lots of butterflies and an enormous southern hawker.

Went for a walk round a nature reserve today loads of bits left for rewilding loads of butterflies and insects

I did one of my favourite coastal walks today. It’s on a coastal headland that sticks quite far into the sea. There’s always something interesting, and sometimes spectacular to see.

Today we were treated to lots and lots of butterflies. There were small coppers, common blue, gatekeepers, ringlets, meadow browns, small heaths, large whites and a single painted lady butterfly.

Seals were basking in the sun and harbour porpoises were spotted just off shore. One of my favourite birds, the gannet also made an appearance, and we saw them dive into the sea at breakneck speed.

Every time I visit this place I find myself making plans to move there! It’s amazing 😁

Wow, that sounds wonderful. Gannets are awesome, though I'm not sure I'd like to meet one too close up!

We had a nice close encounter this evening - DD went out to get something from the car and came back to say there was a hedgehog on the drive right near the front door. She (or perhaps he - I don't know how to tell the sex of a hedgehog except 'carefully' ) sat still for a few moments then scuttled quickly away under the car. I've only once seen a hedgehog in our back garden and never out front before.

I think our hedgehog visitor has been scared off by our new neighbour's dogs .

I've just been on a visit to Yorkshire for work to survey a river. Had a lovely stroll down a peaty beck and saw a dipper and two frogs.

My garden seems very quiet just now for birds despite a full array of snacks as always. Not had the opportunity to get out for a walk since the weekend. But seen a squirrel playing on the fence from the window at work

I think birds have a bit of a lull about now - don't quite a lot of them lose their breeding plumage and get scruffy and in some cases flightless till they regrow new?

But plenty on the wing .... loads of bees on our walk today and in the garden, plus some dragonflies helicoptering around, butterflies and hover flies.

I'm not having to go too far from home for wildlife at the moment. The grasshopper (or cricket... not sure what the difference is and I've not yet tried to identify it) was last Sunday. And today I've got a bat about 2 feet from the back door, just above my recycling bins. It was so still I feared it was dead but it moved one of its front feet slightly between the two photos. Hopefully it will fly at dusk as we don't want to risk letting it in the house - that would be stressful for it and us!