Fig Wasp

After yesterday's post(http://punkrockecology.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/butterflies-and-gall-wasps.html) about the Bedeguar Gall Wasp, here's an interesting little animation about the fig tree and it's relationship with it the fig wasp.

Butterflies And Gall Wasps

Some miscellaneous spots from the last week:

This is the gall of the Bedeguar Gall Wasp, which lays it's eggs in a branch of dog rose (Rosa canine, a native wild rose) and in what Wikipedia describes as 'a way not yet understood', causes the gall pictured here to develop.  Joking aside, the page is quite in depth and interesting: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diplolepis_rosae

Meanwhile, I spotted this rather tatty looking Red Admiral feasting on some red valerian in my parent's garden, which was decent enough to stay still long enough to allow me to get my camera out and focused.

Chalk Downland Flowers Spotter's Guide Part One: Purple Flowers

My own, completely arbitrary, guide to telling apart flowers of chalk downland. I'm going by colour first. Basically, chalk downland flowers are all going to be either purple or yellow and then there's a third category of flowers that are neither purple nor yellow. We may get round to yellow and neither purple nor yellow in good time. Maybe.

Just a quick reminder before we go on: chalk downland is generally poor, not very fertile soil and so for that reason suits the flowers listed below. (See http://punkrockecology.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/over-hills-and-far-away.html for a short description of chalk downland, or click on' chalk downland' in the labels box to the right).

Anyway, here we go:

Knapweed

Greater Knapweed (Centaurea scabiosa) This is similar to a thistle. I was going to say it was a member of the thistle family but to be properly botanical, it's a member of the daisy family (Asteraceae), which is a pretty substantial family in itself. Knapweed, is part of the genus Centaurea or knapweeds and star thistles, which are thistle-like in appearance but lack actual thistles. Check out the unopened flowerhead to the left, which is very thistle-like in appearance.

A quick dichotomous identity test goes as follows:  does it look like a thistle? If yes, grab it with your bare hand. Does it hurt? If no, then it is part of the genus Centaurea. 

Finally, if it's big and purple then it's greater knapweed (Centaurea scabiosa). If it's smaller and purple then it's common knapweed (Centaurea nigra).  

Devil's Bit Scabious

Devil's Bit Scabious (Succisa pratensis). Similar to knapweed in colour and globular shape but smaller and of a lighter purple, and blending delicately to a white centre. Also note the very prominent stamen's standing proud of the florets. (Translation: the tiny stalks sticking out of the flowers). The whole flower is made up of dozens of tiny little individual florets (pay attention to them, that'll be important with identifying the next flower).

It is part of the much smaller teasel family (Dipsacaceae), despite looking nothing like a teasel. The stem is long and spindly and slightly fuzzy.

According to the latest newsletter of the Dorset Wildlife Trust, the name 'devil's bit' comes from a tale that the devil was jealous of such a pretty flower so bit off it's root out of spite. Or something. Now, that sounds like a load of old cobblers to me: some story an old farm hand made up and told to a victorian flower collector over a few pints of cider. But that's none of my business.

Field Scabious

Field Scabious (Knautia arvensis). Very similar, in fact broadly identical, to devil's bit scabious. The species name is completely different but I've no idea why. It is similar in being a similar paste shade of purple and with the same prominent stamens but, instead of a hemispherical shape, it's flatter and has 'corners', like a four or five pointed star. These are all made up of little florets, like the devil's bit, but these flatten out towards the edges - tight, round and closely packed in the centre but larger and flatter towards the edge.

But don't take my word for it. Here's the always reliable Wikipedia, with a full run down of species classification and everything:

Greater knapweed: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centaurea_scabiosa

Devil's Bit Scabious: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Succisa_pratensis
and http://www.wildlifetrusts.org/species/devils-bit-scabious

Field scabious: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knautia_arvensis and http://www.plantlife.org.uk/wild_plants/plant_species/field_scabious

What a stamen is, in case you were wondering. Though I'm thinking that you really should have had birds and bees explained to you by now: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stamen https://www.amnh.org/learn/biodiversity_counts/ident_help/Parts_Plants/parts_of_flower.htm

TRIGGER WARNING (contains pictures of spiders)

Now I know some people that read this don't like spiders. My apologies, but these are particularly pretty and slightly exotic spiders, namely the wasp spider (Argiope bruennichi) which, as the name hints, is a recent visitor to these shores from the mediterreanian. 

These were all photographed at Bradbury Rings (iron age hill fort, managed by the National Trust as mentioned in the previous couple of posts). Paul, the ranger there, had fairly raved about the wasp spiders there and Elise, who I was busy ragwort pulling with, spotted one. I then spent a very long time kneeling in brambles, trying to persuade my ageing iPhone to focus on a spider's web and eventually got a pic that was in focus.

Here it is:

We spotted a few more of it's (actually her's, as the stripy ones are female) friends and relations around and about, in the 'rings' part of the hill fort, where it is relatively sheltered. By the end of the day it was getting a bit 'meh, there's another one'.

Anyway, I love the name 'wasp spider' - partly a name designed to breed nightmares, partly one of those "What does it look like? Uuuuuh... kinda waspy. Ok, wasp spider, that'll do" sort of species names.

More on wasp spiders: https://www.buglife.org.uk/bugs-and-habitats/wasp-spider

http://srs.britishspiders.org.uk/portal.php/p/Summary/s/Argiope+bruennichi

http://www.janvanduinen.nl/argiopebruennichi-engels.php

'Spiders' by System Of A Down: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqZNMvIEHhs

Cows Vs My Car

As I mentioned in yesterday's post (http://punkrockecology.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/some-photos-of-chalk-downland-flowers.html), we've been on a bit of species-rich chalk downland this week. Specifically,pulling up ragwort at Bradbury Rings an iron age hill fort managed by the National Trust. 

Ragwort pulling is a conservation favourite. Basically, in the highly unlikely even that you have nothing else to do, you go and pull up some ragwort. Not only is it poisonous to livestock but, if you leave it to it's own devices, it will fill the entire field. There are various ways to get rid of it but the traditional favourite is to just yank it out by hand and this is what we found ourselves doing.

We parked ourselves in the field, with my poor, long suffering, little car finding it's way up a very rutted track. Then, while I was out pulling ragwort, the herd of Gloucester cows that we were sharing the field with wandered over to investigate. I returned at the end of the day to discover that the car was covered in lick marks, having been given a very thorough wash.

More on ragwort: https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=299

The spread of the 'bad' ragwort - invasive non-native Oxford ragwort (Scenencio squalidus) - after it's introduction to a botanical garden in Oxford in 1690. http://www.bristol.ac.uk/biology/research/ecological/genetics/plantgenetics/oxfordragwortstory.html

Some Photos Of Chalk Downland Flowers (Several Of Which Are In Focus)

Some chalk downland flowers, yesterday:

Agrimony (Agrimonia eupatoria).

Red Bartsia (Bartsia odontites)

An Early Bumble Bee (Bombus pratorum) on some Field Scabious (Knautia arvenis). I have no idea why an early bumble bee is called that, although the field scabious was definitely in a field.

Greater knapweed (Centaurea scabiosa)

Restharrow (Ononis repens)

Common toadflax (Linaria vulgaris).

This was all on Bradbury Rings, an iron age fort now managed by the National Trust. Managed very well on this evidence.

Bat Roost

A couple of slightly rubbish videos of a bat roost near me. Walking the dogs past at dusk, I stopped to film them with my phone. These are the results. 

The phone's battery died just after that and, as these are residential flats, I was worried someone was going to come out and ask just what the hell I was doing.

From they can talk http://theycantalk.com

Calving Times

We saw a cow being born on Thursday. Not an unusual thing on a farm with a herd of 80, yet in the couple of months that I'd worked there I'd managed to miss all the births.

We were actually out on site when the birth started, so got the call 'get back now!', which we did, an arrived as one foot was sticking out. On which note, a quick heads up: if you're eating, or generally squeamish, you might want to skip the rest of this.

Ready? Ok, so the usual sign that they're about to give birth is that they separate themselves from the rest of the herd. Then a 'bag', which is the amniotic sac, pops out and - ideally - bursts. If it doesn't. it's bad for the calf as they can suffocate. Which is why we were there.

So, next out is one foot followed, ideally, by the other. In a clean birth, both should be poking out together, followed by the mouth. In our case, it was the calf's tongue, wiggling round like a tentacle in a bizarre sight. At this point, we intervened, wrapping a length of rope around the calf's two feet and pulling outwards and downwards and assisting both the mother and gravity. Out came the calf, simple as, and, after a quick check over (a healthy and quite large male) we dipped the umbilical in iodine (Elise got that job and spent the rest of the day trying to wash it off her hands), packed the stuff away and the two ropes for sterilisation and left them to it.

And that was it, apart from all the cooing and taking pictures.

More Butterflies

So, here we go again. This is Holt Heath, which looks like this in midsummer. As I think I have explained before, this is a bit of a revelation for me as all my previous - and fairly substantial - experiences of heathland has been in autumn, winter and spring. Heaths can be very bleak and desolate then, and nothing wrong with that, I happen to like bleak and desolate. However, seeing a heath in mid summer, bright with colour and positively humming with life, does rather justify all the winter's efforts.

Anyway, on the subject of 'positively humming with life', here are some of my butterfly and moth spots from the last few days. I am indebted to my old cycling buddy and moth expert Jason for a lot of the idents. He saved me a lot of flicking through butterfly books.

A Gatekeeper or Hedge Brown (Pyronia tithonus), which slots neatly into the 'small, brown' category of butterflies. Speaking of which...

A Wall Brown (Lasiommata megera) on some cross leafed heather.

A peacock (Inarchis io), which is one of the 'classic' butterflies, by which I mean butterflies that I can recognise. Unlike the two above, which are small and fluttery  and have to be chased and then snuck up on, this one just sat on a bit of ragwort, wings spread and letting me snap away. Brazen hussy that it was.

This is a Silver Y moth (Autographa gamma), a visitor from the continent where it is widespread. Unusually for a moth, it's happy flying in daylight.

A Dusky Sallow (Eremobia ochroleuca). Also happily flying in daylight, which somewhat negates the point I made above. I never claimed to be an expert. I love the names, too. Speaking of which...

A Large Skipper (Ochlodes sylvanus). Definitely a butterfly, despite looking like a moth. This butterfly is found all over Europe and Asia, as far east as Japan. Which is pretty cool.

For more info, go to http://butterfly-conservation.org/50/identify-a-butterfly.html or http://www.ukmoths.org.uk/thumbnails/, although the second one is slightly terrifying in it's overwhelming detail.

Anyway, here's the only other song I can think off with 'Butterfly' in the title.It's 'Buttefly' by Crazy Town (the band, not the Danish kid's tv show). It does tend to get stuck in your head at times like these. The tune is sampled from 'Pretty Little Ditty' by The Red Hot Chilli Peppers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cn88p4vAwHk and is one of the best bass riffs ever.

Bog Asphodel and Sundews

More pics from the same bog. Here's some bog asphodel (Narthecium ossifragum) in full flower.

Some sundews (Drosera rotundiflora) on a bed of sphagnum moss

And a nice panoramic view of a the same mire in full flower. As I mentioned a couple of posts ago, most of my experience on heathland has been in the winter, when it's all brown and kinda bleak looking, so this comes as a pleasant surprise.

Bullet With The Butterfly Wings

I've mentioned previously about how I tend to prefer taking pictures of plants due the fact that, unlike animals, they stay the heck still.

So therefore, I am marginally chuffed to post this picture of a silver studded blue butterfly: 

The usual procedure goes spot butterfly, see butterfly land nearby, get phone out of pocket, fire up camera, hold over butterfly, focus, take picture. All the while, you're in the vicinity because you have an actual job to do and so have to stop what you're s'posed to be doing and follow the procedure described above. Most times, the butterfly has flapped off by this stage and slowly flits further and further away as you attempt to 'bag' it. This is the original pic:

The silver studded blue is a heathland species, living off typical heathland species such as gorse, heather and bird's foot trefoil and, although there seemed to be loads of them flapping around the area I was in when I took the picture (a marshy part of Holt Heath), is described by the Butterfly Conservation Trust as "A rare butterfly confined to small colonies in England and Wales."  In fact, let them describe it themselves: http://butterfly-conservation.org/50-781/silver-studded-blue.html

Sticking with the insect theme, back home in my own garden, we have spotted these guys on our pear tree:

These we identified as the social pear sawfly (Neurotoma saltuum), for which the food plant is... pear trees. A quick google search reveals lots of tips on getting rid of them but we decided to put our conservation hat on and left them too it. Our pear tree can probably take this one hit for biodiversity.

Anyway, a few weeks after this pick was taken, the cocoon is still there but now empty and the tree is looking fine and dandy, a few leaves slightly chewed but otherwise ok. Don't worry, we'll keep you posted on any developments.

Ask Not For Whom The Bell Heather Tolls...

We're out checking the cows on one of our sites, which was another bit of former heathland pine plantation.  'Checking the cows' involves counting them - none of them have either died, wandered off or given birth - and then giving them a quick visual once over for any obvious signs of injury or illness.

As we ride around the site, I spot a profusion of beautiful purple flowers. Looking around, they seem every where but I don't know what they are. So, I do what I normally do and get my phone out, take a picture and look it up in my wildflower book.

It's a very distinctive flower. I'm not going to say what I thought they looked like at the time, you'll have to use your own imaginations for that, but anyway I looked it up aaaaand it was....

.....bell heather. Yes, bell heather (Erica cinera). With one winter's experience working on Holt heath and two on Godlingston and Studland heaths, plus studying heathland as part of my course I fail to spot one of the commonest heathland plants and one that I've been walking over for years. Oops.

In my defence, all my heathland experience has been in the autumn, winter and spring. At that time of year, heathers are all a nondescript, unhealthy looking brown and you're usually stepping over them to get to the five foot tall, spiky, green and vibrant yellow gorse bushes. But still...

Amphibians

Spotted today, worryingly close to a bonfire: a common toad and a common frog. We looked for a common newt to match the set but couldn't find one.

The Beauty Of Brambles

I was out marshalling a push bike race last weekend. Bike racing has been a big thing for me for a good few years now and my now defunct previous blog, Gordo's World Of Zoom (http://zoom-gordo.blogspot.co.uk/?view=flipcard) was all about bikes and bike racing. Anyhoo, the act of marshalling a bike race involves standing on a corner or a road race circuit and stopping the traffic every time that the race comes through. This was about every 15 minutes on this particular circuit and so the rest of the time is spent chatting to the other marshals about the Tour de France and such, as well as appreciating the local wildlife.

The circuit was around the grounds of Lulworth castle and, with the grounds of the castle on one side of the road, on the other was the fairly nondescript hedge pictured above. The bindweed was in full flower and looking very pretty indeed and it occurred to me that, in this bit of hedge, there was bindweed, bramble and nettles. Add in ground elder (which was not far away) and you have pretty much everything that a gardener hates. They're all classic 'thug' plants, that will take over a garden given half a chance and against which you are fighting a constant war. And yet, in full flower and out in the countryside, would you not say that they look as beautiful as any formal garden?

Ok, so I may have some gardener friends that would argue that point. But still, some while ago I was investigating gardening for wildlife and read up on what sort of plants were best for wildlife. The results came back as brambles, nettles... basically, the best thing you could do for wild life in your garden is put your secateurs down, put the kettle on, put your feet up and let nature do the job for you.

This may be great for biodiversity but was less good for my future job prospects. But, joking aside, brambles are food for caterpillars of the green hairstreak, grizzled skipper and holly blue butterfly, while nettles are the same for the (deep breath) comma, small tortoiseshell, peacock, painted lady and red admiral.

There is an exhaustive list of larval food plants for butterflies on the UK Butterflies website http://www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/foodplants.php which is worth a read through just for the stupid names of both the plants and the insects (for example: common stork's-bill is a food plant of the brown argus).

Meanwhile, the Butterfly Conservation Trust - based about half a mile away from where these pictures were taken - has a handy guide to gardening for butterflies http://butterfly-conservation.org/11908/gardening.html. It even mentions buddleia, aka the butterfly bush, which is another bane of the gardener's life but I digress.