In brief, I cycled roughly three kilometres to the small car park at Gait Barrows National Nature Reserve, then had a very slow wander, of roughly three kilometres, then pedalled home again.
Since there’s not much more to say about this particular outing, a word about the tentative IDs. Although I’m still surrounded by field guides when I’m blogging (and am eagerly awaiting the release of the 4th edition of a UK hoverflies guide), much of my research these days is carried out online.
Google Lens often gives me a good start point. Sometimes it seems fully confident and offers me numerous images of the same species along with a related search. At other times, frankly, it might as well throw up it’s notional hands and admit that it hasn’t got a scoobie – showing images of several different species, sometimes of a kind which aren’t even related.
To be fair, according to the National History Museum website, there are over 7000 species of wasp resident in the UK. A little confusion might be expected.
Even in the case of hoverflies, where there are a relatively modest number of species (around 280 apparently), making an ID can be very difficult. For example, I’ve identified a couple of the hoverflies in this post as Syrphus ribesii, but apparently the species Syrphus vitripennis is almost identical, barring some very subtle differences.
This information comes from the excellent Nature Spot website. Nature Spot is about the wildlife of Leicestershire and Rutland, coincidentally where I grew up, but is often relevant to my more northerly current locale. If I could find something as comprehensive specific to Lancashire and Cumbria I would be thrilled.
So, all of my identifications should be taken with an enormous pinch of salt. I’m well aware that I’m often going to be wrong, or simply clueless, but I’m learning all the time and I enjoy the detective work, even when it might lead to questionable conclusions.
According to this detailed presentation, the UK only has 29 species of Robber Fly, so maybe that’s an area in which I could make some progress? To be honest, at the moment I’m content to leave it at ‘Robber Fly’. Last summer, I watched one of these intercept and kill a micromoth; they are awesome predators.
Many hoverflies are mostly black and yellow, but I do often see these small black and white hoverflies. I’m less successful and capturing them in photos though, so was happy to get this one.
Whilst these photos are all from the tail end of last summer, I’m happy to report that on Tuesday afternoon, the rain paused briefly in its recent onslaughts, and I was back at Gait Barrows, in glorious spring sunshine snapping photos of shieldbugs, butterflies and particularly abundant hoverflies. Marvellous.
Two more local strolls from the back end of August. The first was a quick trip to The Cove and around The Lots, with TBH, but since she wasn’t ready to leave the house when I was, I first walked across the fields to Stankelt road and around Clark’s Lot first.
This spider was in our garden, but only just, hanging just beyond one of our kitchen windows.
The following day I walked our circuit around Jenny Brown’s Point, but had a mooch around Lambert’s Meadow first. This slight path runs around the eastern edge of the meadow…
It’s where I take most of my photos – you can see here that’s it under a couple of inches of water, which isn’t uncommon at all in the winter, but which shows what a wet August we were having.
“This is a large and brightly marked hoverfly, with 3 pairs of wedge-shaped yellow bars and reddish-orange legs.” It prefers wet heath, so Lambert’s Meadow is the right sort of spot.
The light wasn’t great, but there was plenty to see and photograph. In particular, a variety of snails seemed to be having some sort of rave. They were everywhere.
There were actually several more snails on these two tall stems, who knows why they were so busy that day?
On my way down to Jenny Brown’s, I emerged from Fleagarth Woods into a small clearing which was mobbed with wildflowers, especially Common Knapweed. The flowers were really busy with bees and hoverflies, so of course, I took no end of photos.
My roaming through the flowers disturbed this frog…
Had I realised how many different species of hoverfly were in that little clearing, I probably would have stayed to take even more photos, but until I got home to download and look at the photos I wasn’t aware of the variety.
My behaviour towards the end of our summer break was far from migratory; I almost exclusively stuck to my home patch. I must admit, I sometimes look back at my photos, or at MapMyWalk, and wonder why I didn’t go further afield; why not get out and climb some fells? Partly, it’s laziness and the fact that I don’t need to drive anywhere, but also, this summer gone at least, it was often weather related: the blue skies in these photos are almost certainly deceptive. This walk only began mid-afternoon and I can tell you I wasn’t sunbathing in the garden before I set-off. I know this because I didn’t sunbathe in the garden at all last August – the weather just wasn’t up to it.
So, not a long walk, distance wise at least; not much over six miles, although that did take me four and a half hours. Lots of stopping and gawking, often, I’ve since realised, at creatures, like these swallows, which don’t live here all-year-round, and which are much more ready to travel beyond their home patch than I am.
I went first to Lambert’s Meadow and back to the lush strip of Great Willowherb which grows along one margin of the meadow, hoping to find Migrant Hawkers there. The air above the field was very busy with dragonflies, but at first I didn’t spot any at rest. But then, on a Willow Tree, I spotted one. Then two. And eventually six, all in close proximity to each other. There were still more on nearby Guelder Rose bushes. Even though they are very colourfully marked, the stripes and mottling are surprisingly good disguise when they’re perched amongst foliage.
I’ve since read that this social behaviour is peculiar to Migrant Hawkers; dragonflies are generally solitary, territorial and aggressive. Migrant Hawkers, however, have an unusual life-cycle; perhaps because in the southern end of their range they live in Algeria, where the pools where they breed can dry-out, their larval stage, typically at least two years for most dragonflies, is much shorter. On the other hand, they have an unusually long adult life and because they aren’t breeding for all of their adult life, the competitiveness which usually characterises dragonfly behaviour is not present.
They are also much more likely than other species to travel considerable distances in search of likely breeding territory, hence the name ‘Migrant’, although I think that also relates to the fact that weren’t a resident British species until relatively recently.
‘Britain’s Dragonflies’ is pretty clear that female Migrant Hawkers are predominantly brown with yellow markings. I saw several specimens which were definitely mostly brown, but with blue markings, like this one. So I’m a bit confused as to whether this is a male or a female.
From Lambert’s Meadow, I headed to Gait Barrows for a walk around Hawes Water and up on to the limestone pavement.
The two Deadly Nightshade shrubs growing beneath the low limestone crags close to Hawes Water, which I’d noticed when they were flowering earlier in the year, were now liberally festooned with berries. Apparently they are sweet to taste, which seems like a waste since, like all parts of the plant, they are hallucinogenic in small doses and highly toxic in even moderate amounts.
In Greek mythology the three fates are Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos. Clotho spins the thread of life, Lachesis measures it, and Atropos cuts it. In other words, Atropos personifies death itself, hence Atropa in the Latin name of this plant. Meanwhile, Belladonna, ‘beautiful lady’ comes from the practice by women of using some part of the plant to dilate their pupils.
Apparently, the plant is considered to be native only in the south of England and plants found further north are the remnant of plants grown in the past for medicinal purposes, which, perhaps surprisingly, given its toxicity, were legion. So: another migrant.
I think this is also Eristalis arbustorum; Eristalis species are the Drone Flies. Other photos show that this one has a pale face which is why I think it’s arbustorum. In honesty, I was more interested in the Fleabane which is not, despite its name, all that common in this area.
Not the best photo, I know, but the best of the many I took. It had to be included to remind me of the happy moments when I watched, fascinated, as wasps ferried in and out. At the time I assumed that there was a nest in the hole. I suppose another explanation is that there was some abundant food source in there that they were exploiting.
Just below the extensive area of limestone pavement at Gait Barrows a large Blackthorn, which had grown out to be a small tree, proved to be another resting spot for a group of Migrant Hawkers.
This looks, to my untutored eye, very like a Rufous Grasshopper. It probably isn’t. My field guide shows the distribution of that species being solely along, or close to, the south coast. However, I looked up a more recent distribution map, and whilst they are largely restricted to the south of England, there have been verified sightings near Doncaster. Admittedly, that’s still a long way from here, but, on the other hand, they do like calcareous grassland, so this is the right kind of habitat. Maybe they’re migrating north too?
Wishful thinking aside, whilst trying to research whether or not it would be possible to find Rufous Grasshoppers in this area, I came across an old annual newsletter of the North Lancashire Naturalists Group. I’ve only read the Orthoptera section so far, but now I know where and when to look for Dark Bush Crickets locally, which might not excite everyone I realise, but is obviously right up my street. I also came across some familiar names of friends from the village who are members (and, in one case, Chair) of the group and are involved in recording. Why haven’t I joined myself? No doubt they would tell me what kind of grasshopper I have here.
At the point which I think of as the ‘top’ of the limestone pavement, where there’s a substantial memorial cairn, there’s a small set of steps with a rustic wooden handrail. As I climbed the three steps something seemed to fly away from the handrail.
‘That’s an unusual bird,’ I was thinking.
It seemed to land nearby, on or close to some bracken…
I couldn’t. Or rather, I could, but it was so still and so well disguised, I thought I was looking at the end of a dried branch or twig. Fortunately, I decided to investigate.
It was a Convolvulus Hawk-moth. I think this is probably the biggest moth I’ve ever seen; I’ve read that they can have a five inch wing-span. Their daytime defence strategy is to keep very still and hope not to be noticed. This one let me crawl right up to the bracken frond it was hanging beneath.
This moth is native to North Africa and Southern Europe. It can’t generally overwinter in the UK, so this was a true migrant. The large, colourful, horned caterpillars live on Convolvulus – Bindweed. There’s plenty of that in our garden, but it dies back every winter, which I think is why the caterpillars can’t survive here. I’m not sure the photos do it justice: it was breathtaking.
Fortunately, nobody happened by whilst I was spread-eagled on the ground trying to find the best vantage points for photos.
One final surprise for the day, on a leaf of a small Hazel sapling, an Angle Shades Moth. I knew that it was an Angle Shades, even though I don’t think I’ve seen one before. It’s bizarre that obscure facts like that stick with me, but that I can’t remember useful things like people’s names.
If every local walk were as packed with interest as this one, I might never both going anywhere else!
After a fairly wet drive home and unpacking etc, I had a late mooch around home. Where to go? Lambert’s Meadow of course, via The Row and Bank Well before strolling back through the village.
The light was very variable, but that didn’t stop me taking a huge glut of photos. The best was saved for last however, after I’d left the meadow and was walking around Silverdale Green…
Our accommodation was very close to Alton Towers, it would have been churlish not to offer the DBs a day out there, but it’s not really my speed these days, so having dropped them off there, we went instead to the National Trust’s Shugborough Hall Estate, where we had a great day out.
The arboretum in the grounds is home to 150 species of oaks from all around the world, which was fascinating. Some of the acorns were malformed in this way. I think this is a Knopper Gall. Knopper from the German word ‘Knoppe’ for a 17th century felt hat. The gall is caused by a tiny gall wasp Andricus quercuscalicis, which only arrived in the UK in the 1960s. Curiously, it has two different alternating generations one of which makes these galls, whilst the other lives on Turkey Oaks, an introduced species usually found in the parks of stately homes. I took several photos of different galls but have used this one because it was more colourful and more knobbly than the others. Apparently, the very distorted and folded appearance means that there are lots of wasps present, although I have no idea what sort of number constitutes ‘lots’.
A document from 1679 mentions this bridge, which is just outside Shugborough’s grounds, replacing an older wooden bridge and having 43 arches. Since it now has 14 either it has been significantly reduced in size or somebody was exaggerating. Has the Trent shrunk since the 17th Century?
It was a lovely spot and there were a number of kids making the most of it and paddling in the river here.
I was very taken with the English Longhorn cattle at Shugborough. Apparently, despite the fearsome looking horns, they are docile.
I’ve read that they’re very good mothers too.
There’s a cafe and a secondhand bookshop tucked away in a courtyard hereabouts. We patronised both. TBH was impressed with her vegan lunch but my ploughman’s was thoroughly underwhelming.
Much as I enjoyed the house and the grounds, for some reason it was the walled garden which appealed most of all. I’m not much of a gardener, but I really appreciate other people’s efforts.
Only part of the garden has been restored – if they get around to fixing it all it will be huge.
I like tall flowering plants, and I love to eat artichokes – we really ought to have some in our garden. My Dad used to grow them on his allotment, I’m pretty sure.
It had been a partly cloudy day, but by this point it had actually become quite hot, not something we experienced very often this summer.
Alton Towers was open quite late, and we knew the boys would want to milk it to the full, so en route we stopped at the Staffordshire Wildlife Trust’s headquarters at the Wolseley Centre. We actually arrived after closing time, but were told that there was an event on there, so we were okay to stroll around the site before braving the traffic chaos at Alton Towers.
Shugborough is very close to Cannock Chase, which had me very excited because of fondly remembered childhood visits. We didn’t find time to go exploring there on this occasion, so I’ve added it to my ever expanding ‘to do’ list.
I thought I could real-off a quick portmanteau post to dismiss the final week of July. The weather was very frustrating – I repeatedly studied the forecasts and made plans for promising looking days ahead, only for the forecasts to change and for more unpredictable, showery weather to arrive. I read a lot, and pottered around in the garden, between showers, or escaped for short local walks.
But even pottering in the garden throws up interesting, to me at least, subjects for photos, and that applies twice over to a lazy wander to Lambert’s Meadow. So I have a lot of pictures, and have decided, after all, not to try to cram them all into a single post.
Most of these photos are from our garden. Marjoram self-seeds all over the flower beds and is brilliant at attracting pollinators.
Marjoram leaves are not very big, so this spider was pretty tiny, but I like its mottled patterns.
Over the summer, I took a lot of photos in the garden, but I often missed the most interesting things that appeared. One afternoon there was a tiny, colourful Mint Moth. Another day I saw a large hoverfly, which I’m pretty sure was my first Volucella zonaria, the Hornet Hoverfly, which has the size and colouring of a hornet.
This last photo is not from our garden, but from a colleague’s, who threw a party. I’m a bit rubbish at parties, small talk is just not one of my talents, so I took photos of wasps instead! I thought that this tall, striking plant looked very like Angelica, aside from the fact that the flowers were purple, and I’ve since discovered that Angelica Gigas, or Korean Angelica, has purple flowers, so I suspect that’s what this was. The wasps were obviously loving it, and I’m very tempted to get some for our garden next summer.
The photos in this post are all from two walks around home from the first Saturday in July. The random musings are more recent.
I remember there was a bit of a fuss about a Slow Food movement a few years ago, wasn’t there? Started in Italy, apparently. I was thinking about this, because I was idly contemplating the concept of a Slow Walking movement. Although movement sounds a bit energetic in this context.
Apparently, there’s already a Slow Living campaign: “Slow living is a lifestyle which encourages a slower approach to aspects of everyday life, involving completing tasks at a leisurely pace.”
Leisurely pace. Yup.
Monotasking.
If that.
I read somewhere that this year was a good one for butterflies. I can’t say it seemed that way particularly, from my perspective. I did see a lot of Silver Y moths though. They migrate here from the continent apparently. Overachievers.
For various reasons, TBH has put a lot of effort into researching ADHD recently. Now and again, she gives me articles to read, or listen to. They usually make me chuckle with recognition.
Whilst not a recognised symptom, apparently people with ADHD often display hyperfocus. “Hyperfocus is highly focused attention that lasts a long time. You concentrate on something so hard that you lose track of everything else going on around you.”
The example given in the article TBH showed me yesterday was of a child continuing to read a book under a desk, which is me all over. I imagine slowly plodding around a field taking hundreds of photos of bugs, bees, flies, fleas and creepy-crawlies probably qualifies too.
I realise that it can seem like half-the-world is busy self-diagnosing ADHD these days, but that’s okay isn’t it? We can all be neuro-diverse, we all have our little, or not so little, idiosyncrasies.
Similar colouring to a Twenty-two-spot ladybird, but much bigger, and the spots are more rectangular and less round, and can merge together.
Apparently these longhorn beetles, in their larval stage, live on dead wood for three years – then they get a fortnight in the sun to mate. They’re certainly very striking. The black and yellow markings seem to be very variable. I’m fairly confident that I saw beetles of this species several times this summer at Lambert’s Meadow, but this was the only time that I managed to get clear photos.
I’m hoping that the weevils and sawflies which live on Figwort, about which I was completely ignorant before this year, will become familiar sights now that I know where to look and what to expect. That has certainly happened with a wide variety of other species that I’ve become aware of over the years.
The little green bug here has hind legs reminiscent of a grasshopper or cricket – but it’s so small, no bigger than the tiny weevil, that it can’t be one of those can it? Except, I’ve discovered, that grasshoppers and crickets undergo five moults, becoming more like an adult at each stage, so maybe this is a small hopper.
There were lots of Figwort Sawflies about. Plenty of Weevils too. Lots of damselflies also, but, for some reason, not many of my damselfly photos were very sharp.
I had five cameras with me on my walk. My Panasonic and the four in my phone. I didn’t use the selfie camera on this occasion. The other three are labelled as -7, x1 and x2. How come a zoom is a multiplication, which makes sense I suppose, but a wide angle is a subtraction? I’ve found myself using the -7 camera as lot. It’s not as powerful, in terms of the huge numbers of megapixels on offer – but I like the perspective it often gives.
We drove to the picturesque town of Wilson, on the shore of Lake Ontario, with the promise of amazing cookies. Sadly, the cookie shop was shut.
We had a back-up plan however: a picnic at Wilson-Tuscarora State Park, followed by a round of Frisbee-Golf. Anyone who watched me, many years ago, shanking, slicing, topping, over-hitting, or under-hitting a golf ball around Heaton Park pitch-and-putt will no doubt remember how frustrating I found that.
I’m afraid I was equally patient with Frisbee Golf and was soon distracted by the many Monarch Butterflies on the flower beds around the park. I wasn’t the only one who became disenchanted, so many of us knocked off after 5 ‘holes’ (actually nets). Prof A is almost as ridiculously competitive as I am though and insisted that the DBs keep going until he took the lead, at which point he declared the game over. Fair play; I’d have done the same myself if I was even remotely in contention.
Much of the park was manicured parkland, but there were areas which had been left to go ‘wild’:
Down by the rocky shore of Lake Ontario I completely failed to capture the large, colourful Grasshoppers which were flitting about.
Here’s B taking his turn with Prof A’s latest toy – a BB gun. Many coke cans were injured in the making of this post. I avoided joining in until pressed, and then, inevitably, was absolutely rubbish. Still, I’ve never felt threatened by coke cans, so I’m not too worried by my repeated failure to shoot one from very short range.
We fancied a short outing; Prof A suggested Panther Mountain, which was both nearby and a suitably easy stroll.
The roadside verges were resplendent with flowers. I think that these might be Chicory, which came to America with European settlers. Apparently, each flower is actually an inflorescence – a grouping of flowers, and each ostensible petal is in fact five fused petals and a flower in its own right.
The woods, wherever we went, were full of toadstools of various sizes and hues and I took no end of photos. Sadly, most of them came out rather blurred, I’m not sure why, perhaps due to the deep shade under the trees?
It didn’t take long to get to the top, from where there were partial views. Looking at the map now, I can see that Panther Mountain sits by Upper Lake Saranac, but we couldn’t see that at all.
As you can see it was quite cloudy. We were below the cloud because Panther Mountain is of modest height, about 2200 feet, which makes the climb roughly equivalent to climbing Arnside Knott, given the height of the surrounding countryside. Perfect for a short morning walk.
There was a Monarch butterfly flapping about, I think the first I’ve ever seen. I chased after it with my phone, with no success. Not to worry, I did come across…
…these Fox and Cubs, which have made the opposite journey from the Chicory and pop up in our garden. I was perhaps disproportionately pleased to find them in in their home environment.
Some things don’t change: whilst I was pursuing a butterfly, the DBs and their cousins found a boulder to take it in turns to scale…
The boys were persuaded to play hide and seek with their cousins. Meanwhile, my butterfly hunting had brought me down hill to a rocky edge from where I could just about see Panther Pond below…
And an expanse of misty woods and hills…
Prof A was very good at naming the hills we could see from the hilltops we visited, but without written notes I have no hope of remembering what he told me.
Another thing which doesn’t change is B’s observational skills.
“Have you seen the weird dragonfly on this bush?” he asked me.
I felt reasonably confident that this was more likely to be a wasp than a dragonfly; I was put in mind of the Sabre Wasp I once spotted near Leighton Moss. And so it turns out: this is a female American Pelecinid Wasp. She uses that long abdomen to deposit eggs on grubs living underground. A single egg on each larvae. Her offspring, when they hatch, burrow into the unfortunate grubs and eat them from within.
I suspect that this is Dog Vomit Slime Mold, or Scrambled Egg Slime. I’ve seen this near home too. Apparently it has an almost worldwide distribution. Like other slime molds it can move in search of nutrients.
After our walk, and a bit of lunch, we had a little time before we had to take A back to West Stockbridge. Down to the pond obviously.
M doesn’t stand for mischievous, but it easily could; he was always keen to deposit the others boys in the water at every opportunity.
TBH and I kept our distance from the high jinx in a canoe.
During our stay the boys came up with various challenges to try. Here S is attempting to back somersault into the water. Or back flip? I’m not sure which.
The next time I escaped from the woes joys of decorating, I managed a slightly longer walk. I think I wanted to visit this little scrap of verge where Elmslack Lane becomes Castle Bank and I knew I would find Dame’s Violet flowering.
From there I walked along Inman’s Lane along the bottom edge of Eaves Wood, then along the Row. Inevitably, I was heading for…
It’s quite easy to ignore Crane Flies, Daddy-Long-Legs; they’re common and plentiful, their larvae – leatherjackets – are a garden pest and I think some people are freaked out by their ridiculously long legs. But I thought the silvery-grey hue of this amorous pair, and the golden iridescence caught in the wings of the lower partner where very fetching.
I think this is an Ichneumonid wasp. It could be a sawfly, a digger wasp or a spider-hunting wasp, but on balance I’m going for an Ichneumon. After that I’m struggling. Apparently, there are around 2500 British species. Identifying them requires a microscope and an expert. Most species are parasitoids, meaning that they lay their eggs in other species of insects, caterpillars and grubs, and the larvae will eat and eventually kill the host. From my limited reading, I get the impression that each species of wasp will specialise in preying on the caterpillar or larvae of one particular species.
Some of the photos which follow are bound to look familiar, if you read my last post. Hardly surprising that if you walk in the same place just a couple of days apart, the bugs and beasties which are about and active are likely to be the same each time.
I’m reasonably confident that this Shield Bug is Troilus luridus. I’ve seen this given the common name ‘Bronze Shield Bug’ online, but my Field Guide gives another species that title, so I’ll stick with the latin name.
I took lots of photos of this Green Shield Bug and as a result was lucky enough to catch it in the act of taking wing…
You can see how the outer wings have adapted as a cover for the hind wings, so that when they’re on a leaf or a stem it’s hard to imagine that they even have wings.
Variable Damselflies are not listed in the handy booklet ‘An Atlas and Guide to the Dragonflies and Damselflies of the Arnside and Silverdale AONB’, a publication whose long title completely belies its actual brevity. So, if this is a Variable Damselfly, which I think it is, the species must have fairly recently arrived in the area.