Meadow grasshopper

I came across this little beast while I was looking for dragonflies but I was very taken with it and think it deserves a post of its own.  After looking it up my best guess is that it is a male meadow grasshopper (Chorthippus parallelus).  If you can confirm this, or an alternative, please leave comment.

Bad news for bumblebees

I came across this poor bee while doing my monthly bumblebee count for the Bumblebee Conservation Trust.  It is a newly emerged queen red-tailed bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius).  It was crawling around in the hedgerow, unable to fly.  The reason is obvious as it has no wings, just shrivelled stumps where they should be.

The appearances are very similar to those we see in honey bees affected by deformed wing virus (DWV).  This is the major cause of disease in honey bees and is transmitted by the varroa mite (Varroa destructor).  This photo shows an affected worker honey bee (Apis mellifera) with a varroa mite on its thorax.

DWV is endemic in honey bees but is present in much higher levels in the presence of Varroa infestation.  It is also found in bumblebees.  In 2006 Genersch et al reported wing deformities in Bombus pascuorum and Bombus terrestris affected by DWV.  More recently Fürst et al found DWV to be present in 11% of British bumblebees, with evidence of virus replication in one third of those, suggesting active infection.  Little is known about the prevalence of wing deformities in bumblebees.  They cannot fly and presumably die quickly so they will not be detected by standard surveillance methods.  Bumblebees are not affected by Varroa but they share flowers with honey bees and may well acquire the infection that way.  Most responsible beekeepers treat their bees to help control varroa infections, and thus reduce the levels of DWV, but there is little or nothing that can be done to prevent infection of bumblebees.  I suspect nothing at all is known about wing deformities or DWV infection in solitary bees, although a similar deformity has recently been observed in a Colletes bee.


Fürst MA, McMahon DP, Osborne JL, Paxton RJ, Brown MJF. Disease associations between honeybees and bumblebees as a threat to wild pollinators. Nature. 2014;506(7488):364-366. doi:10.1038/nature 12977.  available here.

Genersch E, Yue C, Fries I, Miranda, J. (2006). Detection of Deformed Wing Virus, a honey bee viral pathogen, in bumble bees (Bombus terrestris and Bombus pascuorum) with wing deformities. Journal of Invertebrate Pathology. 91. 61-3. 10.1016/j.jip.2005.10.002.

The fox cub in August

I thought you might like to see how the cub is getting on.  He is now nearly full grown and still tends to come to the door on his own.  He is very wary and constantly looks over his shoulder for signs of bigger foxes.  The photos are frame grabs from the video with an ISO of 12800 so are very soft.

The videos are not really very exciting as all he does is chew peanuts but you can see what a handsome young chap he is.  In the third clip he looks very much the teenager.

A walk round the pond - week 34

It just shows how wrong you can be, or at least how wrong I can be.  I had assumed it was getting too late see a southern hawker at the pond this year and then this week this beauty landed right in front of me.  I was doing my bumblebee walk (more below) and had only my new pocket camera (Panasonic TZ90) with me.  It was the first time I had used it and so far I am pleased with the results.  When I had finished counting bumblebees I return to the same spot with my normal dragonfly camera (Canon 7D mk II and 300mm f/4 lens) and there was still a southern hawker there although, looking at the fine details in the markings, it is not the same individual.

These are both males and they have probably been hunting and maturing away from the water before returning now in the hope of finding a mate.

I had also assumed that the common hawkers' season was over as I hadn't seen one for two weeks but the first dragonfly I saw this week was a female common hawker ovipositing.  There were at least two males on patrol as well - I think they won't be the same as the ones I saw a few weeks ago but will be later emerging individuals.

And there were several migrant hawkers, all males waiting for females.  With three species of hawker flying together it was easy to see that the migrant is smaller than the other two.

There were three species of darter this week as well.  I saw one male black darter but didn't get a photo.  This ruddy darter resting on a silver birch shows well the yellow colour at the base of his wings.

There were lots of mating pairs of common darters.

Common darters stay in tandem for ovipositing so the male can keep an eye on the female while the job is done.

This is mature female common darter.  Her colour will become brown as she gets older.

This female common darter landed on my shirt sleeve.  I managed to manoeuvre the camera with my left hand and aim it blindly to get a photo.

And there were three species of damselfly this week - a few common blues, a few blue-tailed and several emeralds.

It was time for my monthly bumblebee walk for the Bumblebee Conservation Trust.  There fewer than last month as we get towards the end of the bumblebee season and there were fewer flowers for them as well.  Those I did see were red-tailed bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius),

common carder bumblebee (Bombus pascuorum),

and garden bumblebee (Bombus hortorum).

Here is a speckled wood butterfly taken with the new camera.

I also found the strangest moth I have ever seen.  It is a triangle plume moth and it furls its wings up when it lands. When opened, the hind wings look more like feathers.

Now I know they are there, I can find leafhoppers all over the place.  Here is a mating pair.

So it was quite a week, with three hawkers, three darters and three damselflies all flying together.  Let's hope for a few more like this.

European hornet in Gosforth

The sighting of a queen European hornet (Vespa crabro) in Gosforth Park in June was exciting and unexpected but wasn't proof that they are established here.  A couple of weeks ago the nature reserve warden, Paul, caught a worker hornet in a moth trap.  And this morning I saw another worker hunting in the lodge garden and catching a hoverfly (photos above and below).

This is Paul's photo of the worker in his moth trap.

This is proof there is a nest somewhere in the reserve.  It has been a good summer for insects so there is a good chance that more queens will be produced in the next few weeks and hornets may become established locally.

Keeping an eye on things

I have seen this young kestrel swoop past the feeders in the garden several times in the past couple of weeks, presumably in the hope of catching a small bird unawares.  It then flies up into a 30m tree in my neighbour's garden, from where it can see over several gardens.  The photos were taken with the camera balanced on the roof of the car outside the front door.  The distance is about 60m (200ft) with a 600mm lens working at an effective 960mm and heavily cropped, so the photos are not too bad considering.  The kestrel's eyesight is so good it probably has a much clearer view of me.