A walk round the pond - week 39

I expect the heron is disappointed every time I turn up because it has to move on.  It usually watches to see if I climb over the gate before flying off.  It is probably after frogs etc as I don't think there are fish in the ponds - one reason why they are so good for dragonflies.

The autumn equinox has seen a change in the weather with windy sunny days and cool nights and there is a distinctly autumnal feel in the air.  The dragonfly season seems to have turned as well.  For the first time since week 18 I saw no damselflies and there were only three species of dragonfly.  The one I was most pleased to find was this female migrant hawker.  She was resting low down in the thistles to keep out of the wind.

I saw several males but fewer than last week.

There were still plenty of mating common darters

and several male ruddy darters.

I haven't written much about birds recently as there has been less to say.  Little grebes, moorhens and coots are still present but rarely seen.  I generally hear or see buzzards, bullfinches, yellowhammers, goldfinches, long-tailed tits and willow warblers each week but this week there were no swallows or martins so I expect they have headed south.

I have seen lots of small coppers this week.  Their iridescent orange colours are dazzling in the sunshine.

Other butterflies this week were speckled wood, red admiral, peacock, small white, and this comma.

On a dog rose in one of the hedges I found a Robin's pincushion.  It is a gall caused by a solitary wasp, Diplolepsis rosae, which lays its eggs in a rose leaf bud.  The grubs develop inside the gall and will emerge next spring.  They are produced parthenogenetically and >99% are female.

Several small mushrooms have appeared this week.  I think they are conical waxcaps, Hygrocybe conica, also known as witch's hats.  Wikipedia says their edibility is uncertain.  The flesh apparently turns black when cut, which my friend Maria tells me is not a good sign.  I read recently that all mushrooms are edible, but some only once!

The hornet whisperer

I am a fearless superhero, or so I was telling everyone.  I found this hornet looking sorry for itself and, identifying it as a male, I picked it up, knowing that the male doesn't have a sting.  It walked around on my hands for 20 minutes or so, seeming to enjoy a bit of warmth and shelter, before I put it onto the banana feeder.  Even at the time something didn't look quite right but it was only when I got home and looked closely at the photos that I realised it was a female worker and did have a sting!  It just goes to show how gentle and non-aggressive hornets are.  In my defence I haven't yet seen a male - I knew they have long droopy antennae but I now know they have very long, very dark, very droopy antennae.  I'll keep my eyes open for them as they should be out and about very soon.  I may even be brave enough to pick one up.

A walk round the pond - week 38

I reckon I have seen more migrant hawkers this week than in the rest of my life. 

They were sheltering from the wind on the sunny side of a hedge at up to 5 per sq metre but I couldn't get them all in one photo.

I wish I knew where the female migrant hawkers hang out - it isn't anywhere nearby as far as I can see.  At least the female southern hawkers are a bit more sociable.  This one was hunting near the water and stopping from time to time to have her photo taken.

It intrigues me how often the male southern hawkers rest on dock (Rumex) seed heads.  It may be that they like the texture but I suspect they have a well developed dress sense and appreciate how the dark red sets off their lime green and sky blue colours.

Common darters are still the most numerous dragonflies.

Ruddy darter numbers are dwindling.

Common blue damselflies are no longer common but there are still one or two males around.

Male emerald damselflies develop a coppery patina as they age.  I haven't seen females this week. 

Most of the butterflies now are speckled woods but I did see a male common blue.

It must have been on a favoured perch because this small copper chased it off and immediately replaced it.

I made the final bumblebee walk of the year for the Bumblebee Conservation Trust.   I saw only a few bees and all were common carders (Bombus pascuorum).

On several occasions this year I have flushed a brown hare as I walked around and I did so again.  It ran off but stopped at a safe distance to see what I was up to.  It then decided I was up to no good and lolloped away.

When it had gone I investigated where it had appeared from and found its hiding place (known as a form).  It looks well used so I'll have to watch out for it next time.

All these photos were taken earlier in the week before the storm and the later cooler and wetter weather.  Now the autumn equinox is here it will be interesting to see what changes occur.  My plan is to keep going until the end of the dragonflies' season.

A mole catcher's gibbet

I remember seeing keeper's gibbets years ago with moles, rats, stoats, magpies etc all hung up on the fence.  I came across this rather gruesome exhibit in Allendale.  It is a mole catcher's gibbet, a rather specialised form of keeper's gibbet.  The mole catcher uses it to prove to his employer that he is doing the work he is contracted for.

I couldn't get the whole length of the gibbet in one photo with the lens I had but I estimated there were over 200 mole carcasses displayed.

The hornet's lunchtime

The hornets continue to fascinate me.  Much of the time they are chewing bananas in a dish but the workers are still hunting in the flowers.  When a hornet catches a fly the procedure is always the same.  It flies to a nearby leaf and hangs from its back legs.  Then it bites off the head, wings, legs and abdomen and flies back to the nest with the thorax.  The flight line into the woods is always the same but we haven't yet found the nest.

Latest publications

When I was at work it was a big thing to get research work published.  Since retiring I have made no effort to publish my photos but the main point of taking them is to share them so other people can see them, hence this blog, my Flickr page, etc.  I do get a few requests, mainly for calendars and the like, but I have had a few others which have lead to two publications in the past week.  The first was a male sparrowhawk on the cover of North East Nature, the bulletin of the Natural History Society of Northumbria.

Unfortunately, due to a an administrative error in their office, they used the wrong image, one I had sent a year or so before for their website.  Below is the photo they asked for, of a juvenile male, which I had sent for the cover and provided a caption for.  If you know of anyone who wants a good photo for a magazine cover just let me know.

The second photo was used in Discover, an American popular science magazine.  It shows a male early bumblebee (Bombus pratorum) robbing a comfrey flower and was used for the contents page and a double spread leading an article on how animals cheat the system.

This is the original so it is interesting to see how they used it.  I like the arch of the leaf over the flower and the bee and might have kept it.