Ecdysis

At first I wasn't sure what was going on here.  It looked as though a spider had caught another spider.  But in fact it is a spider just recovering from moulting its old skin.  Spiders, like other creatures with an exoskeleton, have to step out of their old skin in order to grow.  The process is known as ecdysis, a word new to me.  The cuticle splits along the spider's back and it slowly hauls itself out through the split.  At this stage it is fragile and vulnerable and has to wait some time for its new outer layer to harden before it can get on with life.

The same process, described by the same word, occurs when a dragonfly emerges from a nymph.  You can watch a time-lapse sequence here of a Mexican red-kneed tarantula moulting (not a common species in Newcastle, fortunately).  There is a clearer video of a wolf spider moult here.

I think this is probably a Daddy Long-legs Spider, Pholcos phalangioides.

Silver Y

This beautiful moth spent a whole day on the outside of my window.  It was a miserable grey drizzly day so I expect it was just waiting for the weather to improve.  It is a Silver Y, Autographa gamma, a common and widespread moth that is often seen in the daytime.  This one was happy for me to practice a few close-up photos.  I used flash and because it is reflected away by the glass it gives a dark background.  The second photo was taken from inside, through the window.  The window wasn't clean (!) but I have tidied up the photos as much as I can.

The photos above were taken with a 100mm macro lens.  I also use a clip-on Raynox 250 to get closer but I was limited by the position of the moth on the window and the width of the ring flash.  Here are close-ups of the scales on the wing and the eye.

Mini Mouse

I saw this very young wood mouse just outside my front door in the middle of the morning.  Quite why it was out in the open isn't clear - it was unconcerned as I took these photos.  It is lucky I am not a kestrel or a weasel.

I went back in to get the phone.  When I returned it had moved under the wheelie bin but it was happy to let me take this video from about 20cm away.

The Steely-blue Wood Wasp

Here's a little monster from the garden.  It is a female Steely-blue Wood Wasp (Sirex juvencus), not a wasp at all but a sawfly.  I saw it on the garage wall and dashed for a camera.  It stayed for minute or so before flying off and I managed just these few photos.  I recognised it as a wood wasp but it was identified by Andy Musgrove on the British and Irish Sawflies Facebook page.

This one is 32mm long (the cement in the top photo is 29mm wide).  At first glance I thought it might be a giant horntail, Urocerus gigas, an even bigger species that I have long wanted to photograph, but it wasn't big enough and had no yellow on the abdomen.  A giant horntail once landed on my camera strap in the woods in Cragside, then flew onto my leg before flying off so I didn't get the picture.  Maybe one day.

The steely-blue wood wasp is still an impressive beast.  It has no sting but the spike at the back is an ovipositor for laying eggs in coniferous trees, mostly in damaged or dying timber.  The larvae chew tunnels in the wood for two years before emerging as new adults.

I am not sure how sawfly records are collated but my guess is that Sirex juvencus isn't common.  The Sawflies (Symphyta) of Britain and Ireland website describes it as "common" but quotes the NBN Atlas which has 28 records since 1987.

iRecord has seven records since 2000 (including mine in red at the top).  Verified iRecord data are fed through to the NBN Atlas so these six blue records are also in the map above.

Steven Falk describes Sirex juvencus as "not native to Britain but established in scattered locations".  He calls it the Pale-horned Blue Horntail, a name I haven't found elsewhere.

Sawflies are related to wasps, bees and ants but lack a wasp waist.  There are 8000 species in 800 genera world wide - we have about 500 species in 100 genera.  Adults range in length from 2 to 55mm and the larvae resemble caterpillars.  The most common species in my garden are those that eat my gooseberries (Gooseberry Sawfly) and my Solomon's seal (Solomon's Seal Sawfly).  Perhaps the Steely-blue Wood Wasp laid its eggs in my dead sycamores and I might see some more in two years' time.

Sparrowhawk news

I haven't seen a sparrowhawk in the last few days but I know one has been around because there is evidence of a kill every time I mow the lawn.  The yearling bird from three weeks ago reappeared on the perch briefly about 10 days ago and another one was here very early this morning, probably a different bird.

The latest bird didn't stay for long but he spent several minutes watching the ground below the perch intently, perhaps looking for a bank vole.

It is interesting to compare the appearance of the latest bird (R) with the yearling from three weeks ago (L).  The new bird has full adult tail feathers, his white supercilium (eyebrow) is much less obvious and he is generally less dishevelled.

I can be pretty sure it is not the same bird as he has a different pattern of dark marks pattern on the cere and lacks the small nick in the culmen.  He also has a darker eye and a different shaped nostril.  The light was poor this morning so I shall need a better photo if he returns so I can tell if he is one of the other birds I have seen before.

OtterCam has been vandalised

When I went to check the two trail cameras in the culvert one of them was missing.  Then I spotted it on the bottom of the stream about 1m downstream.

I guessed at once who the culprit was.  Although the cameras were fairly tightly clamped to the end of the pipe my guess was that one of the otters had knocked it into the water.  Amazingly it was still working when I pulled it out and it had recorded the whole episode.  You'll see that the pup continued to investigate the camera underwater before deciding it wasn't edible.  Here is what happened.

And the camera even recorded its own rescue.

The camera had been in the water for 23 hours yet it worked immediately when I switched it to replay.  I think it must have been saved by the weight of the clamp, which kept it upright, stopping water getting in through the battery compartment and stopping it from floating away.  It is also a good thing that it had a white rain guard otherwise I might not have spotted it.  I brought it home for a clean up and I'll try to devise a firmer anchor so this doesn't happen again.

Fox News

I haven't seen much of the foxes in recent days.  There has been a lot of noise and disturbance in the park in the evenings with socially-distanced pop concerts and race meetings so the foxes turn up later.  The first to arrive often gets a few treats such as chicken skin but they still eat all the biscuits.  When I do see them now it is always one at a time.  Last month the dog was still tolerating the short-tailed cub.

Now I only see the dog on his own.

And usually one cub on its own.  This is the short-tailed one.

And the long-tailed one.

I expect the dog will encourage the cubs to leave the territory soon.  When all the noise dies down I may get a better look at who is still here.

Out and about in August

This is a belated review of a few things I saw last month.  The weather wasn't very summery with plenty of rain and strong winds.  The Met Office records show fairly average temperatures and rainfall overall with not much sunshine but they don't publish similar data for wind speed, perhaps because it is difficult to summarise.

In between Storm Ellen and Storm Francis I did get out to walk around the usual places a few times.  All the wildlife has to make the most of it, whatever the weather but this type of summer weather isn't good for insects.  My impression is that there are fewer dragonflies and damselflies around than usual but, if that is so, it may relate to weather in previous years rather than this one.

I saw a few more four-spotted chasers early in the month but their season is now over.

Not many hawkers but there was an ovipositing southern hawker.

This photo is poor but it is proof of a male common hawker at Gosforth Nature Reserve, the first record for several years at least.

Common darters are abundant this year.

Ruddy darters may be fewer.

And I do think there are fewer damselflies.  The only ones still around were common blue

and emerald.

I photographed only a few butterflies which included small copper,

common blue,

speckled wood,

and wall, a slightly tatty female and a smarter male.

I saw plenty of bees but photographed only two.  A tree bumblebee on knapweed,

And a female leaf-cutter bee, probably Megachile willughbiella, on bird's foot trefoil.  The scopa, or pollen brush, under her abdomen is full of pollen.

The cygnets at Banks' Pond are now down to two but the single mother now seems to be spending more time with them.  Let's hope all three survive.

I saw and heard plenty of juvenile willow warblers, soon to be off on migration to Southern Africa.

And a white pigeon on the roof.