Ladybirds week 4

At the beginning of week 4 I walked across to Weetslade to look for ladybirds.  I found three 22-spot Ladybirds (Psyllobora vigintiduopunctata) in grass tussocks.

The main reason to go was to look for Water Ladybirds (Anisosticta novemdecimpunctata) and I found eight in the reed mace.  I kept looking after finding the first one because I was also hoping to find a Red Marsh Ladybird but I was out of luck.  Still, both these are a first for the site as far as I can tell.

The next day I walked down the second fairway to the pond at the bottom, 250m from here. After searching for a few minutes I found a Red Marsh Ladybird (Coccidula rufa).

And a few metres away, a Water Ladybird.  It is strange to think these little beasts were living only an 8 iron away from here and I never knew.

The Saturday field trip was to the Spetchells at Prudhoe.  On the way I called in at the churchyard at Burnopfield, from where I had seen a Heather Ladybird (Chilocorus bipustulatus) reported to iRecord a few weeks ago.  And there it still was, a few gravestones in from the gate. It is tiny and, as far as I could see there was no heather nearby.  Looking at the map I think the nearest significant heather is 10 miles away.  And this is the ladybird we spent three hours looking for in heather at Rothbury the week before!

The reflections from the ring flash are a bit distracting on this very shiny black ladybird but I am working on getting a better flash diffuser. 

The target for the walk at Prudhoe was the 24-spot Ladybird (Subcoccinella vigintiquattuorpunctata) and it wasn't long before we found one.  That was two new species for me within an hour.  The 24-spot is vegetarian and semi-matte with furry wing cases.

We also found a 10-spot Ladybird (Adalia decempunctata) with almost no spots - one of the many colour variations.

Other sightings were of 7-spot, Orange, Pine and Water Ladybirds so it was a good day.  This was the last of our regular field trips, although we hope there will be one more informal one to come.  In the past month I have seen 17 species of ladybird, including 11 that were new to me. Here are 16 of them - the missing one is Harlequin Ladybird.  I expect you'll recognise all the others.

The latest from OtterCam

There has been only one sighting of a dog otter in the past couple of weeks but this one had no marks or signs of injury.  It is obviously a different animal from the week before as that one had lost some fur and had damaged ears.  Here is the latest one having a scratch after getting out of the water.

The cubs are now fairly big but mostly stick fairly close to mum.  They are constantly sniffing to keep a nose on what is about.

A little while later they went back down the same way to the water.

Here is the family again.  The smaller cub seems mostly to bring up the rear.

We have had a lot of windy weather recently.  Here it was fairly calm when they came out of the water but the wind had got up by the time they returned some while later.

The sluice gate is now back up and the ramp is in place to make it easier for them to get up. In Storm Otto a few days ago mother and one cub went through the culvert and had a look over but decided against and came back again.  I don't know if it was the gate or the storm or something else that changed their mind.

Ladybirds week 3

The third week of ladybird hunting started off well when I found a Larch Ladybird (Aphidecta obliterata) in Gosforth Nature Reserve, another new species for me.

I also returned to the churchyard at Benton and found an Eyed Ladybird (Anatis ocellata).

The Saturday field trip was in Rothbury.  The target was the Heather Ladybird but with 13 of us searching for three hours we found none.  There was only one sighting in the whole day, a 10-spot Ladybird (Adalia decempunctata).

We'll hope for more success next week at the Spetchells when our target will be the 24-spot Ladybird.

The changing of the guard

This blog has been taken over by otters and ladybirds since the new year so it is only fair that the foxes get a turn.  A lot has changed in the last few weeks.  I think there is a new alpha pair but I haven't quite worked out which is which.

First, to recap.  This is the previous dog fox, but I haven't seen him since December.  He seemed to be a bit more relaxed as he got older and didn't eat quite as quickly as he used to, although he still rarely sat down.  He was easy to recognise so I'll miss him but I think his time is over.

The next fox has been around for 18 months and I think was a cub from 2021.  She has short black socks on her front legs and turned up here a couple of months ago with a nasty wound on her face.  It has now healed but has left a scar.  Last month she was walking on three legs and couldn't even put her right front foot to the ground.  I am surprised she managed to get into the garden given that all the foxes have to jump or climb over the rabbit fence to get in.  A couple of weeks ago she was back but was still limping, although she could take a bit of weight on that leg. In the photo it still looks injured.

The third fox I think was also a 2021 cub.  She has fairly long black socks, only a tiny white tip to her tail, a pretty face with fluffy cheeks and is a fairly relaxed character.

This fox is a newcomer and I think may be the new alpha female.  It is very pretty and well coloured and often lies down to eat.  It has long black socks, darker facial markings and a fairly big white tag on the tail.

And this fox I have only seen in the last few days.  It is big, very pale and has a torn left ear, so is very easy to recognise.  I wonder if this is the new alpha male - perhaps a dog fox is more likely to end up with a torn ear from fighting.

These last two will come to the garden together, although they don't feed side by side. The pretty, darker fox offers submission to the paler one but doesn't yield the peanuts.  The pale one is happy to sit and wait its turn, something the previous alpha male used to do when his mate was eating at this time of year.  If the female is well fed she is more likely to produce a healthy litter.

I'll keep an eye on what is happening and hope I'll be able to confirm who is who in the new arrangement.  It will be interesting to see which of the previous family of foxes is allowed to stay in the territory, if any.

Ladybirds week 2

On the second field trip looking for ladybirds we visited Havannah Nature Reserve.  Although it is less than two miles from here as the ladybird flies I think I have only been there two or three times in 30 years.  It is mainly lowland heath on the site of old mine workings and offers Scots pine, gorse, heather and marsh.  The main targets were Striped, Adonis and Larch Ladybirds but in the end we didn't find any of these (all would have been new to me).  Ladybirds we did see were Pine Ladybird  (Exochomus quadripustulatus),

7-spot Ladybird (Coccinella septempunctuata) with another beastie in the net,

another 7-spot, this one dead after being parasitised by Dinocampus coccinellae, like the one I posted recently,

and 22-spot Ladybird (Psyllobora vigintiduopunctata).

I came home via Banks Pond which was only another mile farther on. There I found five Water Ladybirds (Anisosticta novemdecimpunctata) and two Red Marsh Ladybirds (Coccidula rufa), the second of these a first for me, so it was a very worthwhile extra.

As the weather was fine I returned to Havannah the next afternoon and found a Striped Ladybird (Myzia oblongoguttata).  I can't think how James had missed it the day before!

I have now seen 13 species of ladybird in two weeks, eight of which were new to me.  The next target is the Heather Ladybird.

An update from OtterCam

The dog otter has been in the wars.  Compared with the week before he has several new scars on his back and sides and I think both his ears have been damaged.  He must have been fighting, possibly with another dog otter but perhaps more likely with the resident female.  If so, he came off worse as she has no signs of injury (see below).  

One one night last week the dog otter went north past all five cameras.  You can see some of the damage on this video as well.

He was followed 30 minutes later by the mother and two cubs.

The video shows they were in a great hurry in the slippery culvert.  Here are the tracks from the next morning.

The videos give the opportunity to compare the sizes of the dog, the female and the cubs.  I think one cub is larger than the other so they may be male and female.  We know from a previous video that at least one is male.