WeaselCam on tour

One of my WeaselCam boxes has just spent eight weeks in Elemore Park in Sunderland.  The main aim was to record the local weasels although I was also hoping the camera would also see the local Greater White Toothed Shrew -  a hope that was realised.  In the first two weeks there were only a few recordings - of shrews and voles and all in daytime.  In the following four weeks the camera recorded 300 wood mouse videos, 150 vole videos and three weasel videos but no shrews.  The pattern was similar in the last two weeks - lot of mice and voles but this time there were 11 weasel recordings, although still no shrews.

To start with the weasel was very wary and was reluctant to come right into the box.  

Then it got a bit more confident.

In the last two weeks it was in the box nearly every day.

It seemed fascinated by something behind the camera (there was nothing there) often staying for 30s at a time.  At times it was jumping around like a stoat, unfortunately mostly out of view.  Here are the best bits edited from the 11 recordings.

I think this is probably all the same female weasel although it is difficult to be sure as some of the views were fleeting.  The likelihood is that the box was in her territory and she certainly got more used to it with time.  My only disappointment is that the shrews didn't show after the first two weeks - perhaps they were put off by the smell of weasel (or perhaps the weasel had eaten them all!).  The camera box is off elsewhere for a while but we hope to return it to Elemore Park for more weasel and shrew recordings in the near future.

Sparrowhawk news

It is a long time since I posted pictures of a sparrowhawk in the garden.  Last winter's bird was a bit of a dead loss because he hunted round the feeders by the kitchen window instead of sitting on the perch in the kitchen garden.  I had seen a new bird around in the garden recently and then I had a very close encounter.  When I went out to the greenhouse he was sitting in the doorway eating a robin and he panicked and flew farther in.  The only way get him out was to go round the outside to the far end.  Here he is looking through the window.

I had time to take a short video on the phone and moments later he realised he could escape and flew out through the door.

Prior to that I had noticed days when the level of seed in the feeder in the kitchen garden didn't drop so I guessed a new sparrowhawk must be around.  And here he is, posing nicely on the perch.

Sitting there was a bit obvious so he also tried hiding low down on the raised beds.

And sometimes sitting high up on the feeder support, although that's even more obvious.

This is a newly independent first year male so he is still learning his trade but there are plenty of small birds in the garden, at least there are when he's not here.

Then a couple of days ago I saw this one - a second year bird.  Sparrowhawks moult into adult plumage at the end of their first year and you can see this one has a mixture of blue and brown feathers.  He has replaced most of his juvenile plumage but the outer tail feathers and some of the body and head feathers are still brown.

And a bonus video of a sparrowhawk that appeared on one of my otter cameras, also a first year bird and probably female as it looks bigger.  I think the call in the background is a buzzard and not another sparrowhawk.

Hieroglyphic Ladybird

A second ladybird post in a row but I thought I ought to share this.  It was quite a week, starting off with the discovery of a Scarce 7-spot Ladybird.  I signed off last week's post by saying "Hieroglyphic Ladybird is top of my wish list.  Do let me know if you know where I can find one - and expect to see a photo here if I do."

And the very next morning I found one, or two to be precise.  I called in to Havannah Nature Reserve, a couple of miles from here, just to have a look around because it is a local ladybird hotspot, great for conifer specialists such as Striped, 18-spot and Eyed Ladybirds.  It is predominantly lowland heath with a lot of heather and gorse and Scots pines, a rare habitat around here, but Hieroglyphic Ladybird had never been recorded there so I wasn't at all expecting to find one.  And then there it was in my sweep net.  It was quite active so I took few photos in the net but before I could get a more natural-looking background it flew off.

It is quite a lot smaller than a 7-spot Ladybird and the colour is old gold with the markings you can see, which must have reminded someone of Egyptian hieroglyphs.  After it had gone I carried on my search and ten minutes later, to my amazement, I found another one.

Later that day Chris Barlow, a noted local naturalist and entomologist, found two more and the following day James Common, our local ladybird expert, found another so there is obviously something going on.  Until a few days ago Hieroglyphic Ladybird was the rarest, or least often reported, conspicuous ladybird in the North East Ladybird Spot.  Within the past two or three weeks there have been several records from the Durham Coast as well so things are changing.

There are also lots of Heather Beetles at Havannah, something Chris says he has never seen before, and Hieroglyphic Ladybirds and their larvae eat Heather Beetle larvae.  The habitat is right so the supposition is that this year's fine weather has encouraged the establishment of a population of Heather Beetles and the Hieroglyphic Ladybirds have found them and taken advantage.  With luck both will become established.  On Sunday I went back and Chris found another one which he kindly allowed me to photograph.

I think that's enough on ladybirds for a while so we'll have something completely different for my next post.

Scarcely believable

This was third time lucky.  I have twice before been to look for a Scarce 7-spot Ladybird without success.  As its name suggests it is rare and it is almost always found close to, but not in, a wood ant nest in woodland or heathland.  This was in Harlestone Firs near Northampton, somewhere I often went on my bike over 60 years ago.  I had found a Formica rufa nest near the sawmill before so I went straight there this time.  In the bracken and a small fir tree very close by I soon found about a dozen 7-spot Ladybirds but they were all the standard Coccinella septempunctata.  There was another nest, or part of the nest, a couple of metres away and from the bracken there I quickly had twenty 7-spot ladybirds in my sweep net.  As I checked them all one was slightly different - a bit smaller, a deeper red with larger black spots, and a slightly more domed shape.

The key to the identification is that is has four small white triangular marks underneath at the base of its middle and hind legs whereas Coccinella septempunctata has only two in the middle. It wasn't easy to photograph but was better with the ladybird in a small glass specimen tube.

The Scarce 7-spot Ladybird goes by the wonderful scientific name of Coccinella magnifica.   It is a handsome beetle and was happy for me to take a few more photos.

I also tried to get a photo of the two species side by side but the flash didn't fire as the 7-spot Ladybird (L) walked by the Scarce 7-spot Ladybird (R).  The photo was totally underexposed but it is astonishing how Adobe Lightroom can recover this image from the Olympus OM-1 RAW file.

There are still several British ladybirds I haven't found.  Hieroglyphic Ladybird is top of my wish list.  Do let me know if you know where I can find one - and expect to see a photo here if I do.