A walk round the pond - Week 37

After walking round both ponds I was thinking of leaving when I saw a female southern hawker dancing in the reeds as she laid her eggs.  There was no chance of a photo and after several minutes I lost sight of her.  With time to spare I decided to look at the hedges again in case she had gone there to rest.  There was no sign of the female but I did find a male, the first I have seen on the site this year.

He hadn't been there half an hour earlier so he was presumably getting his breath back after mating.  Obligingly he flew around me a couple of times and settled close by so I could get a different view.

There were several male migrant hawkers this week, mostly on patrol.

This one is photographed in sunshine and shadow, showing the difference the light makes.

These rather acrobatic common darters were one of many mating pairs.

This is a mature male

and a fairly young female.

The females change colour as they age, usually becoming brown,

but sometimes developing male-type red colouration (known as androchrome).

There was again a single black darter, this one not posing well and sitting in a birch tree.

I saw no common blue damselflies this week and only a few emerald damselflies.  Their season will soon be over.

This female really is emerald green.

There weren't many butterflies this week, mostly speckled woods and a few common blues.

New visitors this week were a couple of mute swans.  Let's hope they nest next year instead of the Canada geese.

Young finches

The garden has been busy with birds all summer but, apart from the sparrowhawk, they have been missing from the blog recently, mostly displaced by foxes, otters, dragonflies, etc.  In the past couple of weeks there have been lots of very young-looking goldfinches, greenfinches and chaffinches, presumably from second broods.  The first young bullfinches always seem to appear here very late in the season and there are still several youngsters demanding to be fed by their parents.  Most of this activity goes on out of reach of the camera lens but this young bullfinch was patiently sitting in a yew tree, waiting for a parent to bring more food.

The BTO website says that bullfinches have two or three broods a year with first clutches laid as late as 21st July.  With a combined incubation and fledging time of 31 days this would fit in with these newly appearing birds.

OtterCam in September

Ottercam drew a blank on two nights in August, the first time it hasn't shown an otter since I started monthly recordings in February.  Two nights last week were also otterless so I moved to a new location.  And an otter turned up on the cameras, not long after I had left.

My guess is that it is the same female I have been watching all year.  If so, she no longer looks pregnant (there have been several suggestions that she looked pregnant on the recordings in May and June).  February and March recordings showed her with two well-grown pups but on the April video she was alone.  Otters are non-seasonal breeders and females will often be pregnant by the time they encourage their full-grown pups to move on.  Gestation is about nine weeks and the newborn pups stay in the natal holt for about three months, so with any luck they should be around about now.  On the latest recordings the otter was still alone but I'll keep trying in the hope of seeing pups.  In the meantime here are a few short videos clips from this week.  The position is shaded with a very bright background which is a challenge for the cameras but I think they cope reasonably well.

A walk round the pond - Week 36

Suddenly it is autumn, and it feels like it.  The weather hasn't been a very insect-friendly this week but some of them were out and about.  Migrant hawkers (Aeshna mixta) aren't migrants at all (although they were a long time ago when given the name).  In Ireland they are known as autumn hawkers, which is a much better name.  The few I saw were mostly at rest, low down to keep out of the breeze and try to catch a bit of sun, with only one on patrol.

The only other dragonflies around were common and ruddy darters, also sheltering from the wind.  This is a male ruddy darter.

The damselflies didn't even try flying in the strong breeze.

Butterflies are surprisingly strong fliers, even in windy weather.  Amongst others I saw common blue,

speckled wood,

and small tortoiseshell.

This queen common carder bee was fattening up but will soon be hibernating.

Fox News

The dog fox turned up a couple of nights ago looking so smart that I almost didn't recognise him (not something that has ever been said about me).  I haven't seen him for two or three weeks and back then he was still very scruffy after moulting.  Now he has a beautiful red coat which looks almost as smooth as the cubs' coats.  I expect he will go grey again as we head into winter.

The cubs are growing up fast and the family dynamic has changed.  I now usually see only one or two cubs together, never more than three, and they are much more wary of each other.  The cub on the left is offering a submissive gesture to the newcomer.

This one does the same but carries on eating, knowing that it has already eaten all the good bits.

The foxes also turn up later, even though it gets dark earlier, so I only ever see them after dark.

The cubs' teeth are now strong enough to cut through chicken bones.

I tried an extra light (a portable rechargeable work light) earlier in the week.  It improved the lighting but the foxes were very suspicious of it - they don't like anything new.

The cubs' relationship with their father has changed.  They no longer run to greet him when he arrives and watch warily when he is in the garden.  I have seen him strut across the garden with his tail held vertically like a flag and then scent-mark on the drive lights.  I reckon he is trying to tell them it will soon be time to move on from his territory.  Because they aren't easy to identify individually and because they come and go in ones and twos it is impossible to tell how many of the famous five are still around, although dispersal doesn't usually start before September.  If he does throw them out I shall miss them when they are gone.

Although I live in the city, from the foxes' point of view this is effectively a rural habitat.  I think the dog will not want any male cubs to stay around.  (Urban fox families more commonly contain subordinate non-breeding males.)  Earlier in the year there were two vixens in the family - one the cubs' mother and one probably an offspring from a previous year.  I haven't seen them recently.