Fly Agarics

One of the most distinctive fungi growing in our Welsh woodland is the Fly Agaric. This is the fairy tale mushroom. Red background with white dots, little chap sitting on top with a fishing rod, well maybe not. The fungi is handsome, white stipe, ring and gills and that stunning red colour.

A Group of Fly Agarics

 
It grows under Birch and Larch and forms a very close relationship with the roots of these trees. The mycellium, the white threads under the ground, the "body" of the fungus, wraps around the finest of the tree roots. This structure is called a mycorrhiza and allows the tree and fungi to help each other. The fungi gets sugars from the tree and the fungi helps the tree take up minerals from the soil. In fact in many soils the trees will fail to thrive without the fungus. A lot of fungi form associations like this with trees which can be used to chase them down.

Fly Agaric Having Problems

The name seems a little odd as well, it comes from the fact that the caps can be mashed with milk and used as bait to kill flies. I suspect that the smell of the milk on a warm day would probably make you wish you had kept the flies. The fungi is toxic it contains a psychoactive compound called muscimol, and has been used in Siberia in shamanistic rituals to communicate with the spirit world. The outlawing of Magic Mushrooms has not, as suspected, led to a rise in the use of Fly Agaric. The fungi can be eaten if boiled in lots of water, muscimol is water soluble, so avoid the water. Not really worth the effort as its taste is bland.

The main reason why I like them is they just look stunning. They have a magic quality to them, there one day, gone the next and usually appear in good numbers.

Underside of Cap

Just Starting Out

8 legged freaks: Spiders

Plenty of great spider action around at the moment. Heavy dew in the morning makes finding their webs rather easy. Not such great news for the spiders as prey can also see them. Once the sun is on the webs is does not take long for the droplets to evaporate. This is a good time to see the spiders as well. They are cold blooded and not that active in the morning so a close approach is much easier. Will be looking at two species of spider today.

The Hammock spider (Neriene clathrata):

This tiny spider is very, very common. Most of us have seen its webs drapped horizontally over the grass, reflecting the early morning sunlight. The webs vary in size from postage stamp up to nearly a foot accross. The picture shown below is a reasonably large one.

Hammock Spider  Web (Neriene clathrata)

Though these webs are considered more primitive than the orb webs they have a beauty all of their own. From the side the structure is much more apparent. A more or less horizontal sheet web is suspended on hundreds of silken fibres attached to the surrounding vegitation. It is like an ornate tent with lots of guy lines. The spider sits underneath the sheet, unimpeded by all the support structure above the web. The web works from above. Insects get caught up in intricate lattice of silk and eventually fall onto the sheet. The spider then bites through its own web and wraps the poor prey before sucking it dry. The spider itself is rather beautiful, but you will need to get close to notice, it is only about 5mm accross. Finding them is hard work, the larger webs are usualy more productive.

Hammock Spider (Neriene clathrata) about 5mm

 The Garden Spider

Garden Spider building web

 
The Garden spider is an orb web spider, considered the height of sophistication within the spider world. Their webs are stunning and take a bit of building. The photograph shows a garden spider at work building its web. You can see silk being produced by the spinnerets at the rear end of the spider. I had a good idea that this spider would be building its web here today as my dog had run through its web earlier on!

The Fungi Season Begins....

Meadow Wax Caps

To be honest the fungi season never ends, but the numbers are on the up. The very rough old meadow that grows near my house has come alive with fungi. Mainly Waxcaps. The Waxcaps are easy fungi to group, they are often over the top in the colour department, look slimy when wet, and their flesh has a consistency of wax. Hence their name. Individual fruit bodies are often not up that long. They are prone to damage and beloved by slugs. This is not a problem as the mycelium under the ground just pushes up more. Identifying the Hygrocybes to species level is demanding and often requires a microscope. They also have a habit of turning black within a few hours of picking, this is not the most helpful. Some are edible and good, for example the larger Meadow Waxcap. Though none are poisoness I would suggest caution eating this group unless you are confident of the identification. They certainly look good in the pan!

Brecon Beacons: Ystradfellte

Female Keeled Skimmer

A family walk in the Brecon Beacons near Ystradfellte turned up some interesting natural history. Almost at the very start of the walk a female Keeled Skimmer landed straight in front of me and insisted on a picture. I obliged. Despite the colour these guys are easily missed the female is bright yellow and the male bright blue. They are not the biggest, this specimen was about 7cm nose to tail, one of the smallest dragonflies I've seen this year. In perfect condition and bright, I would not be surprised if it was not recently unwrapped. Lots of boggy ground and ditches lined the paths and hawking along these ditches was a Gold Ringed Dragonfly. It landed somewhere in the reeds and had not been for my 4 year olds eyes I would not have found it. Two dragonflies in less than half an hour - saw no more all day.
An old rockfall down by the river had become covered in map lichens. It was great to see these lichens competing for a bit of open space - and it made for an interesting photograph. The waterfalls themselves were great, my favourite was this one (see bottom) Sgwd y Pannwr, impressive.

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Gold Ringed Dragonfly

Map Lichens

Sgwd y Pannwr

Queen Ants

Queen ant nest building

Did not have to go far this morning to find a bit of natural history action. In fact these pictures were taken two paces from my front door. Over the last couple of days we have hot and humid weather here. These are the classic conditions for ants to swarm in mating flights. Two days ago the air was full of flying ants. Mating flight now over the queens are looking to set up home. One has decided that my brick pavier drive would be ideal and has started digging down between the bricks. Probably a good choice, the bricks will provide protection and absorb heat that will be released overnight to keep the developing ants warm. At the moment she is on her own, but is full of fertilised eggs. Once she has formed a chamber she will lay eggs and look after the grubs. When they grow up they will be the worker ants that will expand the nest and look after her every need. These could be her last few days in the sun before she becomes an underground egg laying machine.

Burnet Moth Invasion!

Six Spot Burnet Moth (Zygaena filipendulae)

The grassland on top of the coal tips has come alive with Burnet moths. I sort of expected this as the number of cocoons stuck to grass blades was impressive earlier this year. Was not quite ready for that many. I counted 100 in an area of about 5m by 5m. Large numbers flying and a lot more breeding. Seems they mate as soon as they emerge as many couples are right next to empty cocoons. Burnet moths are a stunning example of our daytime flying moths. The handsome blue black wing with a hint of oily irredesence, covered with red splodges that looks like a child's finger painting. They are strong fliers and capable of a fair turn of speed. Even better, from a photographers perspective, they are easy to approach. Perhaps they are made brave as they contain cyanide that they picked up as caterpillars off their food plant, Birds foot trefoil. Those distinctivly moth like antenna are worth a look as well.

Meadow Brown (Maniola jurtina)

The butterflies are doing well. Numbers of Graylings and Small Heaths are up and I finally managed to get a photograph of a Meadow Brown. The Meadow Brown is easily one of our most common butterflies but tricky to photograph. Even on overcast days the Meadow Brown is seriously active, in the sun it never seems to stop! This one was far to interested was in feeding on the bramble flower to be disturbed by me.

Dragonflies on the Coal Tips....

Keeled Skimmer (Orthetrum coerulescens)

Managed to find three of our larger Dragonflies up on the Coal Tips. The most spectacular the Emperor Dragonfly (Anax imperator) was only seen in passing - it shot past revealing its distinctive drooping abdomen. This is one of our largest dragonflies and it would have been nice to get shot. However it did not favour me with a return flight.
I got a lot luckier with my next spot, it was a Keeled Skimmer. A pair of these rather attractive blue dragonflies were hawking up and down over a boggy stretch of path. By the look of it this area is always wet, it has reeds and sphagnum moss. I suspect that this is an area where water draining through the coal waste emerges. Not that these dragonflies cared. I watched them for some time before taking a couple of shots and leaving. This was not a breeding pair, they both seemed to be males.

Up on the top of the Coal Tip I met up with one of our most charismatic larger dragonflies the Goldringed. This black and yellow stripped  insect defends a defined territory, this makes it easier photograph. Within its territory it will maintain certain prominent positions that it uses as perches. This Goldring was hunting and showing off the flying skills that these insects are renowned for. While I was their it hovered, changed direction at 90 degree angles, accelerated and decelerated hard, and flew backwards. I was also checked out as a perch, being a stationary high point. Much as I would have been honoured it would have made photography tricky! Eventually the dragonfly made a kill and returned to a gorse bush perch to have a munch. I tracked his perch down by sound - you could hear him crunching, what turned out to be a wasp. By the time I had crept up close most of the wasp was history, however the dragonfly hung around and allowed me to get really close. Fantastic creature!

Common Goldring (Cordulegaster boltonii)

Butterflies on the Lady Windsor Spoil heap...

Small Heath (Coenonympha pamphilus)

I have been up to the old coal waste heaps again, and it is magic! Such a mosaic of habitats, and hot - like an oven. Standing on the very top a rich grassland shot through with yellow of birdsfoot triefoil and hawkweed rolls away from you. The paths are black with coal waste and shimmer with heat haze, it smells sweet. The only sounds the skylarks and enough grasshoppers to form an orchestra every square meter. In amongst all this are our sun worshipping butterflies.

Our first character is the Small Heath, which is indeed small, it has a 4cm wingspan. It is an easy one to spot in flight. It looks like a little tan orange fleck throwing itself over the grass tussocks. It never seems to make a lot of height and lands every meter or so. On landing it lines itself up side on to the sun, it tilts its wings like a solar panel to get optimum heat gain, then it is off again tumbling over the meadow. The Small Heath is having mixed fortunes at the moment as it losing habitat due to "improvement" of old meadows. This particular South Wales colony is doing fine, several hundred I'd estimate.

Grayling (Hipparchia semele)

Next up is an interesting and much larger butterfly, the Grayling. Interesting because in the UK it has a coastal distribution, this colony is at least 30 miles inland. The colony is not large and seems to be collected around a small patch at one end of the site. Plenty of suitable habitat around suggesting it is a fairly new colony. This butterfly is a strong flyer and another ground rester. When it lands, like the Small Heath, it sits side on to the sun. Does not bother with the wing tilting however. On landing the tan eye spot on the bottom of the front wings is clearly visible, this is displayed for a second or two, and then folded behind the rear wings. At this point it vanishes, if you look away and then look back it can take several seconds to relocate it. The reason for this is the stunningly cryptic markings on the underside of the rear wings. I noticed that they also liked the fence posts so I staked one out and within short order had some photographs. They are easy to approach once landed as their camouflage will only work if they stay very still. If you do push your luck, you get a warning, the eye spot reappears. It may not be the most colourful of butterflies but it must have the best textured pattern.

Small Skipper (Thymelicus sylvestris)

Last but least only by size is the Small Skipper. This little character is always a delight. It flies with the most rapid wing beat of any British butterfly and is always busy - it loves Birdsfoot triefoil. When it does rest you can see its odd almost biplane approach to wings that gives it a distinctive look and unique flight. Large numbers of these were shooting around at high speed, nothing wrong with their numbers!

I also saw a lot of Meadow Browns but completely failed to get photographs. Meadow Browns can fly in much cooler conditions than most butterflies. They seemed to be using the heat as an excuse to never stop. A couple of Small Tortoiseshells were also seen, but have spoken about these in a previous entry. Next time we will look at dragonflies, yes I have ended my dragonfly drought!

Up on the Coal spoil heaps.

6 Spot Burnet Moth Caterpillar

Birdsfoot Trefoil, the food plant

Went out this morning to further explore the top of the coal spoil heaps from the Lady Windsor mine. The grassland on top is stunning, nutrient poor and full of flowers. It was the Burnet moth cocoons that were really noticeable (Zygaena filipendulae). I counted 40 in a single meter square! Also a lot of Burnet catapillars around but I only saw a single adult flying around. It is hardly surprising that this moth is doing so well up here as its food plant, Birdsfoot Trefoil, is everywhere. I even managed to get a picture of one of the caterpillars making a silken cocoon. They don't have it all their own way however as one of the caterpillars clearly had little red mites on it. I have seen these mites on adult common blue butterflies before, I'm not sure if they are the same species.

Burnet moth caterpillar making a cocoon

That was a bit hotter......

Green Shield Bug eggs

Summer seems to have arrived and like a mad dog I was out in the midday sun. Normally I'm wandering the hills in the morning but my youngest has chicken pox, not ill with it, but bossy! As usual I went out with a plan which came to nothing - I thought butterflies and dragonflies. Turned out a bit different. First up were some eggs in my garden. Twenty four little green barrel eggs with lids on, classic Green Shield Bug (Palomena prasina). Most years I get a lot of these little sap suckers in my garden, they love the thistles. The little bugs will hatch out looking a bit like the adult, they will go through five instars before becoming adults. All stages are really rather cute, well as much as any insect can be cute. 

Six Spot Burnet Moth

Feeding in the fields were a lot of 6 spot Burnett Moths. These fantastic little day flying moths are really common around here. Colourful and easily seen they are advertising their toxicity - both larvae and adult are loaded with cyanide. My kids were concerned about this, I told them not to eat them, they seemed to manage this. I suspect you would need a fair few in your diet before they became a problem. If you're a small bird it would be a different it could make very ill. The Burnett moths love knapweeds and we have plenty of these. Some of the grasses have cocoons attached to them and these are pupating caterpillars. So I suspect I will be seeing more of this moth.

Bee Orchid

My best find today though was a new colony of Bee Orchids. Only three plants but just 10 minutes from my front door! They are growing on the stupidly thin soil on top of the old Lady Windsor mine spoil heaps. This makes sense as the orchid struggles to complete with grass but takes up to six years before it flowers. Nothing grows fast on that little soil. The whole area is rather beautiful, it is a rough grassland rich in low growing wild flowers and teaming with grasshoppers and meadow brown butterflies. It was also like an oven today. I came home via the woods to get away from the sun and had my last treat of the day, raspberries growing in the brambles. I did not ask why, I just ate them, rather nice, might need to go back for a cutting.

Looking for Damselflies.....

I'll be straight with you - I didn't see any. It was however my intent as I set out for a local pond and boggy spot I know. I only had a couple of hours due to a busy weekend and I saw too many things to distract me on the way. I heard it said once that life is about the journey not the destination. Sound advice given the destination of life. All the photographs here were taken within a few yards alongside the path. One of the good things about macro photography is that a single footstep can take you pass many worlds.

Abstract Red Clover

My first photographic victim was a Red Clover. I love taking pictures of common plants - I think they are more of a challenge. Things you see everyday you tend not to appreciate. Part of photography is to record, a bigger part is to get people to see anew. As such I did not want a straight shot. I decided on impressionistic abstract sort of approach. My old art teacher was big on this; "an image should evoke, evoke my boy!". His artwork was so abstract it made you feel a little queasy, and he smoked a lot of weed. I treated this weed of mine to a stupidly shallow depth of field, focused on the ends of the flower and filled the frame. I like the effect but I do think it could be improved.

Second victim was the common nettle. I found three in flower all lined up and back lit to boot. All I had to do was line them up in the frame and press the button. This plant is a rather useful addition to any woodland edge or waste ground. It is a food plant for several species of butterfly and many other insects give a good chew on it as well. Even us humans have made use of it as a green vegetable, to make tea, twine and as a fabric dye. If you have some in your garden treasure it. If your worried about young kids remember that they tend to touch it just the once!

Stinging Triad

Common  vetch was up next, but not the flower. This particular plant was host to a small colony of aphids. Aphids, or greenfly, are best thought of as plant fleas. Like fleas they are true bugs and feed on fluids. In the case of aphids it is the sugary sap made by the plant in the leaves and transported down the stem. The colony was still small but growing, one was even giving birth as I photographed. All the little aphids here were produced parthogentically. This means they are clones of the mother, no sex involved. This allows numbers to build up very fast, as I am sure every gardener is aware. The baby being born might already be pregnant itself. The downside to this method of reproduction is a lack of variety, leaving them wide open to disease. Males are produced later in the season and sexual reproduction helps shuffle the genes around.

"It's yet another girl!"

This particular group was being "farmed" by ants. Ants will move aphids around from plant to plant, they do this for honeydew. Honeydew is the aphids waste product, and due to its diet, is mainly sugar. The aphid simply cannot absorb all the sugar it gets from the plant! The ants carry this stick sweet substance away as an excellent food source. By the look of it this colony was started by the two matriarchs at the bottom, which, more than likely, were transported here by ants. Looking at the sizes would also suggest they started further up and have moved down the stem throwing babies out the back.

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Tortoiseshell Butterfly (Aglais urticae)

Small Tortoiseshell scanning territory

Sunning in my garden

The small tortoiseshell butterfly is reasonably common on the hills around my house and in my garden. I managed to observe a matting flight in the meadow. A pair were tumbling through the air at speed, I had to jog to keep up. It looks a bit untidy as they cartwheel over the grass at head height. This ballet suddenly ended as the pair dropped into a tussock of grass. The chase continued through the grass, wings taking a bashing. After a couple of minutes they moved up the grass blades, wing vibrating. The next few minutes were spent in a clumsy attempts to get into position. Good to see that even insects have those less than elegant moments in the bedroom department. The male got his act together, his abdomen curved around and joined to the female. At this point wings closed and all became still. Now looking like a couple of dead leaves. I left them to it. They can stay together overnight, the female will eventually lay her fertilised eggs on nettle.

Numbers are falling, in part due to climate change, the warming has encouraged a tortoiseshell parasite in the form of a small fly. Tidier gardens are probably not helping much. Luckily my garden is not contributing to any decline. In fact I'm surprised I don't have more. I would enjoy them while they are still around, hope they adapt to their parasites, and get yourself some nettles.

Loads of Bee Orchids (Ophrys apifera)

M4 J32 A thing of beauty

This is not the usual sort of picture I would choose to start a post. However what you are looking at is Bee Orchid territory. It is also J32 on the M4. This might seem a little odd but the Bee Orchid likes a bit of action. Bee orchids cannot compete well with grass, as such it prefers recently disturbed poor ground to live on. The opposite of what grass likes. This coupled with the six years taken from seed to flower means finding and keeping conditions to thrive is tricky. Once it flowers it dies, though some plants do go on to flower again. As if this was not enough against it struggles to get pollinated by a

Two Bee Orchid Flowers

bee. The flower mimic a bee feeding on a pink flower. The idea goes that the male bee comes in to mate with the flower and as it does it picks up pollen, this then gets carried to another bee orchid by the frustrated bee. However, it seems a certain species of solitary bee is the preferred pollinator and it does not often do the job. Luckily Bee Orchids are self fertile. Then their is the nature of the soil - it should be slightly alkaline. Having said all that I counted six plants in a small area, all flowering well. Enough of my banter - lets look at the orchid:

Bee Orchid Flower detail

Woodpeckers again!

My mate Rob, who had tipped me off about the Woodpeckers, was down for the weekend. So off we went to share a visit. I took a different approach this time. I set the camera up closer than I would sit. Then I moved twenty feet away with a radio remote trigger. This seemed to work. It also allowed the gnats to feed on me. I think I have midge induced anemia!

Seems to be much less noise coming from the hole now, only one calling constantly, we thought we heard a second. This suggests that the others have fledged. Only the female was observed and she was busy calling to the young. A very relaxed mother and did not seem the list bit put off by two blokes in the bushes!

Elderflower Champagne

The Elderflower tree is in full bloom and it is time to make Elderflower Champagne. Despite the name this is a non-alcholic drink which is very refreshing and very fizzy. Lots of recipes for on the web here is the one I use:

Elderflower Champagne

5 Elderflower Blooms
4 liters (1 gallon) of water
600g (1 and quarter lb) of Sugar
2 Lemons
2 Tablespoons of White Wine Vinegar

1. Boil the water and dissolve the sugar. Allow to cool.
2. Once cooled add Elderflower blooms.
3. Then Juice of one lemon.
4. Slice other lemon and add.
5. Finally add White Wine Vinegar
6. Leave for 24 hours. A covered bucket will do.
7. Strain through muslin into screw top bottles.
8. Leave for 10 days to a fortnight.

The drink works by making use of the natural yeasts that live on the Elderflower blooms. They are really good at making carbon dioxide, hence the fizz. However can be a tad too good. It is best to use plastic bottles, glass ones can explode. I know it sounds odd, but plastic is stronger for this. Once made, drink, and use within a month, this will not be a problem. Recipie scales well.

Melincourt Waterfall and Woodpeckers

Greater Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopos major)

 It is amazing what can be done with a little bit of effort. A friend of mine phoned from Birmingham to tell me about a tree stump in South Wales. It may surprise you, but I was interested. This tree stump was hosting a Greater Spotted Woodpecker nest. Given that these birds are suffering from a lack of good nesting trees - less standing dead wood around. Such information can be good for years of woodpecker broods. He was also aware that I was really keen to get photographs of this species, so he rubbed it in for a bit before giving me directions. After giving me the directions I did reflect that he might still not want me to find the nest; "..over the top of the water fall", "...ignore the broken bridge..", "..double back on yourself.." and "over the wonky bridge..". Once my son and myself had followed these directions we found the nest. This did come as bit of a surprise to me.

All birds try and make sure that their nests are well hidden and that while feeding they do not give undue attention to the nest location. This message does not seem to have rubbed off on the chicks as they could be heard cheeping from about ten meters away. The nest hole itself is in a dead oak stump at a height of only six feet, though, to be fair the stump is not that high. It is close to a public footpath that has a fair amount of traffic. It would not seem an ideal location, but needs must. It did mean that are reasonably easy to view and did not seem put off by our presence. I only got a few shots, missed a fantastic shot by a fraction of a second, but did get a chick photo. It looked almost ready to fledge, adult plumage clearly visible. The adults spent sometime calling before feeding, I assume to tempt them out. You would think they would be keen to get out as unlike many birds fecal matter is not removed from the nest........

Greater Spotted Woodpecker Chick

The Greater Spotted Woodpecker lays five to seven eggs usually in mid May. The fact that these woodpeckers are almost ready to fledge suggests an early start. Perhaps this was brought about by our warmest May on recold here in South Wales. While we were watching the parents brought back grubs and insects, this is usual spring woodpecker fare. In the late summer and autumn they tend to switch to berries, cones and nuts. We watched for about half an hour before heading off, I did not want to spook the birds. It all made me think - why can I not find where the Woodpeckers just up my lane are nesting?

On the way back we took in the rather beautiful Melincourt waterfall. This was worth the trip on its own. All in all a good afternoon out in the wilds.

Melincourt Waterfall

Wind and Rain and Brimstone

Went out without a lot of hope. Sharp heavy showers competed with even shorter periods of sun to make life as tricky as possible. The wind made things a little difficult as well. I thought that at least I'd get a good walk. I had given up, even with this simple aim, and was returning home when I discovered this beautiful fungus. I climbed over the obligatory barbed wire fence, picked up the obligatory cut and set up my tripod in the obligatory holly bush, in the rain. Despite this, it was worth the effort. I knew this tree harboured this fungus as I had seen it growing here before, but I had always arrived a bit late. This time it was in its prime. Which was more than could be said for the Oak tree. Despite being much the same age as those either side it was swaying alarmingly in the wind. The fungus is known as Sulphur Bracket (Laetiporus sulphureus) and is a brown rot fungus working on the heartwood of the tree. Though this sound serious you have to remember that this part of the tree is dead. Only a thin layer just beneath the bark is alive - this years ring forming. In a large, old oak, heart rot can be an advantage. A hollow trunk reduces weight and allows greater flexibility in high wind. In a small Oak like this one it could lead to failure of the trunk and the tree going over. Coming back to the present we have a still have a reasonably healthy Oak and a spectacular fungus. Could be all change with a bit more wind.

Dog Rose (Rosa cannina) is also in flower another great flower. Might try making rose hip syrup from this later in the year......

18th of May: Slime Mold

I came across this splendid little specimen while walking the dog. It is a member of an odd zoological group called the slime molds. These are a bit odd. They spend part of their lives as mobile cells, with little tails for swimming. This stage is haploid meaning it contains half the normal genetic material, it is the slime molds sex cell. With luck it will meet another such haploid swimmer and they will fuse. It will now grow more like a fungi, forming a network of strands and feeding. Often these threads are so thin they are not visible to the naked eye. The slime molds tend to come to our attention when they fruit. These pictures show the fruiting body of a slime mold called Wolfs Milk (Lycogala epidendrum). This is the immature phase, it is still soft and a rather beautiful coral pink colour. As the fruit body matures it will darken and become a mass of spores. These then disperse - if they survive then complete the cycle becoming little motile cells again.

The slime molds are worth looking for, they can be tricky to find as they are so small. Many however are common and it should not be long before you find a few.

15 of May 2011: Flowers and Spiders

One of the Hawkweeds

Nature is really starting to wake up now. A lot more flowers out and a lot more insects. The familiar buzz of tiny wings at high speed, a constant reminder of just how much life is crammed into the Welsh hills. 

The Bluebells in the wood are going over now, greater stitchwort and Pignut are taking over, we have moved from blue to white. Even the insects are colour coordinated - a couple of Large White butterflies were fluttering around under the trees.

Out in the fields the flowers are really going for it. A lot of yellow around. Dandelions have dispersed to the winds and now it's the turn of its cousin the Hawkweed. The photograph shows the family resemblance, but it has a much flatter flower. A real stunner.

A few sheltered spots have some tired Bluebells left and these are being pollinated but large numbers of Bumble Bees. Good to see given the problems our bees have been having. Most were the Red Tailed Bumble Bee.

Hunting Spider (Pisaura mirabillis)

I also came across a leggy blond. In this case eight legs and carrying an egg sac. This splendid specimen was a Hunting Spider, Pisaura mirabillis, a real killer in damp, rank vegetation. This area certainly fitted that description and smelt strongly of horse manure - I found out why when I stood up. Such are the perils of photography. I had to stalk this girl for a while before she broke cover enough for a photograph, very fast. Even more impressive when you consider the load she is carrying in her fangs.

Also seen, but not photographed; a very pale common blue and a high speed small copper. Great to see, would have been nice if they hung around for a bit. Saw my first Garden Chafer, these guys are real characters, managed to get a snap just as he decided it was time to leave. In past years we have had huge numbers of these beetles.

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Garden Chafer Phyllopertha horticola

08 of May 2011: Leaf Beetles

The sun following some pretty serious rain has brought out the insects in numbers. Notably the Dock Leaf Beetle (Gastrophysa viridula). This beetle is small, about 4mm long, but comes in a stunning metallic green. Being spring, a beetles thoughts turn to breeding, plenty of that was going on. Despite their diminutive size they are easy to spot. Little flashes of iridescence in the longer patches of grass and hedgerow plants. As with a lot of British wildlife the colours rival anything the tropics can throw at you, just a bit smaller.

In the picture the female is at the top, already heavily swollen with eggs. This has not stopped another male chancing his luck with a mating. In fact, a bit of a queue has formed with two other males in waiting. They were not successful as the female took her male off to a more private location under a leaf.

The female will lay eggs on a dock leaf, hence the beetles common name, and the grubs that hatch will feast. After pupating another cycle of breeding starts again. 

At Right is a picture of a solitary male. In this shot you can really enjoy those colours. The colour is not due to pigments, no chemical is involved. The colour arises from the close spacing of fibres (chitin) on the beetles body. These are so close they interfere with the light shining on them and only reflect certain wavelengths of light. In this case mainly green, but also some red. The beetles are in fact black. It is hard to see the advantage to this colouring. It makes them standout, they are slow movers, don't really fly and are not toxic. Can't be much of a problem however as they are everywhere!

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