Bees In The Chimney, Nightjars & Glow Worms On The Heath, Great Tits In The House, And (after a request from Amanda), A List Of Flutter Food Plants

A swarm of Bees has taken up residence in the chimney pot. Apparently, this isn't good news so unless they decide to vacate their new home we'll have to get them moved on. My neighbour is keeping her aga on in an attempt to gently dissuade them from staying and the garden smells of aga fumes as a result :o( 

Meanwhile, in what is quite possibly the hottest week of the year so far, it looks like we'll be having fires every night this week in the hope of smoking them out (humanely, of course), otherwise it'll be a cherry pickers or scaffolding and heaven knows what that's going to cost. If only they'd chosen the oak tree instead...

I'm going to have a word with them later (when no-one's listening) to see whether I can persuade them to move on :o)

While putting clothes away I discovered a Great Tit sitting on the maps in F's room. This is a Perfectly Normal Occurrence in this house. Most weeks something small and wild can be found wandering around or flying about in one room or another. Last year we were woken by a wren buzzing about our heads early one morning, last month one of the Robins came in, left a calling card on my jewellery box and took himself out again, of course there are often stray moths left in the house who need escorting back outside and today a Rose Chafer Beetle decided to investigate the breakfast room and was avidly watched by a fascinated Poppy. Less welcome was the Queen Hornet who found her way into our bedroom last week and required Considerable Bravery and Daring Do on my part to get her back outdoors without stinging occurring.

Anyway, the GT flew out the window once I'd opened it and showed him the way.

I have Mystery Flowers growing in the Wild Flower Patch. Can anyone enlighten me?

 This next one is Poor Man's Orchid, one of my faves..

 And here's the Wild Flower Patch, coming along nicely (t'other side of the fence)...

Brian (Orange Tip pillar- remember?) grew considerably last week, and then unaccountably shrunk. I was measuring him every day with religious commitment and could not work it out. I'm fairly sure that caterpillars don't shrink. But then I realised that there are two Brians- one, much smaller pillar, came in on the Jack In The Hedge we 'borrowed' (ahem) from the bank on the lane and planted in the pot with the Ladies Smock. Brian 1 is not far off pupating now, having reached close to 30mm, whereas Brian 2 has some way still to go. Once they've pupated I will put them in the butterfly cage and see who comes out.

M tells me I should re-name Brian 2 because it isn't fair on him! So if you have any suggestions....

The Dress is finished! Can't quite believe it, but it is wearable and it fits and my husband likes it. I have some hemming still to do but that won't take long. What do you think? Not bad for a first attempt?

I also whipped up a pair of running shorts over the weekend. I couldn't face going into town and resent spending money on running kit (apart from a decent pair of trainers), and it's too hot for tight lycra, so I had a dig about in the fabric box and made these. I've got to shorten them a wee bit (hence the safety pins), but I ran in them last night and they work just fine. 

I've now made up a list of things I want to make (a decent knitting bag, linen trousers, pillow cases and some other bits and bobs) which I will do in Sewing Club this summer. It's great fun, I'm really enjoying it and I'm learning a lot. I've also just bought some new feet for the sewing machine, which will mean I can put in invisible zips and hems :o)

It has been crazy busy here of late (even more than usual), and apart from last night I can't remember the last time we had a night in. Part of this has been due to Nightars and Glow Worms who are out at this time of year after dark.

Here's a short video of the NIghtjars on the Forest calling. If you've not heard them before they make a whirring noise before displaying to the females. They're ground nesting birds who fly in for the summer from Africa to heaths and woodland and they are in decline. They have cryptic camouflage and are very difficult to find by day so your best chance is to go out at dusk or later and listen for them. We did see them displaying but didn't get it on the vid.

We've also been out surveying glow worms and have found them at both the sites we checked (one Heath, one Chalk), which is really pleasing, They are little-studied so there is no consensus on their numbers, although they are believed to be in decline due to loss of habitat and light pollution, which makes it hard for the boys to see the girls. 

So few of us are out after dark without lights of some form on these days that my own personal feeling is that there may well be loads of them about, we just don't see them. It makes me smile that many of the reports of GWs come from people walking home from the pub at night too sozzled to remember to carry a torch and then doubting the evidence of their eyes when little green lights pop up from the ground before them. Fairies, anyone?

Glow worms are actually a type of beetle and it's the females who glow, to attract a mate. Once she's laid eggs she switches off her light and dies. You can see in the pic below that the glow comes from two bars of light which are produced by a biochemical reaction.

Venus and Jupiter are bright in the skies here in the Southern UK at the moment. The night's we've been out surveying have been clear and we've had a good view of both..

I love being out in the countryside after dark, but getting to bed after midnight too many times catches me quicker than it once did and I need a few day's recovery before I can go out again! Back to surveying butterflies tomorrow after teaching a group of year five's this morning.

Amanda of Quiet Walker fame, asked me whether I could put together a list of flutter and moth food plants. I'll do some moth ones in a separate post so these below are for the more common butterflies. The more specialist species tend to be defined by geology. So, for example, many of the Blue Butterflies are Chalk Specialists and feed off Chalk Plants such as rock rose and some of the vetches as a result.

Generally, when a book refers to a 'food plant' it means the plant eaten by the larvae (caterpillar), not the adult. Many adult flutters will feed from a wide variety of plants or nectar sources, any restrictions are usually due to the time of year (eg if they're an early or late species and not much is available). I noted this Spring that the early butterflies almost all feed from Willow Catkins, because it's one of the earliest nectar sources available, and the same is true of moths. In the Autumn its Ivy, because it flowers late and is one of the few plants to produce nectar from Sept/ October onwards when everything else is closing down for the winter.

Plants in itallics in the list below indicate a plant that the adult insect feeds from, those in bold are the food plants for the larvae. Obviously, you need a mix of both if you want to attract lepidoptera (moths and flutters) into your garden and have them breeding there.

The list is not exhaustive, but hopefully gives you an idea of what to plant/ encourage. Thanks, Amanda for asking :o)

Butterflies

Peacock: willow, teasel, buddleia, bramble, lilac, scabious, common nettle.

Red Admiral: buddleia, bramble, fruit trees, common nettle

Comma: willow catkins, buddleia, fallen fruit, common nettle, hop, currants, willows, elms

Small Tortoiseshell: willow catkins, buddleia and other flowering plants, common nettle, small nettle, hop

Large Skipper: scabious, ox eye daisies and other flowering plants, wild grasses, usually Cock's Foot (must be left tall)

Small Skipper: as per Large Skip but prefers Yorkshire Fog grass for egg laying

Brimstone: A number of flowering plants including everlasting sweet peas, scabious, ox eye daisies, Buckthorn & Alder Buckthorn 

Orange Tip: variety of flowering plants, Cuckoo Flower, Jack In The Hedge, Charlock, Hairy Rock Cress, Turnip, Winter-Cress

Green Hairstreak: scabious, ox eye daisy, birdsfoot trefoil, rock rose, kidney vetch, birdsfoot trefoil, rockrose, gorse, broom, bilberry

Purple Emperor: aphid honeydew, tree sap, muddy puddle salts, shrimp paste, dog poo, carrion, goat willow (sallow).  Requires mature oaks beside Sallow as habitat.

White Admiral: brambles and other woodland flower plants, honeysuckle

Painted Lady: wide variety of flowering plants, thistles 

Gate Keeper & Meadow Brown: wide variety of flowering plants, grasses especially: bents, fescues and meadow grasses


Hope that's useful and that all are well?

CT :o) 

Elephant Hawks Arrive AND I Get Two Rare Moths Visiting AND The Marbled Whites Are Out On The Chalk :o)

As you know, I have been Very Concerned about the lack of Ellie Hawks here in recent weeks. This large pink and green moth is usually with us by mid May, but until this morning I'd hadn't seen a single one. Phew.

As luck would have it, TWO arrived (along with a Poplar Hawk friend) last night. They were Very Aggrieved at being put in a pooter, so when we got back (see next para) I let them out and they all took up sleepy roost on the camera case. Which is where they still are, snoring gently beside me as I type...

 


It rained last night and all morning. I was supposed to be taking a group of five year olds up to Magdalen to look at the butterflies. I went to their school instead and took some moths with me. The Ellie Hawks were Stars Of The Show, along with the Buff Tip (below), whose silver birch twig-like appearance is always a guaranteed winner with any audience, young or old.

Teaching very young children is such a joy. Their enthusiasm, wonder, amazement and engagement with their world coupled with their humour and sheer energy make spending time with them showing them things like moths and butterflies, empty birds' eggs, dragonfly exuvia and moth pupae a very rewarding thing. These are the next generation of naturalists waiting in the wings after all, and it was lovely to see one or two in particular who knew their stuff and were really interested in the wild things I had taken with me.

As well as the Ellies, there were some other New For The Year species in the box...

Riband Waves come in two colour varieties and we get lots of them. This is the first of many id previous years are anything to go by...

I've only ever had one Bird's Wing in the garden before, so it was lovely to see this one...

Buff Arches are a regular feature with hundreds arriving here once summer cranks up a gear or two. They are extraordinary looking moths, and I am ashamed to say I get a wee bit bored of them after I've chased the two hundredth round the kitchen trying to put him outside :o)

Purple Clays have also just started to appear (unless this is a Double Square Spot)

 
And there's been a Run of Scorched Wings here this year which is unusual...

Grass Veneers are showing up in Good Numbers (love the expression)...

This lovely Pale Oak Beauty is I think a first for us...

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The Grey Arches we've had before, but not yet this year until today...

These next two are definite contenders for Exotic Moth Of The Year.

The Brussels Lace (below) is considered Locally Common in the UK (meaning it's rare but can be found in reasonable numbers where it exists, if that makes sense?). It was in Kent, Surrey and Sussex until the 1950s when it declined to near extinction.  It can be an immigrant and although it is found throughout the New Forest (a few miles down the road from here) and there are scattered populations on the other side of Stockbridge (again, a few miles from here) there are no records of it in my neck of the woods, so I'm pretty chuffed to see it. I've never recorded one here before. The larvae feed on lichen... 
Our County Moth Recorder will be pleased when I tell him :o)

The other Contender is this rather beautiful Bordered Straw (below), which is also an immigrant. They sometime arrive in Saharan dust storms and that, coupled with their pale coloration, suggests a desert origin, which feels Marvellously Exotic considering he's turned up in my Hampshire garden! They feed on marigolds and can sometimes appear in good numbers all along the south coast if conditions are right. I'm double chuffed to see him as a mothy friend who's been trapping locally for forty years has only ever had two in his garden in all that time. Happy Moth Days Indeed :o)

 
I've also got some Flutter Photos for you as it's been a while.

The Marbled Whites are out...

Marbled White

Knapweed Broomrape

Large Skipper

Meadow Brown (note the single white dot in the centre of the black spot- see para below for explanation)

Pyramidal Orchid

Path through the wildflower meadow

Small Blue

Teasel

Tufted Vetch

Common Blue

The Broomrape is an interesting plant- it's a parasite that feeds off the root system of its host plant, in this instance Knapweed. And the Meadow Brown can be told apart from the almost-identical-when-wings-closed Gatekeeper by the single white dot in the centre of the black spot on the underside of its wings (Gatekeepers have two white dots in the black spot). They'll be out soon so you'll know now how to tell them apart (if you didn't before).

Next time I have a piccie of a Glow Worm and a recording of Nightjars for you...

Hope all are well,

CT :o)

Muscardinus avellanarius

Better known to you and me as the Hazel Dormouse, or, simply, the Dormouse.

One of Britain's most seldom seen creatures, dormice are present only in central and southern England and in Wales (populations existing elsewhere have been introduced). Their numbers have plummeted due to habitat loss, the removal of hedgerows and copses which once acted as corridors connecting larger areas of woodland, and the cessation of traditional coppice management in woodlands. As a result they are protected under the 1981 Wildlife Act and are a priority species for the UK Biodiversity Action Plan, as well as having protection under the EU Habitats Directive and the Bern Convention. You need a licence to even breathe near a Hazel Dormouse and it is illegal to handle them or indeed to look for them without one.

Dormice like hazel coppice where there is plenty of honeysuckle and bramble. They feed off the flowers and fruits and nuts and make their nests from stripped honeysuckle bark woven into a smooth ball which is then covered in hazel leaves. 
Nests are made in tree holes, hazel woodlands, hedgerows, scrub and at the base of coppiced trees. Finding a nest of hazel leaves, some brown, some green which has honeysuckle bark in it is indicative of a hazel dormouse. The females weave the young into the woven edges of the central round chamber section of the nest to keep them safe and protected while they are tiny wee. Bachelor nests are notably less neat and tidy than female ones (I kid you not).

Dormice are mainly nocturnal and sleep during the day. They also hibernate longer than any other British mammal, tucking up sometime in October and not waking fully till the following May. They will enter a torpid state if the weather is poor or their foodstuff not readily available, this gives them a better chance of survival. They are largely arboreal, meaning they live their lives in trees, and rarely touch the ground (an adaptation that keeps them safe from predators).

All of this makes them very hard to survey accurately and indeed to find.

As you know, I went out on a Dormouse Survey at a local site earlier this week and despite checking 50 nest boxes over a two hour period, we found not a single Dormouse, or in fact any evidence of one. I am very lucky that I have a friend who now has her Dormouse licence from Natural England, so I am able to join her on these surveys and, because I'm under her tuition and expertise, I'm not breaking any laws by doing so. What I can't do yet is check the boxes on my own.

The terms of the licence are rigorous, with many training sessions and lots of experience of surveying, handling and knowledge of every aspect of Dormouse ecology being required before the licence is issued. This week I have ticked off two or three of the many boxes needed and got them signed, so I am on my way towards getting my licence but I still expect it to be next year at the very earliest before I've done everything I need to in order to be given a licence of my own.

This morning, we all met up again at a different site in the North East of the county bright and breezy (in the drizzle) ready to check another fifty or so boxes. This is a site that has Dormice on it so we were all Quietly Hopeful. Three were found there last month and as I've never seen a Hazel Dormouse in real life before I was very excited that I might finally manage to see one. So excited in fact that I'm not sure I was convincing in keeping it under wraps!

We'd checked most of the boxes with no luck (lots of old bird nests with some dead fledglings in sadly) and seen carpets of beautiful Orchids, grasses and wild flowers on the way when we came to a fenced off area in which four boxes were located. Four of us climbed over the barbed wire to check the boxes while the other two (me included) waited to see whether anything would appear. I think we'd all got used to the boxes being empty by then, so it came as quite a surprise when the plastic bag that's used to put the entire next box in if there's even a hint of a Dormouse present (so you don't lose it) was brought out and one of the boxes was gently removed from the tree. Guess what was inside?

These pictures carry a Cuteness Factor Warning of about a Zillion Trillion, so you have been warned!

 

This is MY HAND! With a sleepy dormouse asleep on it! Me! My very own hand!

He was VERY sleepy and didn't really wake up the whole time we were weighing him and checking him over. If you have very warm hands when handling a torpid dormouse it does bring them out of their sleep quicker, but this little fellow was so reluctant to wake up that when we moved him he just curled tighter round the leaves he was holding and tucked his tail between his paws for extra comfort.

To weigh a dormouse you pop him in a bag and hold him up on the special scales like so.... 

This little chap weighed 13 grams, so we think he was one of last year's babies. Adults usually weigh between 17-20 grams, depending on how close they are to hibernation. The also get more gingery as they get older- the babies can have quite a lot of grey hair on them.

Once we'd weighed him we returned him to his nest and replaced the box securely in the tree. He barely blinked :o)

Here's a picture of a second (empty) nest that we also found, complete with the woven honeysuckle ball in the middle so you can see what they look like...

Aren't they amazingly clever at making these wonderful beautiful homes?

I'll leave you with a beautiful beech tree deep in the woods who blessed our endeavours. A King Tree if ever I saw one....

 
And a final piccy of the Dormouse, because I can't get enough of him to be honest...

They really are the MOST ADORABLE little things and I am just so pleased not only to have seen one at long last, but to actually have been able to hold one as well. It made my entire week :o)

Hope you're all well and having a lovely weekend,

CT :o)