Some family pics
Before heading North for the Autumn season, the Exmouth clan popped round for some lunch. Here are some pictures, mostly for you Mum…
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- So we’re off to see the Red Arrows fly-over
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- And so, Exmouth watches while they fly over, and don’t come back…
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- The Flynnster with Zachary Quack and Bobo
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- Here’s one for you Mother.
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- Lolo
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- The more eccentric side of the family.
Creatures of the allotment
Before leaving for Scotland I spent some time up the allotment, with Mum. I hoped to get some shots of insects in action. These are some of the (mixed) results…
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- Harlequins (invasive non-natives) are now a common site in Exmouth
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- This hoverfly is cleaning it’s back with it’s back legs
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- A garden spider. I love spiders.
Dartmoor, day 2
My first night in the van for some time (early June?), was accompanied by the heaviest downpour Devon has experienced this summer. However, it felt like home, and apart from waking at one point due to dreaming that the rain was inside the van with me, I slept pretty well. Myself and Dave waited for the weather to subside a little before walking around Venford reservoir, and then on to the very attractive woods alongside the river Dart.
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- A couple of cormorants waiting for the sun to come out
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- Hmm…
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- Then, suddenly…
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- A Speckled Wood (Pararga aegeria), possibly a first for me
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- The Dart. Wow.
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- I think this is Panaeolus semiovatus, Dung Roundhead
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- A Small Heath
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- A Yellow Russula, Russula claroflava. Not 100% sure of its English name
Wistman’s Wood
As I’m off to Scotland soon, and Dave had some free time, we decided to get together to explore some of nearby Dartmoor. First we walked to Wistman’s wood, then, before the rain became too heavy, we camped up in a car park near Venford reservoir.
Wistman’s wood is a beautiful piece of Oak wood not far from Two Bridges. It’s dominated by gnarly, character rich oak trees, with the occasional Rowan and Birch. I’m afraid I have no idea of deer numbers in the area, or of what grazing pressures the wood may be under, but I was surprised to find that only a very small section of the wood is fenced off. The area within the fence appears to display considerably more regeneration than that outside.
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- The woods are a short, well trodden walk from the road
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- Amethyst deceiver (Laccaria amethystina) it seems. I never knew mushrooms could be so purple
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- The appearance of the wood inside the fenced area is markedly different to that outside
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- Still trying to work out what this is…
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- A seemingly juvenile Redstart
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- After our walk we settled down for some refreshments
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- and Dave cooked up some food. Nice apron Dave.
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- Antler moth (Cerapteryx graminis), in the van
Lancaster bomber?
There was a plane approaching that sounded different to anything I could remember hearing before. A louder, more clapping sound than the normal single propeller planes that fly over. So, I thought I’d go out and check it out. Just as I did a plane with four props banked around over head and over the houses into the distance. By the time I’d run inside to grab my camera it had finished another curving, banking flight over Exmouth, and I finally caught a brief glimpse of it being accompanied by a much smaller single prop fighter, as it flew back in the direction it had come from.
I’m guessing it was a Lancaster bomber, accompanied by a Spitfire. I just can’t imagine what kind of a noise tens, or maybe hundreds of these planes would have made when taking off. Or how hearing the sound of their engines, in the distance, after they’d been away for hours must have been so emotive. Just hearing one flying overhead somehow left me feeling melancholy.
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- After grabbing my camera I was just in time to see the bomber disappear over the nearby roofs
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- On its way back the autofocus let me down
Arne – week two
Week two included a fire, survey work, an amazingly successful heathland amble and plenty of general maintenance, mostly with Trevor one of the estate workers. The good people at Arne also keep a blog (some great pics get posted there and it’s a useful tool to keep track of migrant birds), which can be found here:
http://www.rspb.org.uk/community/groups/arne/blog/default.aspx
Whilst at Arne I’ve also been running in an attempt to see whether I’m going to be capable of competing in the Baxters Loch Ness corporate 10k, while I’m in Scotland. Every three or four nights I ran to Ridge and back, about 8k, and on my third and final attempt I managed it in under 45 minutes, which I was pretty chuffed with given that I’d had ‘Trev’s gut’ for most of the time I’d been there.
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- Whilst wandering (slightly off) the reserve, I stumble across this gathering of Little Egret
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- A Dartford Warbler. C’mon!
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- I’m reasonably confident that this is a Spotted Flycatcher, especially as it was repeatedly flying out from the tree and back, as if to catch flies
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- A lone seal in front of Long Island
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- Stoborough Heath, also RSPB
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- Laura (a co-volunteer) says look it’s a lizard, and it’s a female Sand Lizard! Get in!
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- These are just two of the thousands (seemingly) of fire vehicles that came to put out our heath fire
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- This photo doesn’t do Nightjars, or the excitement I felt at seeing them, justice. After 4 days of stalking them, to see them hovering in front of me was breathtaking
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- Craig with local vols John, Harry and Jenny near Gold Point
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- Wareham Channel
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- Week two’s amble produced another Smooth snake, and a Grass snake, Slow worm, newts eating dragonflies, etc …fantastic stuff.
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- A female Wheatear
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- The beautiful Oak woods behind the clay pit
Arne – other invertebrates
Here are some pictures of invertibrates that don’t fit into the previous two posts. Most notable, I suppose, were the majestic looking dragonflies. In case you’re wondering where the birds on this RSPB reserve are, well the RSPB is not all about protecting birds. In fact it concentrates more on protecting habitats, and improving biodiversity, which in turn should help bird species. And from my point of view, although I saw 67 different species of bird while staying at the reserve, they were a lot more difficult to get good photos of than these invertebrates…
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- This is a Harlequin Ladybird. It’s not good news I’m afraid, as it’s been introduced from Asia, without much thought, in an attempt to control so called pests. In the US it’s been associated with severe declines in native species.
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- A raft spider. Something I was very chuffed to see.
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- Probably a fairly common type of hoverfly. Apparently most id is done by comparing their genitalia
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- I think this is Bombylius Major.
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- A Southern Hawker (Aeshna cyanea)
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- A Gold Ringed (Cordulegaster boltonii)
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- I’ve no idea what this tiny wee fella is
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- This was hanging about in the gents
Arne – moths and butterflies
I also saw some butterflies that I can’t ever remember having seen before (the comma and common blue), and some quality caterpillars…
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- An adolescent Cinnabar Moth
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- There were so many Gatekeepers that I’ve posted this pic twice
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- Small Tortoiseshell
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- My first (I think) Comma (Polygonia c-album)
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- This was hanging around in my bedroom in the chalet. I must admit I don’t know what it is.
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- A Fox Moth caterpillar.
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- The stunning Silver Y (Autographa gamma)
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- This common blue (Polyommatus icarus) did not make it easy for me to get this shot
Arne – grasshoppers (or are they crickets?)
Whilst at Arne I discovered that there were many more varieties of cricket/grasshopper in this country than I’d imagined. These creatures are spectacularly cool, not only are they blessed with the most amazing propulsion system, but they also have wings. If you were playing invertebrate trumps then surely these would be a great card to have in your hand.
Apparently there are three main types of Grasshopper, Common Field Grasshoppers, Meadow Grasshoppers and Lesser Marsh Grasshoppers. I’m afraid, from the id notes I’ve found on the subject, I only seem to have decent pictures of the first two types…
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- Chorthippus brunneus – Common Field Grasshopper?
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- Chorthippus parallelus – Meadow grasshopper?
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- I think this is another Chorthippus brunneus – Common Field Grasshopper?
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- And probably another Field Grasshopper
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- Unfortunately a shot in poor light of what is probably a meadow grasshopper.
Arne – First week highlights
Here are some pictures from my first week at Arne. Thanks to Craig (Daters – the volunteer co-ordinator) I’ve been able to enjoy a wide variety tasks, including moving cattle, making up signs (with power tools, yeh!), fixing the electrics on a trailer board and cleaning hides and toilets. Nice.
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- First job of the week – myself, Craig and the two other vols, Dianne and Rhiannon, move some cows
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- Rhiannon leads me through the reeds as we search for gauge boards
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- Swallow cam
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- The air ambulance looking for a place to pick up an ailing visitor
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- A great spotted woodpecker
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- Two adults (grandparents?) look after all the local baby Shelducks
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- I can’t be sure, but I don’t think this Sika stag had noticed me creeping through the undergrowth
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- Paul Morten leads the Wednesday heathland amble…
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- …and finds a Smooth Snake
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- Two Green Woodpeckers, the second is a bit difficult to spot…
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- ..and their old nest?
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- This is one of the coolest places on the reserve. The edges of this field are planted with Sunflower, Quinoa, and other seed baring flowers. As a result large numbers of small birds hang around in the field
RSPB Arne
Today marks the first day of my two weeks at the Arne RSPB reserve. The reserve is situated just across Poole harbour from Poole, and it seems a bit odd to be standing in an area where all around me I can see heather or trees, and yet I can still hear the rumble of traffic far in the distance. Anyway, here are some shots from my first day…
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- One of the first things I notice is that there are lots of wood ants on the reserve, which is fantastic
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- Arne is a heathland habitat on a sandy bed
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- These spiders are awesome, uk funnel webs, Agelena labyrinthica, I think
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- There are plenty of Gatekeepers about
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- and some Godwits (I think most of these are black tailed)
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- And here is one of the places that the springwatch team looked for raft spiders. I can’t see any today.
Life since the office 
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