Wildlife Blog by Ron Allen 31 May 2024
The month of May in 10 photographs.
After my marathon posting last month, I am attempting the difficult task of restricting this post to just 10 local photographs taken during May.
Now well into spring and it has been a mixed bag of weather, but some days of fine weather have helped our wildflowers produce nectar synchronised with sun-warming of insect bodies and allowing their search for nectar along with their predator birds catching them to feed themselves and their nestlings.
Of the mammals, our wildlife camera has picked up a fine Roe Buck in full reddish summer coat (image 1), also a Badger we have not seen before (image 2. We distinguish different badgers by their size, shape and damage from fighting. At the other end of the scale has been the tiny Common Shrew under one of our wildlife tins along with Slow-worm and a very young Grass Snake (suggesting grass snakes have bred in our garden).
1 The fine roebuck in its rich summer coat at the end of our garden.
2 A new badger passing along the end of our garden.
3 Our first sighting this year of a spotted flycatcher perched on the cover of our garden swing seat.
A thrill was a Spotted Flycatcher in the garden which Mary and I were able to watch on 8 May (image 3). A bird in decline with the national reduction in flying insects and so good to see this bird darting from its perch catching flies. We have seen it several times since and hope that it may nest in our garden (as a pair did several years ago). Robins have nested in the garden; strangely at the base of large hazel bush where nestlings would be vulnerable to stoats, weasels or rats, and we hope they survived. Blue tits have nested in one of our nest boxes and it was fascinating to watch as one bird tried to squeeze through the entrance while disposing of a dead chick.
Butterflies have been few in the garden so far this year with only occasional Holly Blue, Speckled Wood and Orange-tip. An Orange-tip has been feeding on red Herb Robert flowers (image 4) and we had a surprise visit from a Small Copper butterfly on our No-Mow-May lawn daisies (image 5). Small Copper butterflies occur on the village green with relatively small territories and where they will be feeding on the abundant Common Sorrel (image 9). The sorrel occurs mainly on the western side of the village green and explains why these butterflies mainly occur on this side.
Many of the late spring and early summer moths have been appearing. The day-flying Silver-Y moth, an immigrant from southern Europe and northern Africa, has been abundant. The silver-Y travels several thousand miles north carried partly on high altitude air currents and then must find its way back after having bred here (as they do not generally survive our winters). The black-speckled form of Peppered Moth appeared in our light trap; this is the moth where the black variety was selectively found on the soot-covered trees during the Industrial Revolution. A pretty moth that appeared in the moth trap was the Maiden’s Blush (image 6) and which lays its eggs on oak leaves.
4 Orange-tip butterfly feeding on herb-Robert by our kitchen window.
5 Small copper butterfly feeding on a No-Mow-May daisy flower.
6 The pinkish maiden’s blush moth from our moth trap.
There have been a variety of bumble bees, with the colourful Tree and Early Bumblebees. The commoner Buff-tailed Bumblebee has been nesting in a gap under our balcony and it has been fascinating seeing them arriving with their back leg pollen baskets bulging with pollen.
Looking closely though at bumble bees, some have been the bumblebee mimic Bumblebee Hoverfly which occurs in two forms, one form mimicking the white-tailed bumble bees (image 7) and the other form mimicking the red-tailed bumblebee. These bumblebee hoverflies, which lay their eggs in bee nests, almost look more like a bee than the real thing. Both colour forms occur on the village green and the white-tailed form was also in our garden this spring. Regarding mimicry, there was a striking black and yellow striped Wasp Beetle on the village green brambles, clearly resembling a large wasp and totally harmless being a pollen feeder.
The village green has been ablaze with flowers. Over in the east there has been a fine show of the tall Meadow Buttercup (image 8), while over in the west the lower growing Creeping Buttercup has lined the dog walking paths. The red seed heads of the Common Sorrel have been rising above the village green grasses creating a red haze seen from a distance (image 9), and the white flowers of Cow Parsley form a large clump just inside the stile by the bus stop. Also, on the village green, the Blackthorns in the hedges have been affected by fungal Bladder Plum Gall that converts the slow berries to stoneless plum shaped structures meaning that there will be very few sloes this year.
7 Bumblebee hoverfly on the village green.
8 Meadow buttercups on the eastern side of the village green.
What do I choose for my final tenth photograph? I cannot resist this photograph (image 10) of a Bee-Orchid. While not strictly in Stroud parish it was one of several plants just 30m from our parish boundary and hidden amongst the Oxeye Daisies on the roundabout at the junction of the Winchester Road and the Petersfield bypass. Bee orchid flowers are supposed to resemble a female bumblebee and so attract males to the flower which then then spread the pollen. There are a great many other wild plants here including the more frequent common spotted orchid, and a vast array of assorted butterflies, moths, beetles and other insects and spiders living off this wonderful wonderland that is the roundabout. But these are another story.
There has been so much more to photograph during May, but I will stop here with notes and my tenth picture.
9 The haze of common sorrel flower and seed heads on the west side of the village green, foodplant of the small copper butterfly.
