30 Days Wild – Day 23 – Skippers

Plans to go out came to nothing and various small tasks took over, still these were interspersed with looks around the garden, so all of today’s wildlife is back garden based.

The night was actually quiet cool and the moth catch was correspondingly modest but included one species new for the year, a burnished brass. There has been much discussion recently as to the possible existence of two species within what we have known as “burnished brass”. It seems likely that moths with the two brassy areas significantly joined to form an “H” shape are the “new” species being christened the cryptic burnished brass.

burnished brass

This one has got the two areas joined but not widely enough to be likely to be a candidate for the cryptic version.

What’s in My Meadow Today?

The day was warm, although not always sunny it was quiet warm enough for butterflies to be active the whole time. During the day in the meadow I saw several meadow brown, including egg-laying females, large skipper, small white and small skippers.

small skipper (male)

The ends of the antennae lack the black “full stop” of the Essex skipper and the dark line on the forewing, known as the “sex brand”, is longer and not as straight.

Large, small and Essex skippers, and come to that Lulworth and silver-spotted too, sit with their wings in this half open position, unless with wings fully closed.

small skipper (male)

Although they were perched for long periods on the wild carrot flowers they were not feeding, it appeared that they were using the flat, white surface of the flowers as a reflector.

Also visiting the wild carrot was a tiny bee, it is one of the yellow-face bees, these can usually be identified by the pattern of pale markings on the “face”, if I am correct this one is the white-jawed yellow-face bee Hylaeus confusus.

white-jawed yellow-face bee (female)

Having a range of flower types in the meadow attracts different species of bees and other insects, different species being adapted to feeding from different flowers. The leaf-cutter bees prefer larger flowers and especially like the trefoils.

leaf-cutter bee on bird’s-foot trefoil

The other day I featured Jack-go-to-bed-at -noon in flower, one of the alternative names for this plant is goat’s beard, now it has gone to seed it is easy to see why.

Jack-go-to-bed-at-noon seedhead

The seeds are quite large but the fluffy “parachute” they float on is very large and they can get carried considerable distances.

 

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30 Days Wild – Day 7 – Go-to-Bed Waking Up

Today I will start with…………..

What’s in My Meadow Today?

Mainly because I started the day with a quick look around the meadow, where I found a plant that I had not previously seen flowering in the garden. It was Tragopogon pratensis commonly known as meadow goat’s beard, meadow salsify or Jack-go-to-bed-at-noon. The last name hints at why I had not previously seen it in flower, the flowers open for only a few hours each morning and are closed by midday, so I have usually left before they open and return too late.

Jack-go-to-bed-at-noon in flower and closed seed heads

It is a biennial so any seed that sets this year will not flower until 2020. Hopefully I will get some pictures of the seed heads later.

Quiet a lot of flowers close up for parts of the day, many bee pollinated species close at night and moth pollinated ones open then. Ragwort is one flower that closes at night and some small insects exploit this and let the flower close around them for protection. Ragwort is a much maligned plant, it is poisonous to livestock if they eat it, as are a good few other plants. Livestock generally avoid it as it tastes unpleasant, although if it is included in hay they will eat it and it remains toxic. It is a very valuable nectar source for a host of insects and as we know flowery places are fewer than they were. Buglife produced a very good information sheet on ragwort called Ragwort: noxious weed or precious wildflower?

Generally we do control where it is close to neighbouring land and especially if these are fields where horses are kept or that are cut for hay. It can be very dominant on some recently disturbed sites as the seed can persist for long periods coming up when bare ground is created. Generally closed sward grasslands have relatively little ragwort as there are no bare patches for the seed to germinate in.

One species that is dependant upon ragwort is the cinnabar moth, both the black and yellow caterpillars and the brightly coloured moth, which often flies by day, will be familiar to most  people.

cinnabar moth

Both the caterpillar and moth can afford to be brightly coloured as they are also poisonous, they sequester the alkaloid poisons from the plant when they eat it and incorporate them into their bodies.

The moth traps both at home and at Blashford were unremarkable in their catches, but as I was locking up the Education shutters I noticed a Brussels lace moth on the wall, rather an attractive specie sin an understated way.

Brussels lace

Locking up the Tern hide it was pleasing to see that both oystercatcher chicks are now flying well and accompanying their parents on feeding trips hunting for worms. There was also a rather unseasonal black-tailed godwit, it was not in breeding plumage so was presumably a first year bird, as they do not return to the breeding grounds in Iceland in their first summer.