header image (while this post is current) - Coot family at Heather Lake on 15th May, 2023
In early May, we started to see some improvements in the weather. Conditions were getting warmer, and we had a few dry days! This gave me the opportunity for a couple of outings - one local, and one to another country - to supplement my observations from our home. Here's a summary of what, for me, was an interesting seven days.
Tuesday, 9th May Garden
The last Large Red Damselfly seen to emerge from our mini-pond was on 7th May. This day, however, we had a Large Red Damselfly visit us. I was a little disappointed that it was a male, rather than an ovipositing female.
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Large Red Damselfly (Pyrrhosoma nymphula) (male) - garden on 9th May, 2023
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Wednesday, 10th May Garden
Although primarily a butterfly of woodland rides, we do sometimes get Speckled Wood visiting the garden, even though there is no woodland close to our home.
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Speckled Wood (Pararge aegeria) - garden on 10th May, 2023
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I also photographed an Orange-tip which took a fancy to our Forget-Me-Nots. Only the male of the species has orange tips to the forewings.
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Orange-tip (Anthocharis cardamines) (male) - garden on 10th May, 2023
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Thursday, 11th May Garden
Looking into the mini-pond, I noticed what appeared to be a newly emerged Mayfly, with one wing either deformed or not yet fully extended. I believe this to be Cloeon dipterum.
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Mayfly (Cloeon dipterum) - garden on 11th May, 2023
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In one part of the garden, I have driven in four vertical thin wooden posts and each time I prune something giving me a straight stick I lay it between the posts so that it builds up into a wall of sticks. This is intended to provide a home for invertebrates. As the sticks at the bottom decay, they are replaced by new prunings on the top. We refer to this as 'the hurdle'. On this day, for a change, I managed to get a shot of a male Bullfinch away from a feeder - it was on the hurdle.
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Bullfinch (Pyrrhula pyrrhula) (male) - garden on 11th May, 2023
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Saturday, 13th May Wolseley Bridge Nature Reserve ; Whixall Moss
I had recently been told that Wolseley Bridge Nature Reserve, the headquarters of Staffordshire Wildlife Trust, was an excellent place to watch and photograph Kingfisher, and so this was my chosen destination this day. I arrived to find the overflow car park rapidly filling up. Undaunted, I set off for the favoured location for the Kingfishers and got there to be told that they'd not been seen for a few days, following some very bad weather.
I spent a while here, but was soon disenchanted by the crowds of people, many of whom were accompanied by noisy children and/or over-inquisitive dogs. The only photos that I came away with were one of a very dubious duck which seemed to be at least partly Northern Pintail, and a rather cute Mallard chick - a singleton, not straying far from its mother.
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| Northern Pintail cross? - Wolseley Bridge NR |
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Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) (chick) - Wolseley Bridge NR
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My thoughts then turned as to what to do now. I had the bold idea of heading off to the Welsh Borders at Whixall Moss, to see if I could find White-faced Darter dragonflies. It was quite a long drive and I arrived at the Reserve Base as a number of other people were also arriving. I was asked for my name so that I could be ticked off on the list, and when I pointed out that I was not booked on any event, I was told that the event was a short bird-watching walk and that, if I wanted to stay beyond 16.00, when the gates would be locked, I should make my way to the alternative car park , and was given directions. I subsequently learned when looking at the map of the reserve that I'd parked in Wales and then, after having my picnic lunch, walked back into England where the bulk of the reserve is located.
There is one area of the reserve which is generally regarded as the best place to find White-faced Darters. On my way to that location, I had three brief sightings of female White-faced Darters but, mainly due to my inability to find them in the viewfinder (the greatest problem that I haver with the new camera), I failed to get any photos. I did manage some photos of a day-flying Moth - the Common Heath - a species that is very variable in appearance.
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Common Heath (Ematurga atomaria atomaria) (male) - Whixall Moss
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I saw a few damselflies on my way to the favoured area, but was too busy looking for the darters, to bother with them. I spent quite a while at the usual location and didn't see a single darter. I did see a distant exuvia of what I believe was probably a Four-spotted Chaser, as it looked rather large for that of a W-f D.
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dragonfly exuvia - Whixall Moss
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While there, I got into conversation with two other people, one of whom kindly took us to see a Raft Spider that he'd found. This is a semi-aquatic predator, and a species where the male will often be eaten by the female during, or after, copulation. I was told that, by the size of the pedipalps, this was probably a male.
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| Raft Spider (Dolomedes fimbriatus) (probable male) - Whixall Moss |
This same gentleman then told me that he had seen Green Tiger Beetles along a path that I had not yet traversed. We soon found some, and I even found a pair in cop.
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Green Tiger Beetle (Cicindela campestris) - Whixall Moss
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It wasn't until I watched some video that I'd taken of this pair of beetles that I realised that the female had an ant clamped in her jaws. I understand that one handles this species at one's peril as they can give a very painful bite!
It was now time for me to start wending my way home. Near the favoured W-f D area I again photographed a Common Heath moth. This one was somewhat different to the one shown above.
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| Common Heath (Ematurga atomaria atomaria) (male) - Whixall Moss |
Having failed miserably in my quest to photograph dragonflies, on my way back to my car, I paid a bit more attention to the damselflies, although these were not present in large numbers. Here are a couple of them.
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| Large Red Damselfly (Pyrrhosoma nymphula) (female) - Whixall Moss |
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Azure Damselfly (Coenagrion puella) (immature male) - Whixall Moss
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Thus ended an interesting, but frustrating day.
Sunday, 14th May Garden
Whilst having our lunch in the conservatory, Lindsay noticed that an extremely small moth had landed on a food container. It was difficult to see any detail with the naked eye as it was so small (about half an inch, or 13 mm long), but a close-up photo enabled an identification of this micro-moth.
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Esperia sulphurella - from conservatory on 14th May, 2023
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In the garden, I photographed another micro-moth. This was the common, and a little larger moth often referred to as a Mint Moth.
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Pyrausta aurata - garden on 14th May, 2023
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In the pond, I noticed the exuvia of some aquatic creature. 'Obsidentify' suggests it is a Large Red Damselfly, but I don't think so, with those small wing-like protruberances along the sides of the abdomen! I think that it is probably the exuvia of a Mayfly.
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exuvia - garden on 14th May, 2023
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The Holly Blues were still around and putting in frequent appearances.
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Holly Blue (Celastrina argiolus) (female) - garden on 14th May, 2023
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The daily appearance of a pair of Stock Dove had, by now, dwindled down to an occasional visit by just one. Sadly, I believe that a cat was to blame for this situation.
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Stock Dove (Columba oenas) - garden on 14th May
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That night, the moth trap was put out, and resulted in a rather meagre catch of just 7 moths of 3 species. Four of these (all male) were the rather charming Muslin Moth
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Muslin Moth (Diaphora mendica) (male) - from garden on 14th May, 2023
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One was a beautiful Small Phoenix.
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Small Phoenix (Ecliptopera silaceata) - from garden on 14th Mat, 2023
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Monday, 15th May Heather Lake
Heather Lake is one of my favourite local places for looking for dragonflies but, last year, it became almost impossible to walk round the perimeter because the path had become so overgrown with brambles. In my quest to photograph my first dragonfly of the year, it was time to give it another visit.
On the walk down to the lake, I stopped for a Speckled Wood.
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Speckled Wood (Pararge aegeria) -near Heather Lake
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Arriving at the lake, I soon found a teneral Common Blue Damselfly
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Common Blue Damselfly (Enallagma cyathigerum) (teneral male) - Heather Lake
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A clockwise circumperambulation of the lake produced nothing until I neared the far end, where I was greeted with the charming sight of an adult Coot, leading a group of six chicks. This can be seen in the header image to this blog while this post is current.
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Coot (Fulica atra) (chicks and adult) - Heather Lake
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The west side of the lake was now passable, but little was seen. I did photograph this very distinctive fly, however.
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fly (Tachina fera) - Heather Lake
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I also came across this extremely small long-horn micro-moth, which made up for its lack of size by its amazingly long antennae! The length of these indicates that this was a male.
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Green Long-horn (Adela reaumurella) (male) - Heather Lake
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No dragonflies were seen, but it had been a most enjoyable short visit.
This brings me to the end of this
blog post. My next blog post, as usual, will probably be in about a week's time and
looks as if it will feature several more visits to locations around the county. In the meantime,
please take good care of yourselves and Nature.
Thank you for dropping by - - - Richard
