RXwildlife Sightings

This may be common knowledge, but I had not realised until today that green-winged orchids Anacamptis morio start growing in late summer, ready for flowering in April.  I was inspecting my lawn this morning after our usual September badger party (I think they dig little holes at this time of year in search of insects) and decided to check that they had not uprooted the tubers of our two prize specimens.  I was surprised to find two well-formed rosettes poking above the lawn.

The relevance of this is that grassland management in the autumn is likely to be important for this plant, which is unlikely to thrive in a rank autumn sward.

PS.  Having checked further I am come across references to bee orchids and ladies tresses producing autumn rosettes, but not this species.

I have been enjoying this year’s enormous crop of Blackberries and also noticed how patchy the “webs” of the Brown-tail Moth are. Over most of the reserve they are absent, but some localised patches of Bramble are heavily covered (as are some Cotoneaster bushes). The webs are the safe home for the first instar caterpillars that venture out on the the leaves and eat the surface layer - they then overwinter within the shelter of the webs to reappear on the the first warm days of spring. Read the rest of this entry »

“Is there a carrot underground ?” is a frequent question asked by groups that I take around the reserve. Well now I can say yes, but they are very small and white. I was collecting seed and, by mistake, pulled a whole plant out of the ground. Read the rest of this entry »

Highlights today included a Curlew Sandpiper on the Quarry, at least five Greenshank on Ternery Pool and Harbour Farm, and at least 11 Knot on the shore. In addition, a Merlin was present on Harbour Farm adjacent to Lime Kiln and, best of the bunch to my mind, a Sooty Shearwater passed close offshore mid-morning. Yesterday highlights at Castle Water included at least three Marsh Harrier (including a fine male), Buzzard, Peregrine, five Black-tailed Godwit, seven Bearded Tit and a Black-necked Grebe.

Greenshank on Ternery Pool this morning

I spent some time yesterday looking at a patch of water mint at Dungeness yesterday, along the margins of a natural freshwater pit close to the RSPB reserve visitor centre.  Two of the most common insects were the heath bumblebee Bombus jonellus, and a specialist honeybee predator, the beewolf Philanthus triangulum.

Some stunning photographs of this brightly coloured wasp can be found here, including bees excavating nests in sand, and carrying their prey. Once this was a very rare insect in the UK but it’s range has extended greatly in recent years.  They nest close to the RSPB visitor centre on an area of exposed sand, and I remember seeing my first specimens a few years back.  I was indoors in a meeting and kept spotting these large wasps flying past the window carrying their heavy honeybee prey back to their nests.

Earlier in the summer I reported the discovery of a new population of the stinking hawk’s-beard at Dungeness, and that the species may not have gone extinct in the UK after all in the 1980’s.  The two thousand odd plants were growing on an area of grassland that is scarified each autumn.  They avoid undisturbed shingle on the adjacent Dungeness National Nature Reserve that lies a few metres away.

Today the plot was given it’s annual treatment, as was a piece of ground on the Dungeness NNR for the first time.

The plot is to be left to see if Read the rest of this entry »

There are still a few insects to be found during any warm sunny spells, today at Ternery pool Small Copper, Small Tortoiseshell and several Grey Bush Cricket were around Parkes Hide, and at Castle Water Hide Comma, Small Heath, Migrant Hawker and Common Darter.

Comma at Castle Water Hide

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Pieces of roof felt, strategically placed, are a widely used way to survey for reptiles as they warm up in the sun and offer excellent basking opportunities.  What I did not realise is that they are also highly attractive to the European hornet Vespa crabro.  I have seen these impressive insects regularly this month hovering over roof felt on a site I am surveying.  The felts are also attractive to grasshoppers and bushcrickets and today I saw a hornet sieze a Roesel’s bush-cricket Metrioptera roeselii and start to dismember it while hanging precariously over the edge of the felt suspended by it’s two rear legs.

A second hornet briefly hovered over a young common lizard Zootoca vivipara, which had the good sense to dart into an adjacent patch of long grass.

ps  Today (21 Sept) I did see a hornet attempt to catch a young lizard, which just managed to escape into the long grass.

Highlights from Castle Water this morning included 9 wheatear, 70 Meadow Pipit, 200 Sand Martin and 80 House Martin at the northern end of the main pit, from the hide Green Sandpiper, Grey Wagtail, 8+ Chiffchaff and a male Marsh Harrier. From the viewpoint several Bearded Tit and a Kingfisher gave good views and Chiffchaffs were abundant in the surrounding scrub and willows.

One of many Wheatear within the SSSI, at the northern end of the main pit.

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2 Lapland Buntings W over Chick Hill at 13.40.