RXwildlife Sightings

The warmer weather is making a few hours in the garden more interesting with the appearance of adult insects which have successfully hibernated through the winter. Yesterday around mid day 3 Buff-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus terrestris), Red Admiral, Small Tortoishell and the hoverfly Eristalis tenax (Drone fly) which is a superb bee mimic were all found.

Eristalis tenax (Drone Fly)

Well, I’m sure it’s not the first butterfly of 2010 to be seen locally, but it’s my first (very late) and I don’t remember any recent butterfly photos on this forum. This was one of 4 Small Tortoiseshells I found today – a mating pair by Playden Church, and then two chasing each other (including this one) on the sunny slopes below Rye Cemetery. With more sunshine this week I expect many more will be reported.

With the promise of warmer weather this week (at last!) I decided to give the Lime Kiln moth trap its first run out of the year. The trap attracted only a couple of guests, a Yellow Dung Fly and, first moth of the year, a lovely male Oak Beauty, only the second one I have had in my time at Rye Harbour. This species is active from around February to April, with the larvae feeding on a range of deciduous trees.

Oak Beauty at Lime Kiln Cottage this morning

While replacing some of the damaged boarding on the outside of the hide at Castle Water yesterday several hibernating queen German Wasps were found. The id features to seperate German and Common Wasp can be variable so several have to be checked. German Wasps normally have three dots on the face (clypeus) but this one has two dots and a longer vertical mark, this is similar in some ways to that found on the Common Wasp. Another feature to look for is a bulge in the middle of the yellow stripes on the pronotum, this is shown in the fourth picture below. German Wasps aslo have an unbroken yellow band behind the eye.

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From New Zealand to the UK; the return of the short haired bumblebee. Is the title of a talk by Dr Nikki Gammans to be given at RSPB Dungeness on 13th March @ 3-4pm. Please reserve your seat on 01797 320588 or e-mail dungeness@rspb.org.uk Find out more about the project here.

The short haired bumblebee project aims to reintroduce this extinct bumblebee to the RX area from English stock exported to New Zealand over 100 years ago.  One of the hurdles to be overcome is to get a stock of captive reared queens for importing back here.  We did not know if this would be easy to do or not, however Nikki Gammans has been over in New Zealand catching wild queens for a captive rearing project.  This is starting to produce the goods, well workers and males so far anyway.  Read about progress in Nikki’s blog.

On Friday at Winchelsea Beach, in the shelter of some scrub and during a 10 minute period of warm sunshine there was a Small Tortoiseshell, 7 Spot Ladybird and a Honeybee…

Last night I ran my moth trap in Rye for the first time this year. Well, you never know!  This morning the trap was empty but this very smart Mottled Umber – wingspan 33 mm – was on the wall nearby. This is a male – it’s one of those few unusual species whose female is wingless. It’s a common and widespread moth that flies from October through to January or February. Yesterday’s regular Sunday morning walk with Bob and Mike was enlivened by a Marsh Harrier and a Buzzard in the Tillingham valley, plus a falconer with his Harris Hawk along the Cadborough Cliff slopes. Bizarrely, we watched this exotic-looking raptor sunning itself high in a tree for several minutes before we noticed its owner sitting on the bank underneath!

A combination of bad weather and vehicles in for repair meant that I have spent most of today in the office sorting through insect specimens accumulated during 2009. One of the most striking was the picture-winged fly Campiglossa plantaginis (below). The larvae of this species feed in the heads of Sea Aster (Aster tripolium), a common plant on the saltmarsh at Rye Harbour, and there have been several records of this fly on the reserve over the years.

Campiglossa plantaginis
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It is intended to reintroduce this extinct bumblebee in 2010, using stock exported from Britain to New Zealand 120 years ago.  In doing this we face a number of hurdles, of which two are particularly significant.  Have we recreated enough suitable habitat for the species, and will we be able to capture enough queens to start the reintroduction?

Our initial target was to have at least ten 1 km squares with sufficient clover-rich grassland to support the bees. Infact last summer there were a total of 43 1 km squares that met this target, and more are being managed to bring them into suitable condition.

Having created the habitat will we be able to repopulate it? Last winter, when Nikki Gammans paid her first visit to New Zealand, she was only able to find drones and workers, neither of which are suitable for an introduction.  The good news is that already this winter she has found a total of 18 queens!  You can follow Nikki’s progress on this link.

NB – at 9 December 36 Queens had been captured.