ernie f

[Neil Freeman]

Some really interesting observations in your recent reports Ernie and great photos to go with them...great stuff

Cheers,

Neil.

[ernie f]

Site Visit: Old Winchester Hill - 21 April 2018

Here is a stunning site with all-round views for many miles across the chalk downlands. It centres on an Iron Age Hillfort which itself in turn surrounds a set of Bronze Age Barrows. Along the ridges one finds blackthorn-sloes, crab apples and elderberry often attracting modern-day hunter-gatherers! There are grass-covered hills and deep shady wooded coombs where dormice lurk although you would be lucky to ever see these shy, normally nocturnal creatures. Just below the hillcrest and beside the fort is a remarkable example of a small native yew woodland and just as notable, the small juniper wood at the bottom of the hill on the other side.

It is normally best a little later than April but I thought I'd give it a try. Sunny morning but all I came away with was a nice pic of a Peacock. Never mind I know there will be much more to come later in the year here.

Peacock near the car park at Old Winch Hill

Non-butterfly snapshot of the day

Some years ago I lived in Chalford in the Cotswolds (Unfortunately before they re-introduced the Large Blue near there). But we had a day trip out to Cricklade on one occasion. The water meadow there is one of the few places I know of that has Snakeshead Fritillaries. There were hundreds (or even thousands? of them). Recently I have discovered there is a far smaller group of them growing near me at the Wakes in Selborne and of course they are blooming right now.

Snakeshead Fritillary at Selborne

[Art Frames]

I have planted some Snakeshead frits in the garden, not as nice as seeing them in huge numbers in the wild, but they are beautiful and I believe not too challenging if you have damp ground. they have survived for two years so far!

Some lovely pictures in your diary Ernie.

[Goldie M]

Love the Peacock on the Blossom ernie, tried to capture a shot like that but mine always seem to like the grass better Goldie

[ernie f]

Thanks Neil, Peter and Goldie for your recent comments. It helps to know if I am on the right track.

Swelling Hill Pond – 22 April 2018

This is a pretty but small pond near the village of Four Marks. Well hidden on a country by-road it is a haven for wildlife of many types.

Swelling Hill Pond

At different times of the year I have seen many of the more common butterflies here but the Green Carpet Moth begins to emerge now. Here is one trying to hide from me, pretending to be the lichen on a tree trunk.

Green Carpet Moth

Non-butterfly snapshots

But really the real reason for coming here at this time of year is not the butterflies or moths but for the frogs and toads instead. This pond is a magnet for them to come and breed in early spring. Common Toads in particular come here en-masse.

Common Toads mating

Common Toad

The breeding is finished now (it occurred a week or so before I started this diary), but the tadpoles have hatched in the last few days. They can form large “clouds” before the majority are predated.

Tadpole Cloud

Incidentally last year I visited in mid-summer and found a Daubenton’s bat hawking back and forth repeatedly over the surface of the pond in the full sunshine of mid-day. No photos though because it was moving far too fast.

[Wurzel]

More great stuff Ernie, I'm really enjoying the 'non-butterfly feature of the day' I agree with Goldie - that is a great shot of the Peacock on the blossom

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[ernie f]

Site Visit: Upper Farringdon Churchyard - 23rd April 2018

My first Speckled Wood of the year. It decided to come down to nectar from a daisy right in front of me so I just had to take its picture didn’t I?

Speckled Wood - spring

However what I came here for stood right beside this young little butterfly. It was at the other extreme: old and big!

Non-butterfly snapshots

The Yew in the churchyard at Upper Farringdon is possibly Hampshire’s oldest tree – in fact Hampshire’s oldest living thing.

The Farringdon Yew

It is almost impossible to date it with any accuracy though as the core of the tree long ago rotted completely away so we cannot count its tree-rings but its girth (around 30 ft max) tells us it has to be ancient. However girth alone does not measure its absolute age. Even the tree rings only measures the minimum age. Weather conditions over hundreds of years change the rate of growth and some of the older yews have been proven to stop growing wider altogether when they reach a certain age. Indeed Gilbert White measured the girth of this very tree in the late 1700’s and it was the same as it is today.

A few years ago the old yew in Selborne churchyard blew down in a severe storm and an archaeological dig was performed below its roots. Skeletons from burials which could be dated to around 1200 AD were discovered underneath. The Selborne Yew had a girth of 26 ft. Since it is not far from the one at Upper Farringdon we can assume climate conditions over time were the same for both trees. The girth of the Farringdon Yew is about 4 ft wider than the one at Selborne so the Farringdon yew is probably older by about 125 years, getting on to be 1000 years old.

It astonishes me that a tree like this can still be living when most of its core-wood has long ago rotted away. You can actually walk inside it quite easily and look out at another yew tree which is smaller but is still probably many hundreds of years old as its widest girth is 22 ft.

Inside the heart of the tree

[Goldie M]

That Speckie looks so fresh, nice shot, none here yet, Goldie

[Art Frames]

Ernie love those toad shots. Just perfect patch of sunlight to bring out the textures and colours. I am a huge toad fan.

I went to my own local toad pond today, but it was deserted and sadly no tadpoles. Deserted apart from a couple of smooth newts . So sad. In previous years I have seen hundreds of toads with masses of toad and frog spawn. But I suspect the pond is being used by dogs or something else as it is churned up and the bank is in a mess.

best wishes

[David M]

I'm loving the eclectic nature of your images, Ernie, from the toads to the butterflies, the carpet moth and the magnificent yew.

Keep 'em coming!

[ernie f]

Thank you Goldie, Peter and David for your kind comments.

Site Visit: Hartley Maudit - 24th April 2018

Another pond today – this one is beside an old church out in the styx surrounded on all sides by open countryside, its village long ago abandoned and demolished (probably after the plague in the Middle Ages).

Hartley Maudit Church and Pond

Part of the churchyard is given over to wild flowers and the roadside verges are also bedecked, particularly with cuckoo-flower at this time of year.

I saw my first, second and third Large White of the year today. Two were a courting pair doing their aerobatic spiral dance but they parted company without mating.

Large White - my first of 2018

There were also three Orange Tips, all male. I followed one for some minutes as he patrolled the roadside verges. He did not retrace his steps and I gave up following after a while. He was obviously nomadic and had no intention of returning along his route.

Site Visit: Noar Hill - 24th April 2018

As the sun had come out for a while (rain was forecast later) I decided to also visit Noar Hill for half an hour. No Dukes (still!) but there were four Orange Tips, all male and two were jousting. Also a Small Tortoiseshell, a Peacock and two female Brimstones egg-laying. I decided to try and get a shot of one of them actually laying eggs so after much scrambling over hummocks and hillocks giving chase, only pausing to detach myself from the odd bramble I took my shots and crossed my fingers (although not at the same time – that is not recommended!). She stopped on a Buckthorn bush for no more than a couple of seconds to lay an egg underneath a leaf and no sooner had she finished then she was off again. To get a pic you almost had to anticipate where she might stop and I had barely two seconds to focus and click each time. I managed to get a few blurry images but one I am quite pleased with follows.

Brimstone egg-laying

This also gives me the excuse to share a few photos of Brimstones from previous years.

Brimstone having a rest after nectaring

Male Brimstone backlit while nectaring in the morning sun last summer

Brimstone bookends on a common knapweed

I once had a picture of a female who while on the ground opened her wings flat in order to reject an amorous male but it was one of the pics I lost when my old computer crashed and I had forgotten to back up my files. A sad loss.

Non-butterfly snapshot of the day

The pond at Hartley Maudit was of interest. A pair of Canada Geese were making a bit of a din for no apparent reason, my first Swallows of the year were hawking for insects for a couple of minutes over the surface of the pond before continuing their migration northbound and one lazy big carp came to the surface. When they open their mouths at the surface they make a distinctive “glooping” sound that it quite comical.

Carp "Glooping"

[David M]

Your image of the church reminded me a touch of ‘The Haywain’. Very rustic!

Nice to see a female Large White too. One of my favourite butterflies (you can tell I’m not a vegetable grower)!

[ernie f]

David - from one non-veg grower to another - yes, I like Large Whites too. Interesting that they, themselves can tell gender difference by seeing ultra-violet markings..

Site Visit: Lowton’s Copse - 25th April 2018

Lowton’s Copse is a fine deciduous woodland in the parish of Clanfield famed locally for its carpets of Bluebells. Today the sun broke through the clouds sporadically, lighting up the woodland floor.

Lowton's Copse

I came here to see if there were any Speckled Woods - but no. It seems that I could only come away with a Peacock shot again and even then it was a bit nibbled.

Peacock on a Bluebell

Non-butterfly snapshot of the day

Most people come here this time of year for the Bluebells but flowering now there are also Wood Anemone, Wild Strawberry, Yellow Archangel, Lords & Ladies, Ramsons, Primrose, Celandine, Greater Stitchwort, Garlic Mustard, Bugle, Daffodil and more Solomons Seal than I have ever seen growing in a single location anywhere else. But the real star is easily overlooked – this is the Toothwort - a strange-looking, whitish-pink, chorophyll-free plant that is parasitic on shrubs, particularly Hazel. I have only ever seen it here so its rare, or as the book puts it “locally common”.

Toothwort – Lathraea squamaria

[Wurzel]

Cheers Ernie I saw one of those plants the other day and I couldn’t remember what it was, Toothwort Lovely Bluebell shots and a sneaky Peacock

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[millerd]

Some nice images there, Ernie - that is indeed a weird-looking plant.

Dave

[David M]

What a beautiful carpet of bluebells that is, Ernie. Hopefully we'll all get chance to see this over the next couple of weeks if the weather plays ball.

[ernie f]

Dave, Wurzel and David, many thanks for your comments.

Many of those Toothworts were going over but there were still a few in full flush - if you can call it that. Similarly I spoke about the Snakeshead Fritillaries recently and these too are now going over but I am pleased to report that I have found two further locations near me that have them. The churchyard areas set aside for wildlife at both Selborne and Upper Farringdon churches. How many have been planted and how many seeded themselves naturally I do not know.

Site Visit: Selborne Church Meadow - 26th April 2018

The village of Selborne has some wonderful habitats which I shall post about as the year wears on and today I went to one of these, the meadow just below Selborne Church.

Looking up the hill from the Water Meadow at Selborne

Last year in May this damp meadow with its stream and its surrounding trees and shrubs were a haven for Orange Tip and Holly Blue so I thought I’d pay it an earlier visit this year to see what was brewing.

I am glad I did.

Two male Holly Blues passed by but did not stop. Also there were three male Orange Tips jousting with each other, stopping from time to time to nectar from Cuckoo-flowers before getting back to the matter in hand.

Orange Tip on Cuckoo-flower

One of them split off to pursue what I thought was a female, they even appeared to do a courtship spiral together but when the female “Orange Tip” landed I realised it was instead a Green-veined White. My book says the first brood are the smallest of the year and it appears some can be so small they even confuse Orange Tip males! This was my first Green-veined White of the year, quickly followed by my second and third, both males and females were represented.

Green-veined White from the front

And from the side

One female dropped very low down amongst the undergrowth and I guessed she must be egg-laying and I was right. I only captured one shot of her before she was off and away so far I could not follow. This one shot was lucky though because you can just about see her abdomen curling round to lay an egg. The blur is because she was actually flapping her wings a bit while she did this. I had never seen a Green-veined White lay an egg before so I am quite pleased I got a photo even though it was a bit distant and in the shade.

Green-veined White laying eggs

As usual, my first sighting of the year gives me the excuse to share some past photos I have taken of this species.

On a leaf - just resting

On the ground - collecting minerals

Mating pair

Non-butterfly snapshots

The pond in the village of Selborne can be full of Common Newts courting and mating in late Spring. The pond itself is in the grounds of Gilbert White’s house and there is a charge for entrance. Here are two pics I took in recent years.

Common Newt

Common Newts getting friendly

[ernie f]

Home Patch - 27th April 2018

Opposite my house is a pond with a path that runs round it. It is called King’s Pond and was once a millpond but the paper mill which it powered has long gone. Because of its proximity to me it is no problem for me to pop out for five minutes or so whenever I can.

Kings Pond

It can be good for all sorts of wildlife. Within the last three days I have seen two Holly Blues (both male), three Orange Tips (two male and one female) and one Large White (male).

Orange Tip at Kings Pond

Today was pretty much a damp squib other than a brief splash of sunshine for a few minutes so I shall instead list a few moths I have found resting around my house and garden over the last couple of years. I don't have a moth trap so its always just luck of the draw when I find one.

Angle Shades

Clouded Border

Garden Carpet

This next one is The Flame I think, but it has its wings more open than shown in my book. If it's not can someone correct me?

The Flame?

Orange Swift

Non-butterfly snapshot of the day

Birds have also been quite wonderful around King’s Pond lately. One Grey Wagtail was flitting from it’s chosen perch – a branch over the surface of the pond, grabbing a fly and then going back to its perch to eat it. It did this again and again. The Moorhens have a brood of chicks which were playing “at the shallow end” of the pool. Little Grebes were “laughing”, a Little Egret was roosting in a tree and the Tufted Ducks that had arrived here in winter are still here. A Tree-creeper crept up a Sycamore Tree opposite our house and Bullfinches and Goldfinches were very much in evidence. It was all very jolly.

We are lucky enough to have a heronry at this pond. There are three nests in total at the moment and two have chicks in them. The nest shown is by far the easiest to view and after waiting a few minutes I was just about able to get a shot of the chick (circled in pic below – note the tufty head). Although the outside of the beak of this chick is yellow I was at one time able to see it had a red-coloured gape.

Grey Heron with chick in nest (circled)

[Neil Freeman]

Some more great reports and photos Ernie, I am finding your posts very interesting

...This next one is The Flame I think, but it has its wings more open than shown in my book. If it's not can someone correct me?... (4).JPG

I think you are correct in your ID of The Flame, I have had a few of these to my garden moth trap and their more usual resting posture is with wings tightly rolled up to resemble a twig.

Cheers,

Neil

[Wurzel]

Having a site on our doorstep Looks good for a Flame to me Ernie quite unusual to see one adopt that pose, normally they look like a twig or old fag butt

Have a goodun

Wurzel