Susie

[Susie]

Cuckoo!

Couldn't decide whether to go to Denbies Hillside for green hairstreak and skippers or Cissbury Ring so went for a walk around some fields in Warnham today instead and heard my first cuckoo to the south of where I was. Its always great to hear the first one of the year and we are lucky to have them locally.

The trees are just starting to get leaves. Give it a week and it will be a mass of green.

Also heard was chiffchaff, willow warbler, reed warbler, whitethroat, blackcap, great, blue and long tailed tits, song thrush, buzzard, green woodpecker, great spot woodpecker drumming, greenfinch, chaffinch, pheasant, coot, sparrow, dunnock, robin, rook, crow, blackbird, and wren.

Plenty of orange tips around now, male and female. Small whites, speckled woods, and peacocks in good number too.

Edit: This afternoon a female orange tip was feeding on honesty and I thought Mr OT would get lucky. However, whenever he came by and got friendly she pulled up her abdomen and spurned his advances. Seems she didn't want to be ravished. She seemed to have a very skinny abdomen so I don't think she would have been full of eggs. Anyone got any idea what the reason was or did she just have a headache?

[Susie]

The mason bees have been emerging from the bee boxes on the back of the house since last weekend and I was able to watch one little chap as he did exactly this. I was suprised that after munching away with his mandibles on the clay plug that had kept him safe all winter once he emerged he flew off like a rocket, leaving me standing there like a lemon waiting to get a good shot. I had expected a drying off/warming up period as your get with dragonflies when I could take my time and get some decent shots but this little chap wasn't hanging around. It was quite comical to watching him trying to push his head through a tiny gap, only getting one antenna out, then both, then both and one leg, turning upside down and trying to s-q-u-e-e-z-e himself through but failing and having to have another little nibble until finally he shot out like a champagne cork.

After watching the bees and having a couple of hours to spare between physio at the hospital this morning and work this afternoon I sallied forth to Denbies Hillside to see if there were any skippers or green hairstreaks around. A cold wind was blowing and despite searching out sheltered places where they were seen over the past few years none were found. Only one speckled wood seen there although plenty of orange tips on the way back.

[Susie]

Uploaded the bee pics from this morning and it seems one mature mason bee has some passengers. Mites perhaps?

Squeeze!!

[Susie]

A black bee with a white stripe was spotted yesterday when we were out on the field trip which caught our interest. It was the same type (or at least something very similar) to one spotted last year in my back garden which turned out to be Melecta albifrons. The females lay their eggs in the nests of ground nesting bees (such as hairy footed flower bees) and then when the eggs hatch they eat the food put by for the ground nesting bees' offspring.

[Susie]

I was asked at the weekend if I had anything in flower in the garden. The answer is, of course! There is just about always something flowering here whatever time of the year it is. In particular I've tried to ensure there is food for the bees over the winter, even when there aren't any bees to enjoy it.

This year the garden is a couple of weeks behind, but this is the front garden at roughly this time last year.

There is a lot of euphorbia, garlic mustard, red campion and wall flowers in this picture.

The year before annual flowers were grown from seed to create an insect attracting border. In early summer this was the effect of purple toadflax, corncockle, poppies, cornflowers, etc .

[traplican]

Cuckoo!]

When I moved in Traplice my wife was surprised by Cocuckoo callings: It had sounded not only "cuckoo" but in May also "Cocouckcoukoo" etc. In May cuckoo is probably very upset and calls multiple .

[Susie]

That's interesting, Traplican, I shall have to listen out for that. Thanks.

What a splendid day for butterflying it has been. Good numbers of orange tips, brimstone, peacock, green hairstreak, dingy and grizzled skippers, green veined whites and a single speckled wood. Quite a few day flying moths about as well including a cinnabar but it was too flighty for a photograph.

Several of the green hairstreaks were laying eggs, one was laying on bramble which I haven't seen before. I love hairstreaks, they are such feisty little characters. When they he wasn't dog fighting with other hairstreaks one chap was taking on peacocks and anything else that came his way.

[Susie]

Three years ago I dug a pond in the back garden. It was filled with plants which have spread and now have rather taken over - to the point that you can hardly see the water in the summer - and it has proved to be a real draw for wildlife.

One of the plants put in has not flowered up until now. I think it is one of our most beautiful and delicate British wildflowers and so would have expected it to have a delicate name like angels' breath but oh no. Someone, in his infinite wisdom, decided to give it the homely name of BOGBEAN!

Around the fringes of the pond grow a lot of wild flowers including water forgetmenot, cuckoo flower, hemp agrimony and devils bit scabious which like damp toes, all of which are a draw for butterflies.

[Susie]

The Emperor Moth cocoons bought at the AES Exhibition last autumn have started to hatch. I'm sooo excited as it realises a dream I've had since I first became interested in moths and bought a copy of the Field guide to the moths of Great Britain and Ireland about five years ago. Anyone who has a copy and looks at the cover will know why

The best bit is the first one out is a female and as I know there are wild Emperors not too far away I hope she'll have company come a'courting. Fortunately she is in the netted pot of blackthorn I had for the brown hairstreaks last year.

[ChrisC]

i'm jealous, still yet to see one, hopefully going looking over the weekend though as i know they are around my neck of the woods.

lovely Hairstreak pics too by the way, i've still only ever seen the single green

best wishes and good look with the males, emperors that is.

Chris

[Susie]

Thank you and good luck with your search.

I know a great site for green hairstreaks where even I can find them in numbers. It is an awfully long way from Dorset though.

Four more cocoons to hatch yet. If any of them are males then I could end up with oodles of eggs. I have read that the caterpillars will eat blackthorn so I can leave them in the container they are in at the moment. If anyone didn't know better they would have thought I planned it.

I don't want to go to work tomorrow now! Am far too excited.

P.S. Cocoons can always be posted in the autumn if there are spares

[Susie]

Yesterday = nothing.

Today, I come home from work to find another moth had emerged; a lovely male Emperor!

They must have done the deed before I got home because early this evening she started laying eggs on the blackthorn.

Three more cocoons left ...

[Susie]

Michael Blencowe and Clare Jeffers led an enjoyable walk along the Wey & Arun Canal at Loxwood for Sussex BC this morning. The weather wasn't great but I was convinced it would dramatically improve as the morning went on. It didn't. I saw two orange tips during the walk with the group and one on the way back (I had to nip off early due to family commitments). However, Michael kept us entertained with tips on how to look for leaf miners and find orange tip eggs. The birders in the group pointed out several interesting birds to the group such as nightingale, grey wagtail, whitethroat, garden warbler, chiff chaff, blackcap, house martin and the swallows swooping and diving low over the canal were a sight to behold. The countryside along the canal and rivers is lovely and lush and I imagine that it will be a superb place for all sorts of insect life on a fine day and especially good for dragonflies.

This may not have been a successful walk as far as spotting butterflies is concerned but it is definitely a place I am going to visit frequently over the summer. If nothing else, I have found a local pub and the public car park to the wey and arun is accessed through the car park to the pub so ideal for popping in for a spot of light refreshment after a morning's walking. http://www.onslowarmsloxwood.co.uk/_Web ... age=FindUs

I had to leave the walk a bit early because my dad was coming down for a visit. He prefers coming down here than for us to go up to Greenford. Wonder why? We visited another local pub for the first time (which was full of character and with ceilings and beams so low that even I nearly kept on banging my head) and had a really smashing lunch (no pun intended). After we went for a drive around and showed Dad the bluebell woods which he loved before home to a warm next to the log burner. All in all a very pleasant day.

http://www.thequeensheadbarnsgreen.co.uk/?page_id=2

I found a couple of tachinids in the Emperor cage today so I guess that's why the other moths didn't emerge. Meanwhile the female is laying dozens and dozens of eggs but looks pretty done in by now.

[Lee Hurrell]

He prefers coming down here than for us to go up to Greenford. Wonder why?

I have an idea why...

[Susie]

lol. Lee.

It was cold and overcast this morning and I arrived at Rewell Wood later than planned and without much motivation. For a while it looked like nothing was going to come out to face the cold north wind but after a while the sun came out and it started to warm up a bit. A pair of male pearl bordered fritillaries started patrolling the ride and sparring and it was lovely to see. A yellow shell moth and broad bodied chaser dragonfly were around too but that was all.

[Susie]

Sussex BC are trying to log orange tip sightings for the whole county so although I've not been able to get out to do any butterflying over the last couple of days I've been doing a bit of "drive by spotting" on my journeys to and from work. It's scarily addictive. Now I just have to try and work out the grid references for the butterflies I've seen.

I came home to find a female orange tip sitting in the garden enjoying the last rays of sunshine of the day.

[ChrisC]

i'm still waiting to see my first garden one this year.
if you do plant spotting too while sitting in traffic it makes the journeys more bearable too. I used to do both plus birds down the hayes bypass on the way to work in the mornings.

Chris

[Susie]

Oh, I do that too, only now a days my journey is a tad more pleasant than it used to be back in the old Hayes days. The only difference is there isn't any sitting in traffic on my journey, because there isn't really any other traffic! The only thing which may slow me down is the odd tractor or just a beautiful view. The bluebell woods I pass at the moment are gorgeous!

For those fortunate enough not to know the Hayes by pass here is a picture of it prior to its opening (just imagine that full of cars and that is pretty much it for a lot of the time now - if you know Hayes then you'll know why people want to by pass it) *:

And this is a picture of part of my journey to work back in January when we had the snow:

I'll have to get a few more up to date ones.

* the green space to the right of the picture is Minet Country Park. I was a volunteer ranger there for a while. It was a very good site for birds and it is surprising what good stuff you can get even in pretty urban environments.

[Susie]

The weather at the weekend wasn't great so we popped along to the Horsham English Festival on Saturday which is always great fun and this year was no exception despite the rain.

This lady wasn't in the process of parachuting in, even the women were dancing.

On Sunday we went to the Cowpie show. I was suprised to see that the temperature on Sunday actually went down! 12 degress when we left home at 11ish and down to 10 degrees several hours later on the way back from Cowpie. Not suprising nothing was flying despite it being mid afternoon. The rest of the day was spent in front of the fire and rounded off with a slap up roast dinner.

All they need is a pastry crust

Today it was a little warmer so I did manage to get out with the camera. Sitting on the hillside even the hairstreaks were lying down and enjoying the sunshine.

Good numbers of dingy and grizzled skippers were around. Peacocks, brimstone and orange tips still on the wing too. And I saw a single Small Copper laying eggs on dock until a spider tried to pounce on her. She escaped just in time!

On the way home I heard a noise by the path. This little chap thought I couldn't see him if he stayed very still and kept his eyes closed.

after a while he decided to make a run for it but the young wood mouse wasn't quicker than me and I was able to pick him up for a moment or two before putting him safely back by the hedge

[Susie]

A quick walk over my local fields (or my little piece of heaven, as I like to think of it) didn't produce many butterflies this morning; one peacock and a couple of orange tips and possibly a large white were all I saw.

However the dragonflies are out at last. A dozen or so large red damselflies were around and a single banded demoiselle. In a few weeks I expect there will be literally hundreds of these here and you have to be very careful as you walk through the grass.

Everything seems to be so much later this year. The meadows were full of dragonflies and buttercups this time last year but today there was no sign. The bluebells are still looking lovely in the woods though.

If you follow a footpath you come to a valley of coppiced hazel which is full of ramsoms and the flowers are just starting to open, next week I expect it will look wonderful with ramsoms are far as the eye can see but the smell is horrendous! Along the field edge where there is more sunshine a few bluebells, greater stitchwort and yellow archangel grow as well. Through the middle of the valley a deep ghyll winds its way and although there is only a few inches of water in there at the moment during the winter I am sure it must flood the whole valley.