A Return and a Change

Welcome to Rob's Nature Scribblings redux!

2013 was an interesting year for me with some big changes and this poor blog got abandoned a little for the last 9 months.

As a quick, non-boring 2013 review: I did the usual things: LNHS trips and poking around in woods, heaths, meadows and marshes looking at plants and 6-legged critters. But I also spent a good chunk of 2013 in Trent Park in north London as part of the 1000for1ksq project. The idea behind this was to pick a 1km square and aim to identify 1000 species within it over the course of the year. Some amazing people actually managed to fly past it! I did not. But you can see at least some of how I neglected this blog did in grid square TQ2897

I recommend checking out the other posts on that site; I learnt so much from reading it last year. And if you're particularly inspired, there are a bunch of people doing it again this year.

So, the change? The change is that I moved. Not merely to a different TfL zone but 350 miles north to Edinburgh! One of the amazing things was swapping my local patch from Trent Park to Holyrood Park. I live right next to this gorgeous mini-mountain!

Arthur's Seat

I've only been living here since late December and I have plenty more exploring to do locally. I've also joined the Edinburgh Natural History Society, gone on a couple of trips and made some friends.

So with this effective reboot, I'm hoping to share through this blog some of that exploration and getting to know this land. I'm also hoping that it fulfills a niche that seems fairly underdeveloped in the Scottish nature blogosphere: that of the smaller stuff. Scotland's got some great, charismatic fauna - eagles, salmon, beavers, otters, red deer, Scottish wild cats, basking sharks, cetaceans, gannet colonies etc. And while I'm sure I'll post a metric f***-ton of photos of those things should I see them; I want to show some of other things Scotland has to offer: the mosses, the unusual plants, the insects, the littoral wildlife etc.

Also, fair warning: This blog is going to get mossy until it warms up a bit. I've got into bryophytes quite a bit since I last posted here and Scotland is stupendously diverse when it comes to these plants. It has about 87% of the UK flora and about 60% of all the European bryophyte species! 

Pointed Spear-moss, Calliergonella cuspidata

I'll be back soon with actual content!

High Elms again

Another trip to High Elms on a visit home reminded me that I hadn’t touched the blog since last time I was here. So here’s a few pics and with the warm weather back hopefully there’ll be more posts in future.

We deliberately went out to look for Moschatel which, despite keeping an eagle eye out for it on many woodland walks for the last 3 years or so since I became aware of it, I’d always managed to miss it. It was comically easy to find here, growing in patches around the base of certain trees.

Finally! Moschatel!

Also incredibly abundant was Toothwort, growing in many locations around the wood. There’s something spooky about a plant completely devoid of greenery and it’s probably why it’s also called the Corpseflower.

Nearby were a bunch of puffballs growing directly on the rotting wood of a dead Beech tree. I took some photos but fully expected to find out it was one of a dozen spores-under-a-microscope species. I was pleasantly surprised to find that puffballs growing in this habit are just one species (feel free to correct me here!): The Stump Puffball, Lycoperdon pyriforme.

Apologies for the blurry photo. It's spring in England - it was gloomy.

High Elms - few elms, many orchids

Just a few pics after the monstrous post before. I popped home that same weekend to visit my parents. My mum was quite keen to show me “the Orchid Bank” in High Elms while I was there so we duly popped over for a couple of hours. I understood why she was so keen shortly after stepping foot into the fenced-off clearing. Common Spotted Orchid and Common Twayblade was absolutely everywhere as well as large numbers of Pyramidal Orchid, a few Bee Orchids, Fly Orchid and apparently Man Orchid was in there somewhere too although we didn’t manage to find it. In amongst these we had other chalkland species like Fairy Flax and Bladder Campion. Roman Snails were also very abundant. Just a gorgeous site all round.

The Fly Orchid

I was also shown some Bird’s Nest Orchid growing under some Beech nearby. It had gone over a bit by now but I’m a bit of a sucker for this kind of alien-looking parasitic plant. Not a bit of green on it, looking more like a fungus than a plant!

Bird's Nest Orchid
Yes, it looks like a stick. It's still a nifty organism.

Esher Common

I popped down to Esher Common in Surrey on Saturday for an LNHS meet-up – looking for heathland invertebrates. The first port of call was the large bank of semi-bare ground just outside Oxshott station. Mottled Grasshopper and Bog Bush Cricket nymphs were found here as well as the usual piles of Kleidocerys of both species. Sarah found a Scarce 7-spot Ladybird in the heather. This is quite a difficult species to ID as it mainly differs from the common 7-spot on the colouration of segments under the legs. Tristan showed me a very small weevil swept off the heather that was something I’d read about before but had yet to see – Micrelus ericae – a small grey-green weevil with a yellowish sutural line. It’s a cutie but at c.2mm and with some grey weather my humble little flash-less camera wasn’t up to making a good photo of it. Also out of this general area came a couple of robber flies – Dioctria hyalipennis and Machimus atricapillus.

Rounding this bank onto a sandy gully we came across a lot of pretty, metallic Ruby-tailed Wasps (one of the Chrysis spp.) which the group enjoyed looking at. Off the nearby pines we found the prettily marked Chequered Click Beetle (Prosternon tessellatum), the 18-spot Ladybird and the slightly odd-looking Striped Ladybird. 

18-spot Ladybird

Chequered Click Beetle

A large red-bodied lacewing with clear wings was caught briefly but made a speedy exit. I think it’s Nothochrysa capitata (N. fulviceps is a possibility but is almost vanishingly rare and generally north westerly distributed). Growing along the track here were a few new species of plant for me – Cat’s Ear, Hare’s Foot Trefoil and Sand Spurrey. We progressed from here through woodland. The main group stopping to admire a Beautiful Demoiselle, a Pill Millipede and several large Volucella hoverflies, the only one of which we got a really good look at was Volucella pelluscens. At one point a tangled pair of relatively large insects tumbled through the air in front of me. This was a pair of large robberflies briefly in coitus before one flew off. I believe these were one of the Neoitamus spp., probably Neoitamus cyanurus. Another member of our group picked up a medium sized ground beetle – Pterostichus melanarius.

Sand Spurrey

Pterostichus melanarius

Neoitamus cyanurus

Neoitamus cyanurus again. A bit of a beast as flies go!

Swept off of nettle was the ever-common scourge of gardener’s hands - Anthocoris nemoratum. This small insect is one of a difficult genus, in the same family as bed bugs and not afraid to give an itchy bite once in a while. And off a small oak came a late instar nymph of the Red-Legged Shieldbug, Pentatoma rufipes. As the woodland track widened we reached a pond with Emperor Dragonflies, Common Newts and Common Blue Damselflies. Crested Dog’s Tail grew in spots around the edges and a few Evening Primroses were up on the tops of the banks. In a long dried up pool were great numbers (50-60ish?) of Common Spotted Orchids and quite a lot of St John’s Wort. We collected a few Chrysomelids here. One species appeared to be Chrysolina hyperici but the other was similar but significantly different in size and puncturation (maybe sexual dimorphism?). I’m still working on these at home.

We crossed over a motorway and onto a much larger and generally open heath. Here were patches of woody regeneration forming wind breaks and mini-coppices and a very sandy bridleway across it. Sweeping more grasses a couple of species of malachiid turned up: the very common Malachius bipustulatus and Anthocomus fasciatus a distinctive and easily recognised beetle in the UK but not one I’d seen/known I could ID so easily before. The birch saplings brought out a real stunner when a Birch Sawfly larva fell into my net. Sawfly larvae are a very common sight with their baby-like head capsules but typically the largest I see are no more than an inch long. This brute of a larva was around twice that length! The adults are really unusual looking things and I hear they’re rarely seen.

Birch Sawfly larva

Birch Sawfly larva with frankly dinky birch leaf

In the midst of all this heather and birch was a single relatively young looking oak with foliage from top to bottom allowing for easy sweeping. The diversity of beetles that came off of this tree was really impressive. Just from what I saw myself: Two click beetles – the very common (and unfortunately-named) Athous haemorrhoidalis and a very lively, black click beetle with golden hairs all over its body – Hemicrepidius hirtus. I also managed to sweep a jewel beetle from this tree; another Agrilus species and one I’m still working on IDing at home. Several species from this genus have been added to the UK list in recent years making keying Agrilus to species a little difficult. Weevils were also very well represented here. A small flea weevil keyed out to be Orchestes pilosus. Under the microscope this species turns out to be particularly beautiful with a patterned coat of orange, white and brown hair. Also found was a large chequer-board patterned weevil - Otiorhynchus singularis. 

Athous haemorrhoidalis

Otiorhynchus singularis

Finally we walked the sandy tracks for a bit and came across Wood Sage, a click beetle - Ampedus balteatus, a Green Tiger Beetle and a Pill Beetle (that’s an entire family I hadn’t seen before!) which I’ve since keyed out to Cytilus sericeus. On the route back I walked a little off-track and came across several ponds and was lucky enough to have a brief sighting of a Grass Snake. Sadly it’s two weeks later into July and I haven’t really had a sunny reasonably calm day like it since.

Green Tiger Beetle

Ampedus balteatus

Another whip round Ally Pally

Had a very busy insect-free weekend but just before this latest spat of crap weather I did manage a quick loop about Ally Pally after work as a rare sunny evening went by. 

Not an awful lot to report except a couple of botanical lifers in the form of Sheep’s Sorrel and a very pretty grass, Crested Dog’s-tail. And a bug I had thought I’d recorded before – Stenotus binotatus. All achingly common but just another example of how much there is to learn.

  

Crested Dog's-tail (Cynosurus cristatus)

Yeah, it's an awful, blurry photo but it shows the structure quite well.

In one oak I found the predatory mirid bug, Phylus melanocephalus; and a hopper that turned out to be a Ribautiana sp. and therefore pretty much unidentifiable for the likes of me. An alder tree had the dark capsid bug, Capsus ater and quite a lot of a type of bristletail which coils its antennae into a loop. I believe this makes it Pogonognathellus longicornis, the one species of bristletail I’ve previously recorded. In the long grasses in the south-eastern corner of the park came many of the usual characters - lots of the Thick-thighed Flower Beetle, Oedemera nobilis; the mirid bug Leptopterna dolobrata; and Roesel’s Bush-cricket nymphs.  Also possibly the most richly marked Tortoise Shieldbug I’ve ever seen:

Tortoise Shieldbug (Eurygaster testudinaria)

Lea Valley mooching

Sunday's sojourn was to Cheshunt and the meadows and tracks by the River Lea Navigation. Being pretty much the first non-rainy weekend in a while, it took a bit of wandering before I got beyond the picnic crowds. Depressingly, a lot of the area’s been scalped in advance of the crowds around the Olympic games and so there aren’t as many big swathes of rough grassland as I’ve seen there in previous years. The first small chunk of meadow was still reasonably interesting. I came across 5 different species of vetch(ling) in one spot – Meadow Vetchling, Common Vetch, Grass Vetchling, Hairy Tare and Smooth Tare (another new species for me). Out of this marginal grassy habitat I also pulled out plenty of Thick-thighed Flower Beetle, Oedemera nobilis; an Orthotylus sp. mirid bug (such a difficult genus!); the soldier beetle, Cantharis nigricans; a Mirid bug, Grypocoris stysi; and a bright white common crab spider, Misumena vatia.

Grypocoris stysi

Misumena vatia waiting for lunch to come to her

A distressed Black-headed Gull brought my attention to a Red Kite floating over the river. There was also a good number of Willow Warblers singing in the area. They’re not the loudest, most variable or most complex of singers but they do my favourite UK birdsong. I picked up another tick upon finding some Cut-leaved Cranesbill and on a Sweet Chestnut found a Red-headed Cardinal Beetle, Pyrochroa serraticornis. I wandered about a fair bit, spent way too long confirming that rose identification is hard and that 99% of the time that Hawk’s-beard will turn out to be Rough Hawk’s-beard. Up on some Common Hogweed I also saw this very confiding large hoverfly, Volucella pelluscens.

Volucella pelluscens

Finally I walked back through the ill-planned disc golf area where lack of use has allowed the grasses and clover to grow higher. The odd-looking chain-and-basket goals poking clear of the vetch or hiding behind bramble and hawthorn shrubs say a lot about the council’s aspirations, the extra funding it’s presumably had and how out of touch it must be with the local population. In amongst this derelict recreation ground were a lot of Leptogaster sp. robberflies; far more than I’d found elsewhere. Showing red hind legs, I’m fairly sure these were Leptogaster guttiventris. The final and most surprising find was a small bunch of Bee Orchids! I could almost have stepped on these beauties and I’m really glad I didn’t. I know they’re fairly common but for me they were completely new, completely different and completely self-found. I took way too many photos. I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed seeing a wildflower quite like that before.

Bee Orchid

It doesn't look anything like a bee to me but then I don't view life in ultraviolet through hundreds of ommatidia

Hidden jewels in Ashtead Common

The forecast for the weekend slowly transformed from torrential downpours into a vaguely amenable “overcast and breezy”. This was t’girl’s first weekend post-exams and she wanted to go walk somewhere outdoors and green. And so Friday’s inebriation led to Saturday’s gentle bimble around Ashtead Common. We first popped over to the small green on the other side of the railway which looked surprisingly decent for 2 acres of hemmed-in common. Under the large oaks I swept a few things out of the grasses including a jewel beetle (my first in the UK – hot on the heels of my first ever in France earlier in the month), which I think is Agrilus sinuatus – the Hawthorn Jewel Beetle and a Notable A species. There was also the attractive Rhabdomiris striatellus which I still managed to mentally confuse with Miris striatus for a little bit. Back into Ashtead Common we hastily crossed the open field due to the strong wind – stopping briefly for some Yellow Rattle and Roesel’s Bush-cricket nymphs. The wind all but died away as we entered the domain of the trees and, when the sun came out, previously invisible damselflies rose out of the long grass and Speckled Wood butterflies chased each other under the canopy. Abbie got some nice sightings of blackcap, jay and wren; and a chiffchaff that seemed to be varying its song in interesting ways. In the fenced off area amongst some recently hacked pollards we found the one orchid of the day - a quite robust Common Spotted Orchid. Abbie and I had a go at the Cantharid key with a fairly small individual swept from woodland margin. It turned out to be a Rhagonycha for once and keyed out to Rhagonycha lutea which is Notable A. Taking it home I was able to confirm the ID under a microscope.

Rhabdomiris striatellus

A particularly interesting spot consisted of several veteran oaks in an otherwise open area with an abundance of bracken mixed with grassy patches. Out of one of these grassy bits came an odd looking ground bug with a very clear corium which keyed out to Nysius senecionis (see Issue 2 of HetNews for a key) – this is a relative newcomer (first recorded in the UK in 1992) but is now widespread in the southern half of the country. Also in this open area I found a new species of plant for me – Smooth Hawk’s-beard.

Green Oak Tortrix moth

The way back to the station brought us Hedge Woundwort and a Green Oak Tortrix moth (another lifer!). A little later on our journey brought the undoubted highlight of the day (on the tube of all places!): the large violet ground beetle, Carabus problematicus. Rescued from slightly panicky stamping he was quite the sight under the microscope. A little feistier than Pterostichus madidus was, it still stopped for long periods allowing me to comfortably ID it and drink in the details. The nasty looking mandibles only get worse when you can see the sharp, bristle-like serrations on the inner jaws!

Carabus problematicus