Arthropods behaving badly at Stodmarsh

This blog post contains graphic images of small arthropods preying on each other. If you're not keen on that kind of thing, I recommend you give this one a miss...

So. Today, warm and sunny, and I met my blogging pal Phil Sharp at West Malling for a trip to Stodmarsh. On the way we called in at Wye Downs NNR in the hope of tracking down a Duke of Burgundy, one of the few British butterflies I've never seen. (The others, for those who are interested, are Chequered Skipper, Large Blue, Large Heath, Scotch Argus, Mountain Ringlet, Marsh Fritillary and High Brown Fritillary. All the rest - in the bag.)

After Phil's satnav guided us around several miles of teeny-tiny lanes though gorgeous rolling downland, we finally pulled up at a Natural England car park, and headed out into the reserve, almost immediately finding this female Brimstone feeding on a bramble flower in a tangled clump, and thinking that we couldn't see her.

The view from up here is astounding - you overlook a very long, steep-sided valley which, the car park sign informed us, is called 'The Devil's Kneading Trough'. I would like to have seen the resultant Devil's Crusty Bloomer. Beyond the valley, the view was more or less uninterrupted greenness, with Ashford handily hidden by a flank of hillside. Sadly I had no short lens for a landscape photo, but it looks like this. Actually, Phil took a photo or two with his bridge camera, so hopefully he'll post that on his blog, which you can see here.

We walked down into the trough, pausing on the way whenever a butterfly chanced past. We saw several Dingy Skippers, including this rather pale and worn individual, a nice fresh Brown Argus or two, and a couple of Green Hairstreaks. Also lots of Speckled Yellow moths, and (I think, they didn't land) some Small Heaths. No D of Bs. The habitat looked perfect with lots of spent Cowslips around, the weather WAS perfect, so I'm not sure where we went wrong. Maybe there aren't many of them here and we were just unlucky. Or maybe their flight season is already coming to an end.

There was a lovely butterfly bonus on the way back to the car though, in the form of several Wall Browns, the first I've seen for YEARS. And since the last time I saw them, the books and guides seem to have dropped the 'Brown' part of their name so they are just The Wall - not too keen on that. Anyway, they looked fabulous in flight, very orange, but on settling they were closing up instantly, so no nice open-wing shots. They were also very flighty - I was lucky with this one as it settled close to me when I was standing still. We also heard a Cuckoo up here, plus Yellowhammer and Whitethroat.

And so we went on to Stodmarsh, parking at the visitor centre, which was unaccountably absolutely packed with cars, so much so that we had a hard time parking, and wondered if there was a twitch on. While Phil unpacked I took a couple of shots of the first of the day's Odonata - yet another Azure, a male not fully coloured up yet.

We walked to the first hide (Reedbed hide I think), which overlooks a smallish reedy lake. Very little was on the water (two Great Crested Grebes, plus a lovely pair of big Common Carp in the shallows), but we were in for a real treat when a Bittern came languidly flapping across. I didn't manage any decent photos, partly because when I saw the big brown thing appear I presumed it would be a Marsh Harrier and decided it wasn't close enough to bother to photograph (as I have many closer Marsh Harrier photos), and so raised bins rather than camera. Then saw it was in fact a Bittern (of which I have no photos, distant or otherwise), so lowered bins, raised camera, but it was even more not close enough by then.

We left the hide when a large group arrived (accounting for at least some of all those cars), and walked towards Lake Tower hide. On the way, we saw at least 12 Hobbies wheeling around very high up, while lower down many gulls and Common Terns were doing the same thing.

It's a fair assumption that the Hobbies were catching flying insects. This not-great photo shows that the terns and gulls were doing the same thing. Phil thought the Hobbies must be hoovering up whatever the gulls and terns missed.

A better tern, looking down its bill at me.

The terns nest on rafts here, but the gulls were all youngsters, too young to be breeding. Most were Black-headed.

But this one wasn't. It's the first first-summer Mediterranean Gull I've ever photographed, not that I noticed at the time. We went on into the Lake Tower hide but actually views of the gulls'n'terns from here were not as good as from the path, though we did add Shoveler to the daylist when a couple flew by across the lake. A Cetti's sang loudly and mockingly from right outside the hide but we couldn't see a trace of it, and so we left the hide and carried on our way.

And now for some gruesomeness.

Phil spotted this scene in the pathside vegetation - a female Scorpionfly dining on the remains of a male damselfly of some kind or another. Knowing that Scorpionflies scavenge rather than hunt, I suspected that she had pulled this damsel out of a spider web, and a closer look proved this to be the case. In fact the spider appeared briefly but decided not to try to retrieve its lunch.

A closer view. The Scorpionfly is contentedly slurping the insides out of the damsel's disarticulated thorax using her drinking-straw mouthparts. Ain't nature horrible. I mean wonderful.

One of the day's poor showings of Marsh Harrier. Along this same path we also heard but didn't see Bearded Tits, and there were Reed Warblers and Reed Buntings singing away but (unusually, for the latter) avoiding detection. Also a few Whitethroats singing.

We paused by a flooded field to watch two Lapwings (both males by the looks of my photos) chasing each other about and giving constant whooping and gravelly-grinding calls.

As the path took us alongside the Stour river, so Banded Demoiselles began to appear.

We'd seen a couple of small dragons too, which we presumed were Hairy Dragonflies (though they were flying against the sky so no detail visible). Then this female landed and we managed to sneak close enough for photos, confirming ID.

The next stretch of the walk was pretty uneventful, though very pleasant. We heard but could not find a singing Turtle Dove at the turn towards the Grove Ferry ramp. We went up to the ramp and had a sit-down, noting a couple more Hobbies on the wing and the day's first Sedge Warbler giving its ecstatically crazy song from somewhere below. Then onwards, and through a field of cows - not my favourite kind of experience, and they were (of course) standing right on the path, but they didn't do anything apart from stare at us with that worryingly steady bovine gaze that seems to say, 'I know you enjoy cheeseburgers'.

It was just after this, or just before this (cow anxiety has affected my memory) that the day's most low-flying Hobby came along, and I got these photos, which needed a lot of brightening up to be useable. The sky wasn't really that white, in fact after a little midday cloud it was becoming very blue again.

We visited Marsh hide, saw hardly anything from there, but the view out was lovely, with a really stunning show of Yellow Flag Irises.

On the last stretch of path, we were passing a stand of tall white umbelliferous something-or-other when I noticed what looked like a white button on one of the flowerheads. It proved to be a lovely Crab Spider, which I think must have eaten recently as it was not in its stretched-arms flycatching stance.

More gruesomeness. Phil spotted a second Crab Spider on the same plant, and this one was mid-feast, sucking the insides out of a fat (but rapidly shrinking) fly.

OK, enough ickyness. Here's a nice and still-alive damsel, a female Variable, found just before the car park. It was by now about 3.30pm and, mindful of the long drive back, we decided to abandon our vague plan to look in at Westbere Lakes on the way home. Some other time...

First Odonata

With the wind dropping and sunshine promised, I squeezed in a morning visit to Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve, determined to catch up with the rest of... everyone and see at least one dragon or damsel.

I made a bee-line for Long Lake, and as it was still rather chilly (6.30am) I decided to see if anything was under the refugia here. The first one produced nothing but a mysteriously moving piece of wood, which on closer inspection proved to be a Common Toad, my first for the patch. The rest really did produce nothing.

I spent the next couple of hours wandering between Long Lake and the Willow hide area, switching from long lens to macro as the mood took me. Everywhere is very leafy now, making it difficult to locate small birds (unless the small birds are Robins, of which I saw a multitude). There were lots of singing Garden Warblers about, the Willow Warbler by Long Lake is still around, and I heard two different Reed Warblers there as well.

A Stock Dove, chilling out up a tree. I assumed when I spotted it that it would be a juvenile Woodpigeon, mainly because it didn't fly away at my approach, but a look through the lens proved me wrong.

This tiny fly was very eyecatching, with the blue and violet light reflected from its wings. I have no idea what species it is, though I note it has pretty stonking antennae for a 'true' fly. A brief flail on the internet has led me to Rhaphium but I'm not sure that's right.

Odonata! A nice male Azure, found after much creeping around by the little pond by Willow hide. Now I have to remember how to keep the tails in focus when taking damsel pictures...

That's better.

And we mustn't forget the grisly close-up.

As things warmed up, I began to see lots of damsels, though all were Azures. Here's a female.

Also much in evidence were bumblebees, which were resting on the damp leaves in between visiting flowers. Here's an Early Bumblebee.

And a Tree Bumblebee.

A female Scorpionfly, one of several I saw today.

And a caddisfly, species unknown, but looking photogenic on a weeping sedge.

With all these tasty insects out and about, it's probably a good day to be a spider. I think this is a Tetragnatha species.

Some more of the things I didn't photograph. I went over to look out across West Lake, just as something big and heavy made a huge splash in the water. I waited, and a minute or so later a big carp jumped almost fully clear of the water. Meanwhile, Swifts were overhead on and off through the morning, and I noticed a Great Spotted Woodpecker flying over a couple of times, carrying food.

The Garden Warbler that was singing by Long Lake seems to have gone, but there were two singing birds which seemed to be very close together by Willow hide. I sat on the little seat with the roof, and eventually got a clear view of one of them.

Almost from the same spot I could hear a high-up singing Chiffchaff, while lower down his other half (I presume) was busy ridding the world of spiders.

I spent a long time 'staking out' a female Robin which was food-soliciting, but I was too slow or the view was too obscured whenever the male came to feed her. While I was waiting, a Canada Goose pair with a gaggle of small goslings came hurrying past.

Giving up on the Robin pair, I headed back to the visitor centre. I stopped by the river for a while, looking for Banded Demoiselles, but saw none. Today's Odonata species count was destined to stay in the singular. This Song Thrush was at the fork of the path near the visitor centre.

I sat at a picnic table to pack away my things, and a Robin instantly bounced up onto the table edge to examine me and my belongings in case I had anything eatable for it. Deciding after a couple of minutes that I didn't, it flew down onto the grass.

I could hear another Robin making food-soliciting chirps from somewhere within a thick stand of hawthorn, so I presumed this one was a male, hard at work finding food for his mate.

While I was sitting there, I noticed a Blue Tit visiting a large nestbox on the visitor centre wall, so decided to stick around and try for some photos.

That wire coming out of the box means, I presume, that the action inside is being filmed and, probably, shown on screen in the visitor centre (which was closed, so I couldn't check).

It's funny how, when you stop to observe A, you often then notice B, and then C. While watching the Blue Tit, I saw a Wren nipping into the space below, where the loos are and where there's a bit of overhanging roof. I went in for a closer look, and discovered that hanging under the overhang was a nesting pouch, and it was full of Wren nest and baby Wrens. There are picnic tables under here too, so I sat quietly at one of them.

Very shady under there. I reduced noise as much as I could by taking shutter speed down and using my camera bag as a makeshift camera support.

I brightened this shot up a lot so you can see the cute gaping maws of the Wren chicks. There were at least three, and they looked well-grown and feathered, and very lively. I wouldn't be surprised if they fledged later today.

Copper load of this

I'm so sorry, there's no excuse for that pun (except that all the other titles for this post that I could think of were even worse puns). OK, May Day bank holiday, sunny day, North Downs (but only for a short visit because I had a ton of other, boring things to do). It was quite breezy up there and butterfly-watching was difficult.

This was the best I could manage of a Grizzled Skipper. These have been out for a while now and aren't looking quite as fresh-out-of-the-box as the more numerous Dingy Skippers.

The Hawthorn is properly out now and looking lovely. There was a Garden Warbler singing very enthusiastically from one of them, and a Whitethroat was songflighting from another. At the far end of the reserve I heard the rattle of a Lesser Whitethroat.

The reptile search was almost unsuccessful, a couple of mini Slow-worms the sum total of the day's sightings. An earlier start would help here. But my vigil around the 'big clump' at the far end delivered the Green Hairstreak goods.

While waiting for the hairstreak, I managed a shoddy photo of a lovely Silver-ground Carpet moth.

And another of this weird little thing, which I later IDed as the treehopper Centrotus cornutus, a 'true bug' with impressive thoracic horns and slightly sinister wide-spaced eyes.

There were a lot of Brimstones around. The females were busy visiting buckthorn and laying eggs on it, in between fending off the many amorous males which by now surely stand little chance of finding an unmated female. This male was having a rest, displaying rather battered wings for a Brimmie (they are probably the most sturdily built of all our butterflies).

A stunning Small Copper waylaid me on the return trail, looking absolutely incandescent when viewed against the light. It also posed like a star, staying put while I lay down beside it for some eye-to-eye photos.

The Dingy Skippers are out in good numbers, and were being their usual playfully annoying selves, posing until the hapless photographer had slowly sunk into a kneeling pose for a close shot, then skipping away. I managed both of these pics on the little path that runs alongside the bottom edge of the reserve.

Sycamore leaves. Just liked them.

And a green-eyed cranefly. The butterfly day count ended on nine species, with Large White, Orange-tip, Peacock and Speckled Wood joining those already mentioned.