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Mar 3

I wish I was special

Treecreeper on tree trunk
Treecreeper, Certhia familiaris © Derek Griffin

During our weekly bird survey, Steve Wilson a fellow member of the Conservation and Wildlife Action Group (CWAG) spotted this lovely Treecreeper Certhia familiaris resting on the trunk of a tree, just a few yards from where we were gathered. It’s not often you get the opportunity to see one this close up, they’re usually much higher up in the canopy.

The somewhat ‘mouse-like’ Treecreeper uses its long stiff tail feathers for added support as it creeps its way up a tree trunk looking for insects. Starting low down on the trunk it works its way to the top in a spiral. It then floats like a feather* to the next tree and starts the process again. We got lucky when we found this one at the start of its climb. Spotting us it froze momentarily, giving photographer Derek Griffin the opportunity to capture this terrific image.

It brings back memories of when I was learning to be a bird-ringer. My ever-patient and aptly-named trainer John Swallow would ask that we check each one thoroughly just in case we’d found a vagrant Short-toed Treecreeper Certhia brachydactyla. It’s tricky to separate the two species as plumage differences are very slight and measurements overlap but there are consistent differences in the pattern of the wing. I believe our native Treeceeper is also warmer and more spotted above, whiter below, has a shorter bill and a whiter stripe above the eye (the supercilium). Of course much of this is subjective and wasn’t much use to a somewhat nervous novice ringer like me. However, the ratio between the hind claw and bill is diagnostic which meant I had to carefully measure the length of these, something I remember the bird strongly objecting to.

* With apologies to the magnificent Radiohead and their fabulous song Creep

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Feb 5

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Squealing in the reeds

water_rail

Water Rail, Rallus aquaticus © Alexis Lours

Although as a child birds were my first true love and I spent many many hours drawing them obsessively. As an adult l’m only an ‘every now and again’ sort of birder. Insects, particularly beetles, have well and truly taken over. Yet recently my interest has been somewhat rekindled courtesy of the local RSPB branch and their Conservation and Wildlife Action Group (CWAG). Every Wednesday morning I help them out with their weekly bird surveys on behalf of the Box Moor Trust.

Anyway… I mentioned to fellow CWAGer Axel Kirby that my bogey bird* was the Water Rail Rallus aquaticus. I’ve heard its distinctive pig-like squeal many times but an actual sighting had so far proved elusive. ‘You should have been here five minutes ago’ or ‘we were knee deep in them yesterday’ a familiar refrain from somewhat smug birders. Axel then rubbed the salt in by showing me a photo on his camera of not one, but two, he’d photographed just a few days earlier at a Local Nature Reserve. Armed with his local knowledge the following Friday we arranged a visit to this charming four acre reserve managed by the Watercress Wildlife Association. Literally five minutes after our arrival I saw my very first Water Rail.

Smaller and slimmer than the Moorhen, the Water Rail is a highly secretive inhabitant of freshwater wetlands. It its easier to see in Winter when they become more numerous and widespread.

*A bird that although fairly widespread has required more time and effort than anticipated to see. Read more

Mar 1

One for St David

pyrridium sanguineum

Pyrrhidium sanguineum © Gilles San Martin

One of the pleasures of being the Wiltshire county recorder for Coleoptera is receiving emails from fellow recorders, particularly when they’ve found something interesting on their patch. For example, last May Sue Walker and Tony Goddard found a specimen of the strikingly handsome Welsh Oak Longhorn Beetle Pyrrhidium sanguineum crawling up the outside wall of their house in Bentley Wood, South Wiltshire. After verification this was determined as a new first for the county. It’s more usually encountered in central and South Wales and the bordering counties of Herefordshire, Shropshire and Gloucestershire. This exciting find was later written up as a note in The Coleopterist.
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Mar 7

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Pure gold

the goldsmith, carabus auratus

The Goldsmith, Carabus auratus © G.Bohne

I often meet up with Paul Darby ex Wiltshire Wildlife Trust for a pint and a bag of twiglets and inevitably our conversation turns to wildlife. Recently he brought along a couple of his old insect books. In one, entitled Beetles of Britain and Europe – a rather slim Longman Nature Guide dating from 1986, I was intrigued by both the changes in taxonomy and by some of the common names. Many like the common name for the metallic green-gold ground beetle The Goldsmith Carabus auratus, and ‘Devil’s Coach-horse’ for the large black rove beetle Ocypus olens I’m familiar with but others like Wool Beetle, Bladder Beetle and and Bacon Beetle were new to me. Read more

Oct 22

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Rutpela maculata

Illustration of Rutpela maculata

Illustration of Rutpela maculata

I was recently commissioned to design a nature board for a meadow in Hampshire. I’d hoped to get Richard Lewington to do the illustrations but unfortunately he was too busy working on other projects. I tried another illustrator but sadly that didn’t work out so ended up doing them myself. There were twelve in total including a couple of beetles. The Black and Yellow Longhorn Beetle Rutpela maculata is pictured above. Previously I’ve always used designer’s gouache but after trying a variety of styles and techniques I finally opted for Faber Castell Polychromous coloured pencils and Pigma Micron archival ink on Strathmore Bristol Smooth paper. Surprising really as I’ve never used coloured pencils before.

Sep 27

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Blue fleabane

Blue Fleabane, Erigeron acer

Blue Fleabane, Erigeron acer

I’ve made a conscious effort this year to improve my botany skills. That’s just a posher way of saying I’m endeavouring to put a name to some of the plants I see when I’m out looking for insects. A number of the people that have helped me with my various surveys are good botanists and so have got used to me pointing to a flower and asking ‘What’s this?’.

At the weekend while out counting bees on Salisbury Plain we spotted this rather unusual looking wildflower which I was informed is called Blue Fleabane Erigeron acris (formerly Erigeron acer). I was struck by its unusual and delicate pale lilac and yellow flowers. Apparently it’s a member of the Daisy family, Asteraceae. It’s a herb thought to be helpful in treating tooth-ache and arthritic pains.

Jun 22

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Invasion

The blue alder leaf beetle, Agelastica alni

Agelastica alni, male

Until 2004, the Blue Alder Leaf Beetle Agelastica alni was thought to be very rare in Britain, possibly extinct although there were some historical records from southern England. Then in 2004 it suddenly appeared again in northern England in the Manchester area – Lancashire and Cheshire in 2006 and Yorkshire in 2014. It was found in Wales in 2013 and in southern England in Hampshire in 2014, mainly around Southampton*. I found it myself for the first time in Hampshire in 2015 near Eastleigh.

I searched for it in Wiltshire in 2016 but couldn’t find it (not that I looked that hard) but of course it was only a matter of time before it arrived. So it came as no surprise when I received an email from David Lawman containing a couple of specimens he photographed in Bentley Wood in south Wiltshire on 11th June. Coincidentally the same day I received an email from Anthony Coles containing a photo of a couple of carded vouchers he found on 2nd and 3rd June in Foxham near Chippenham, north Wiltshire. Although in both instances the photos looked pretty convincing, they were a little blurry (and as I’ve only recently taken on the role of county recorder and I’m not an expert on chrysomelids) I passed them onto David Hubble for a second opinion. Dave runs the Bruchidae & Chrysomelidae Recording Scheme and is the author of the Keys to the adults of seed and leaf beetles of Britain and Ireland and the about to be published Leaf Beetles. Dave confirmed by return, as we all suspected, that they were indeed Agelastica alni.

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Sep 10

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Four-banded flower bee

Four-banded flower bee, Anthophora quadrimaculata, female

Anthophora quadrimaculata, female

I photographed this Four-banded Flower Bee Anthophora quadrimaculata during a weekend bee workshop run by Steven Falk, author of the recently published Field Guide to the Bees of Great Britain and Ireland. I think it shows the diagnostic bluey-grey eyes rather well. The course was just one of many hosted by Sallyann Spence at Berrycroft Hub on a working farm just north of Swindon at Ashbury on the Wiltshire/Oxfordshire border. I must say I thoroughly enjoyed it, excellent company, good weather and we even got driven up onto the downs in a 1977 Daimler Pinzgauer high-mobility all-terrain 6WD ex-Swiss army military utility vehicle… what’s not to like? Read more

Jun 9

Our smallest resident butterfly

Small Blue butterfly, Cupido minimus, male

Cupido minimus – male

The Small Blue Cupido minimus is the UK’s smallest resident butterfly. Females are chocolate brown whilst males, like the one pictured above photographed recently at Martin Down, have a silvery-blue dusting of scales near the base of the wings. The sole food plant is Kidney Vetch Anthyllis vulneraria and so it is reliant on the type of grassland habitat where this plant can flourish. It favours areas with broken ground.

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Mar 17

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Buried, but not forgotten

Sexton beetle, Nicrophorus vespilloides

Nicrophorus vespilloides

While sorting through some old photos from 2008 I discovered this photo of a Sexton or The Common Burying Beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides. These are useful beetles that bury the carcasses of small vertebrates such as birds and rodents as a food source for their larvae. These beetles sometimes called carrion beetles belong to the family Silphidae.

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