The Feisty Small Copper !

Small Copper  Lycaena phlaeas

Its that bright coppery orange fore wing that usally catches your eye, this feisty little butterfly can often be seen on its chosen vantage point overlooking its territory.

The males in particular are very territorial, chasing off other insects, butterflies of all sizes,and then returning to there vantage point where they await the appearance of a female. I witnessed a male chase off a Brown Argus, a Common Blue, a Small White as well as other male Small Coppers.

I was fortunate enough to come across a pair of Small Coppers in courtship. I was under the impression that the larger of the two was the male, as it seemed to be making all the dominant moves, in particular crawling after the smaller, brighter coloured individual, which at first did not seem to interested in the idea of courtship.

This was not the case though, according to my field guide its the female that is larger than the male, this slightly worn female was obviously keen on mating with this fresh, brightly coloured male it appears.

This female spent some time pursuing the male around this dead thistle head, there was a brief coupling, but the male left the scene leaving the female still crawling around the thistle head.


There were plenty of other sightings on this warm sunny afternoon, providing me with various photo opportunities on different wild flower scenario's

There were a few other small butterflies on view, Brown Argus gave some similar views, the usual Common Blue. But the Small Coppers were definitely the dominant species chasing these away time after time.

female Common Blue

Brown Argus

Brown Argus

Male Common Blue

Small Copper

Autumn and winter are drawing near, here in the south of the country these Small Coppers can still be seen until late October, will be interesting to see how they fare as autumn progresses.

Long time, No See.

I can't seem to hear the so called 'pinging' call of the Bearded Tit, I have put this down to the High tone hearing loss I seemed to have developed in my latter years with the fire brigade. unfortunately this 'pinging ' call serves as a good indicator that the birds are close by.

Whatever the reason I don't see these birds very often, and I do spend a lot of time wandering through their chosen habitat of reed bed,when I do see them its more by chance than design.

So its always a special occasion when one does pop up to the top of the reeds and makes its presence visible rather than audible.

This looks to be a juvenile, possibly a juvenile male, the bill looks orange/yellow, the black band in front of the eye, another indicator of a male. This one showed showed well on the top of the Phragmites for a short time, another bird was seen lower down in the reeds but was soon lost to view.

Both birds melted back into the reeds, hopefully they have had a good breeding season and more will be on view during the winter months.

Southern Hawker !

I find it hard to believe that I have only just come across this large Hawker and not registered that I am looking at the Southern Hawker, especially as this is suppose to be a very common species here in the south of the country.

This species which flies between June and October coincides with the large number of Migrant Hawkers that I usally encounter, I can only assume that maybe I have not been paying enough attention to the individuals seen and assuming that they are all Migrant Hawkers I'm ashamed to admit. but saying that, there was a marked size difference. surely it would have registered that this was something different.

 There again could be the first time our paths have crossed.

I came across at least four of these Southern Hawkers, three of which were basking in the sunshine on brambles, the fourth, true to form came head to head with me as I walked along the woodland track. my field guides tells me that they are quite an inquisitive dragonfly. All were seen  on the edge of the woodland, all were males.

Southern Hawker male   Aeshna cyanea

Key identification points:- The two large yellow shoulder patches on the top of the thorax just behind the eyes often termed the "Headlights" were quite distinctive, and showed up quite well on the individuals seen. The overall colouring of the thorax was clearly a lime green with narrower brown stripes. The Migrant Hawker which I usally see, has a yellow background colour to the thorax, and the yellow patches on top of the thorax are quite small in comparison

The blue coloured bands on the lower segments of the abdomen S9 and S10 could clearly be seen, the twin spots on the remaining segments were green in colour, on the top of the abdomen segments, blue on the side. whereas the male Migrant Hawker has twin blue spots on all the segments. The female has yellowish spots and bands in stead of blue. but I am yet to see the female.

Segment 2 has a narrow lime green narrow triangular mark, giving it a more mushroom like shape to me, again using the Migrant Hawker for comparison, which has a golf tee shaped mark on S2.

Strangely, since being more aware of this dragonfly I have seen no more to date, so maybe not that common after all. I certainly will be paying more attention in the future.

Southern Hawker (no2)

Southern Hawker No3

Nice to see  a new Dragonfly species, still ticking off the more so called common species.

Poetic justice maybe !

The Wasps are all over the ripening Blackberries at the moment, desperately trying to get the sweet sugary juice they crave.

They have spent much of the early summer months predating on greenfly, caterpillars and other small insects, many of which considered garden pests, a point to their favour, this protein is then fed to their larvae or grubs back in their social nest.

 The grubs convert this protein rich diet into carbohydrate which they secrete as a sugary droplet to feed the adults, very clever solution to ensure the adults bring back a supply of protein food.

 They must also play their part in pollinating plants as they drink nectar from the flowers, another point to their favour,

But, it's at this time of the year late August, when the queen stop laying eggs, there are no larvae to provide the sugary secretions, the adult Wasps search for other sources of sugar-rich foods and drinks. this is when they really become bothersome to us.

If you have ever experienced the quite painful sting of the wasp, it's very difficult not to become one of those arm flailing individuals desperately trying to discourage the wasp from your vicinity, not always the best course of action to take.

Not one of my favorite insects at all, but  live and let live.

Not far away down in the grass beneath the brambles a largish arachnid caught my eye, a Wasp Spider, a large female, so named because of there similarity in colouring to the Wasp as you can see below, not because they eat wasps their usual food source are grasshoppers. 

Wasp Spider argiope bruennichi

Unfortunately for this wasp, all wrapped up for lunch,

the hungry female Wasp Spider still requires a protein-rich diet.

Rain stops play at Oare !

Once again I found myself being drawn back to Faversham, this time to purchase some Home Brew equipment, a glut of locally grown Damsons had been found, sufficient to provide a good stock of home made Damson Jam and enough leftover to make some Damson wine, a new and interesting venture to keep us occupied through the long cold winter.

And so it would have been rude not to call in to Oare Marshes to check out the latest Wader situation, but with just a small window of opportunity, some seriously black storm clouds were looming on the horizon.

A shame really, as I drove down hill towards the scrapes, I could see the tide was in, which meant a good show of waders on the scrape, a quick look out of the car window as I passed the scrape proved me right, huge flocks of waders could be seen roosting with a good few close to the roadside viewing areas, a quick look out the other window confirmed that storm was moving in this direction.

I made my way quickly to the viewing areas and started to scan through the waders, all the usual suspects were in attendance, Black Tailed Godwits, Lapwing, Redskank, Avocet, Golden Plover, Dunlin, Ringed Plover, huge number of Black Headed Gulls roosting on the scrape, but I couldn't pick out the Bonaparte's gull that is still here. Heron, Little Egrets, a surprise view of  Spoonbill that suddenly appeared from behind a preening Little Egret.

The Spoonbill moved out into the open for a very short time, before returning to its roosting position.
tucking his head down and lost to view.

 This was the calm before the storm, most of the waders appeared to be resting quietly, a few small flocks of birds were still arriving on the scrape

Dunlin

This tranquil scene was not to last, just as I was working my way through the waders, looking for the elusive moulting Spotted Redshank, still not seen by me, the  sky erupted into a snowstorm of birds wheeling, twisting in every direction, a wondrous scene to behold, and the cause, a Peregrine had arrived, not seriously hunting, a few stoops, the Peregrine circled above the panic stricken waders.
I managed to get a photograph of the  bird as it passed above me, the terror of the skies.

Peregrine

Those black clouds were not far away now and the first drops of rain started to fall, I hurried back to the car, just making it in time as the heavens opened up.

A short visit but always worth the effort to see whats about.

Hawker !

A road trip to Faversham to collect some DIY fittings,  gave me the opportunity to check out the nature reserve at Oare once again.

I couldn't resist checking out the ditches in the hope of catching another glimpse of the Southern Migrant Hawkers.

 I couldn't find a single specimen, my field guide tells me that its getting near the end of their flight time for this year, maybe that explains it, fortunately Migrant Hawkers are reaching  there peak.

Migrant Hawkers seem to have taken over the air-ways across the ditches, and true to form, there were a few very accommodating individuals prepared to hover right in front of me, for a change.

Migrant Hawker  Aeshna mixta

 Until I saw my first Southern Migrant Hawker, I found it quite difficult to distinguish between the two, especially as they patrolled up and down the ditches, but the Southern Migrant Hawker certainly lives up to its nick name of Blue Eyed Hawker as you can see below, and when seen well easy to separate from each other.

All these photographs were taken as the Migrant Hawker hovered stationary over the ditch water.

As  I made my way back to the car my first Painted Lady Butterfly for the year made an appearance.

Painted Lady