February 2022 - Wildlife sightings

1st February - Ashenbank woods still a few species of Fungi lingering around the woodlands, Scarlet Elfcups and  Sulphur tuft.

Scarlet Elfcup

Sulphur Tuft

2nd Feb - A pleasant walk through Ashenbank Woods, spring looks to be on the way with Bluebell, Daffodil and  `Lords and Ladies" shooting through the leaf litter and today Snowdrops  starting to bloom.

Snowdrops-  02.02 2022

January 2022 - wildlife sightings

January 2nd.

 Its been a few years since I posted on this blog, joined a few facebook groups relating to wildlife, Orchids and fungi, but I think I prefer this personal blog to record my own natural sightings without any rules to adhere to.

 So here we go again.

 

I still walk my local woodland at Ashenbank, sadly my old dog is no longer with us, but he had good innings of 14 years, I often think of him as I walk these familiar paths albeit with a new younger dog who keeps me company as I look for new natural wonders.

Its now early January, and I have been searching for Scarlet Elfcups, these usally start to appear about this time, finally, after rooting around in the leaf litter at last years site, I found one fully developed Scarlet Elfcup and two emerging elfcups, I'm sure more will follow as the month progresses.

January 4th

Noticed this little non descript moth on the kitchen door late at night , a bit of field book investigation narrowed it down to a possible Winter Moth which emerge late winter. this looks like a male as the female are wingless.

considered to be a pest, damaging fruit trees and other broad leaved trees.

January 6th

Noticed a couple of  ominous piles of feathers under the bird feeding station, blue tit and probable house sparrow . today caught the culprit sitting next to the feeders, a fine looking male Sparrowhawk, and later caught him again sitting in the pear tree, managed a photograph although not very sharp.

 Looks like our local birds need to stay alert, 

January 8th - Star gazing with the naked eye while late night dog walking, Its hard not to notice the Orion Constellation at the moment, tried a photo with my samsung phone, which really surprised me, just managed to pick out some of the main stars, quite excited to see the orange glow from the star known as " Betelgeuse" 

 Orions belt led me down to another bright star which I think is Sirius the dog star which in turn led me on to another constellation Canis Major or Orions hound. although I could only pick out two stars with the naked eye. ( Sirius and  Mirzam) 

I can see how this can become addictive. now waiting for another clear night to search for Canis Major.

Jan 10th. - A cold frosty walk with my dog through the local woodlands today revealed more Scarlet Elfcups in the small patch of moss covered undergrowth with a few Jelly Ears also, not much else on the fungi scene, interestingly a few Great Spotted Woodpeckers were evident by there drumming, echoing around the woodland, surprised to see some Bluebell and Daffodil shoots starting to appear.

Jan 14th - Star gazing continues on my evening Dog walk, fortunately another clear night, manage to locate " Orions Hound "   Sirius  very visible the stars in the Hound constellation all just visible with the naked eye, bar one.

 

January 17th-  Another clear night albeit with a new full moon gave me one more opportunity to look for the Pleiades and the Taurus constellation not to far away from the Obvious Orion formation, so shouldn't be that difficult.  just about visible with the naked eye, although my dog not very patient while I try and take photo with my phone.

 

19th January - Ashenbank woodland walk has been cold and frosty these last few mornings, More birds showing now Great Spotted Woodpecker, Green Woodpecker, Robins Great Tits, Chaffinch, Jays Wren  and lately more Redwings seen searching through the leaf litter, not much on the fungi front , the Scarlet Elfcups still developing, Turkeytail and old Stump puffballs covered in frost.

20th January. -  Late night walk with the dog on a clear night, picked out the Plough constellation, I know this is an easy one but this led me on to the North Star and then to the great bear Ursa Major.  and one other very faint but visible to the naked eye " cassiopia" ( W )

Earth stars !

I cannot help but be drawn to these Earthstars, to my mind they look like the alien species from  John Wyndham's 1951 novel "The Day of the Triffids",  I was half expecting something to rise out of the bulbous body and lash me across the eyes as I crouched down to get a closer view.

I have always wanted to see one of these and when I found out that there was a good chance of seeing  one in the local woodland, I couldn't resist the opportunity to seek them out.

It turned out that these were located at my previous dog walking haunt, Ashenbank woods, sadly since my dog has died I have not walked there for quite some time. It seemed strange walking here today without my dog for company.

I had been given some good directions, unbelievably I have walked past this location possibly every day for several years with my dog and not notice their presence, how observant am I.

These earth stars blend in very well with the leaf litter, I almost trod on my first sighting, how sad would that have been, once I had seen the first, others appeared almost mystically, what a wonderful fungi to see.

To give it its correct name this is the Collared Earth Star Geastrum triplex

Autumn rut !

Still trying to catch up on my wildlife reports, and I'm failing miserably.
It's now October and the start of the "rutting season " for me that means a return trip to Sevenoaks and Knole Park to watch the Fallow Deer Bucks strive for supremacy on Echo Mount and bragging rights with the hinds.

It's great to watch the action here, it can appear deceptively peaceful  with the bucks resting around the small stand of trees at the top of Echo mount, a few Bucks will strut around there bellowing mating call attracting the female hinds to the mount, the high point of the park.

 As more hinds appear, the mating calls get more intense, others join in, the Bucks chase the hinds, the older bucks begin to size each other up, you soon begin to notice the parallel walking, the foot stomping, you know that clash is coming, just a matter of seconds now, and when it happens that violent clash of antlers, it still takes you by surprise, some serious pushing and antler fencing which ends in one of the Bucks giving ground and retreating, usually chased off by the victor, and then it's quiet again, just the bellow from the victor, hopefully the hind in season is still around, mating takes place, victory is short lived, it's not long before a new challenge arrives.

I watched a couple of younger bucks with  some less than impressive antlers tentatively sparring, preparing for future battles to come, but they soon retreat at speed when one of the older Bucks approach.

Gentle sparring before being chased off

New Challenger arriving

Spider in the house !

To be more precise, its a spider or two under the conservatory roof, throughout the long summer months I have watched the spiders spin their webs along the eaves of the conservatory, happy to leave them to do their best at removing unwanted flies and such, that have made their way into the house.

One in particular, that lives in a crack at the corner of the roof has grown to a fair size, probably a female, also very wary as she scurries back to her lair at speed as soon as she detects my presence.

I've noticed that during a particularly heavy rainstorm, the raindrops hitting the glass roof tends to bring out the spiders from their hiding places. on this occasion I thought I would try and get a photograph and identify the large female that keeps catching my eye.

And here she is, presuming she is a "she" ,  I suspected this might be one of those False Widow spiders that keep making the news, a look through my Spider field book at the possibilities narrowed it down to the  Steatoda nobilis  or Noble False Widow, later confirmed by the UK spiders on Facebook.

I was particularly pleased with this find having never seen one before, a bit of research revealed that the females are much larger than the males and can reach a size of 2 to 3 cm which is very close to the size of ours. ( I,m taking this measurement covering the spread of her legs) so a female she is. The males being much smaller.

The pale marking around the front of the body is another indicator of Noble False Widow , its also said that the marking on the body sometimes resembles a skull, not on this one though.

Steatoda nobilis Noble False Widow

A few more images of the female.

As I mentioned before several other smaller spiders also living around the conservatory roof but much smaller and looking at the markings on the body are also Noble False Widows probably males.

Possible male Noble false Widow and hoverfly prey

I was initially a bit wary of  these spiders considering the scare stories that newspapers have reported in the past but it seems to be that there bite is no worse than a Bee sting,  and they scurry away as soon as they detect your presence so for the moment there safe to lead there short lives in peace, as long as they stay out of harms way.

Here's another spider taken up residence outside the house, the common garden or White Cross Spider. nothing to worry about with this one, unless you're a Mayfly !

Araneus diadematus Garden Spider and Mayfly prey.

Last of the summer Butterflies !

 The Clouded Yellow is usally my last sought after butterfly of the year, with just one sighting seen last year at Rainham Marshes in Essex. This year I was hoping to see some in Kent.

September, and several reports of Clouded Yellows at Oare Marshes caught my attention, I couldn't resist a visit, but after a long walk down the Swale towards Uplees in some sunny but probably to windy conditions brought no sightings.
 I walked around the East Flood not really expecting to see any now, until a bright yellow butterfly flew up from the path ahead, catching me by surprise, but typically it did not linger and disappeared across the inaccessible meadows next to the flood, but a sighting nevertheless.

 No more sightings for me here which was disappointing, a brief view and no photograph.

I was given some information by another butterfly enthusiast from 'Facebook' on a possibly good location to see Clouded Yellows and also the Wall Brown another butterfly I struggle to see well.

The location , Cliffe Pools, a site quite close to where I live, but a vast area to look for butterflies but worth a try.

As I walked from the car park down towards the river wall butterflies started to appear, mainly Small White and a few Small Heath, but expectantly a few Clouded Yellows started to appear , all very restless and none settling.

Small White

Small Heath

 I passed the Flamingo Pool, as it was named in my bird watching days from years gone by and walked towards the river wall. My first of many sightings of the Wall Brown started to appear, more than I have ever seen before.

Worn Wall Brown female

male Wall Brown

The embankment behind the river wall was alive with butterflies,  Small White the most numerous, Large White, Wall Brown,  a very worn Painted Lady, a very fresh Small Tortoiseshell, Brown Argus, Common Blue, Small Copper and finally a few Clouded Yellow, with just one settling for a photograph.

Clouded Yellow

Small Tortoiseshell

      

Brown Argus

Small Copper

Common Blue female

One last surprise sighting were these small Bees , It seemed to me at the time were making a higher pitch  hum than the usual carder bees seen. I was thinking  maybe a Shrill Carder Bee but having never seen one before I wasn't' sure.
I managed a couple of photographs and after an I.D. request discovered that they were in fact Brown Banded Carder Bee's also quite scarce, so nice to see.

Brown Banded Carder Bee    Bombus Humilis

A successful days wildlife watching, Clouded Yellow, Wall Brown and the Brown Banded Carder Bee best sightings of the day.