Thursday 19 March 2015

Small Tortoiseshells and Cricket Bat Orb-weavers

Small Tortoiseshells courting, Aglais urticae 
On Saturday I visited Arundel WWT in poor light. Four Mediterranean Gulls were among the Black-headed Gulls on the island. In front of the Ramsar hide were about 20 Greylags, one of which was fiercely seeing off rivals. The larger Canada Geese then swam slowly in and the Greylags dispersed.

 Sunday was spent at Graffham Down where I joined Michael Blencowe, Neil Hulme and Graffam Down Trust members for conservation work. I was impressed with the clearance work that has been accomplished in the past few years. Scarlet Elf Cups were found near the bonfire.


 On Tuesday afternoon in bright sunshine I went to Ferring Rife where Small Tortoiseshells were courting in numbers and Neil was counting the first of a total of 38 individuals he recorded. I saw six Common Snipe on the marshy area at the west side, frogspawn hatching in the ponds and a Little Egret feeding in the rife.


 On Wednesday I joined Neil, Garry, Katrina and MDT members at the Heyshott escarpment work party. Afterwards I enjoyed the sunshine for a few hours at Iping Common where I found some tiny Cricket Bat Orb-weaver spiders among the heather.
Arundel WWT:
Great Tit, Parus major
Greylag Geese, Anser anser
Greylag Goose
the aggressive Greylag Goose
Greylag Goose and Canada Goose, Branta canadensis
Mediterranean Gulls among the Black-headed Gulls, Larus melanocephalus
Nuthatch, Sitta europaea
Nuthatch
Reed Bunting, Emberiza schoeniclus
Robin, Erithacus rubecula
Graffham Down:

Neil and Michael
Neil at work

Scarlet Elf Cup, Sarcoscypha coccinea
Ferring Rife:
Brown-lipped Snail, Cepaea nemoralis
Common Frog spawn, Rana temporaria
tadpoles
hatching
Daffodils, Narcissus pseudonarcissus

memorial bunch
Dandelion, Taraxacum officinale
Ferring Rife
Lesser Celandine, Ranunculus ficaria
Little Egret, Egretta garzetta
Little Egret

Small Tortoiseshells courting, Aglais urticae

Common Snipe, Gallinago gallinago
Ferring beach

Iping Common:
balloons should be banned, along with Chinese lanterns
Birch Polypore on birch log, Piptoporus betulinus
Chiffchaff, Hylloscopus collybita
Cricket Bat Orb-weaver, Mangora acalypha
this spider's body was 2mm long
Cricket Bat Orb-weaver
Gorse, Ulex europaeus
Honey Bee, Apis mellifera
Iping Common



7-spot Ladybirds, Coccinella 7-punctata
male Minotaur beetle, Typhaeus typhoeus
Stonechat pair, Saxicola torquata
Stonechat
Stonechat

No comments:

Post a Comment

Please select 'Name/URL' from 'Comment as' drop down box and add your name, thanks.