Training Toby at Leybourne

I had a shortish look around some of the mined leaves.

Phyllonorycter rajella on both Alnus glutinosa and Alnus incana (as pictured, on the underside of the leaf)

Phyllonorycter kellemanella = kleeemannella on Alnus glutinosa, one still with an active caterpillar.

Phyllonorycter stettinensis on Alnus glutinosa. The crease runs vertically up this photograph. The mine on the upperside of the leaf spills over a lateral vein.

Note how the brown discolouration has spread, but has not completely replaced the green. 

Fenusa dohrnii on Alnus glutinosa

Incurvaria pectinea on Alnus glutinosa

Alder Leafminers at Leybourne.

A successful visit this afternoon, with a reasonable good variety of leaf-mines found, concentrating entirely on Alder. Plenty of birds around, Blue Tits, Coots, Moorhen, Cormorants, Great Crested Grebes.

I concentrated mainly on Common Alder, Alnus glutinosa, but I was also able to spend some time on the Italian Alder, Alnus cordifolia and the Grey Alder, Alnus incana .

One of the really enjoyable finds was one mine of Heterarthus vagans on one of the large Italian Alders at the southern edge of The Ocean. The pupation disc was really nice and obvious, and gives us the possible opportunity of rearing the pupa through to adulthood. I have found this species once before at Leybourne, earlier this month  - although that time I had it down as on Common Alder, when found on the 19th September. It is known to occur on both species.

Another excitement was my first sighting (as far as I know) of Phyllonorycter stettinensis, the only Phyllonorycter to be found on the upperside of Alder leaves. This was seen on Common Alder. The appearance of this Phyllonorycter was noticeably different to the normal matt colours of those on the underside of the leaves - the P. stettinensis mine is a glossy light green, then turning brown. The mine is often over a vein, and may be quite strongly creased.

Another species I could recognise was Phyllonorycter rajella, with its strong crease on the surface of the mine, close to the midrib of the leaf.

More difficult to be sure of were the relatively uncreased oval mines on the underside of the leaves close to or away from the midrib, which I would imagine were mainly Phyllonorycter kleemaniella - but difficult to separate clearly from Phyllonorycter froelichiella, which is also oval and uncreased, but longer, normally over 25 mm long.

Here is a fairly reasonable picture of what I think is a reasonably early (and active) stage of the sawfly mine Fenusa dohrnii in an Italian Alder leaf. It was towards the upper side of the leaf, with frass tending to gather in the centre of the mine (as in one of the Blaadmineerders photos for example), and "spilt out" over a major vein towards the margin of the leaf, as noted for this species. There was only one mine in this particular leaf, but most other factors seemed to fit, and it is a relatively common mine.

The larva takes about three weeks to complete its mine, and then pupates outside, eventually becoming a tiny (c. 4 mm.), mainly black, sawfly. At the moment this mine is relatively translucent and has not yet developed the opaque mid-brown colour, often in the end highly crinkled, of the mine to be seen in its later stages.

Slightly less exciting than some of the other leafminers were reasonable numbers of the usually common Agromyza alnivora, the only fly miner found on Alder species in the UK to my knowledge.

Alder leafmines at Leybourne Lakes

I thought I came across a few Caloptilia falconipennela "leaf-edge folds" throughout the Common Alders on the southern side of "The Ocean".


Near the causeway I found a few more mines - including this possible identification of the moth caterpillar Phyllonorycter kleemannella = klemannella (The Dark Alder Midget). The season is only right-ish (mines are supposedly found in May/June and July/August with a possible third generation) but it is supposed to be a common species, and it cannot really be anything else! The caterpillar is supposed to attack the Common, Grey and Italian Alders in the UK, but not the Green Alder. This is a rather poor picture of the mine on the underside of the leaf, not very large, and certainly not extending the majority of the distance between midrib and leaf margin. Just visible near the top are three small creases?

and these pictures are of the larva extricated from the above mine, which is pale and typical of all the Phyllonorycter species except Phyllonorycter froelichiella, where the larva is grey. Once the larva pupates it is found in a white cocoon attached to the roof of the mine, well away from the frass piled in a corner. Before emergence the pupa wriggles to be partly sticking out of the mine, ready to emerge!

and the sawfly Heterarthus vagans on Common Alder, Alnus glutinosa. This common sawfly caterpillar is supposed to attack the Common, Grey and Italian Alders in the UK, but not the Green Alder.

This is probably the pre-pupal stage of Heterarthus vagans, extricated from an apparent pupation disc of the large brown mine of rather indeterminate shape. There appeared to be several discs on the leaf, but actually only one live insect. However the guides suggest that there is normally only one mine per leaf.

Leybourne Lakes

What a pity I didn't have a camera with me today.

Nice to see Purple Loosestrife, Fleabane and Birds-foot Trefoil in full flower. I checked on the details of the Birds-foot Trefoil, Lotus corniculatus, as it is such a common but interesting plant, and also I could compare it with the Narrow-Leaved Birds-foot Trefoil, Lotus glaber (tenuis), which I had seen at Oare Marshes the day before. 

In Rose, the text refers to the low, creeping, more or less hairless character of the plant, and the solid stems of the native form. The sepal teeth are clearly upright at the bud stage, and I believe at a later stage (the mature flower - might also be worth checking in fruit?) when you look at the overall shape of the teeth, you see that the upper two teeth do not continue to difurcate at the tips - they should be near parallel, or even converge, giving an overall "obtuse angle" at the base.

Whetsted Gravel Pits, 29/06/2014.

Salix viminalis hybrid?

Went back to the probable Salix viminalis (L.) x ? hybrid by the gate along by the newly planted birch) today and took a photo of some retrieved leaves. These may not be entirely characteristic as the tree has been pollarded in the recent past, so the shoots are perhaps a bit sucker-like.

My best guess is that it is a hybrid with Salix caprea (L.), known as Salix x sericans Tausch ex A. Kerner or Salix x laurina in the older version of the Kent flora. However it could be the hybrid with S. cinerea

This is a cklose up of the leaves, two upper sides and one lower (the topmost leaf). There appears to be fairly strong reticulate venation patterns (this is what seems to me to be giving a "Goat Willow" look to the upperside of the leaf, and what we hope is a fairly tomentellous underside.

Here is a slightly enlarged view, again showing the "Goat-Willow" appearance of the leaf. The insect damage could perhaps be early Capsid Bug.

Other clues are a largely yellow-green sometimes glossy (lustrous) twig, a slightly recurved, somewhat undulate margin to the leaf, no obvious striae. I could see no stipules at all - possibly they are not noticeable at this time of year?  I am not sure how much before the leaves that the catkins appeared, I need to double-check next year. , The female catkins are of close to 5 cm in length, and are quite numerous clustered towards the ends of the twigs

The calm before the storm at Leybourne

Not a bad afternoon before the rain started in. The water was rough on the lake, with coots, black-headed gulls and a few cormorants, scattered across the water. No longer any sign of surface ice.

There were plenty of gulls around and then I saw a Sparrowhawk circling over Snodland flapping quickly, then soaring, in quite tight circles, the first I have seen since the one at Milton Creek.

I walked between the Round Pond and the Key Conservation Area, but there was little there, apart from overflying gulls and noisy magpies. On one of the bramble piles there was a (just) possible redstart - but it was probably really a robin! Several blackbirds in among the brambles and long grass.

On the way out at the junction for Nevil Park there were a few Blue Tits, Great Tits, and on the way back there was a singing Songthrush, and then a Greater Spotted Woodpecker, Dendrocopos major, arrived in the large Willow, and searched some of the upper branches. I went along as far as the entrance to the treatment site, and there were a couple of birds I couldn't identify on the wires at the plant. I wondered about Meadow Pipits. There were plenty of hazel catkins on bushes by this drive and along the stream by the Key Conservation Area, together with a few young ashes with some Chalara damage.

I moved further on and there was a small crows of Black-headed Gulls, Chroicocephalus ridibundus, all ducking their heads and apparently preening on the NW end of Larkfield Lake. There were up to a dozen Tufted Duck, Aythya fuligula, on the other side of the lake.

A cormorant went over the aquatic centre at the Ocean as we returned. Going back to the Wardens Office, there was at least one singing Blue Tit in the Bluebell Wood, and several singing Great Tits in the hedges by the offices, quite close together.  

Icy Leybourne

Part of the far side of the Ocean was iced over this morning, and a group of Gulls were resting there. They looked fairly settled, until I got round there with the tripod, when I quickly spooked them all - TWICE. Its the tripod, honest, I need not to hold it like a gun.

This is one of the Herring Gulls, Larus argentatus, this one in the group on the ice. It looks like a third year bird, with limited development of the white windows in this plumage. The beak looked quite adult oddly enough, and the head was quite white.There is a lot of dark further in on the wing, just visible on the underside here.

There were several Common Gulls, Larus canus, around, both that I had good views of having relatively whitish heads. Nothing else they could be, but its interesting to note the variation. Earlier in the year I have tended to see much darker streaked heads, but the moult to summer plumages is a long way off, so it must simply be individual variation.

Good numbers of Goldfinches

Ambling around Leybourne

At the first bend on the Ocean path, there was a small group of Long-tailed and Blue Tits, and luckily I spied a Chiff-Chaff in with them, mainly by its different movements. Wonderful. I saw several similar groups of Tits on my way around, but didn't see any sign of any other Chiff-Chaffs, or indeed that one again.

On the causeway I spied two Redwing, and quickly realised that I had already seen one earlier, flying over the water towards me and the small group of Tits, noting its pale face and chin.

A lovely sunny afternoon, and I tried to look for aphid eggs, but failed (almost) entirely. Right at the last minute, by the door to the toilet I did find an oval egg of some sort on Field Maple, quite likely an aphid egg.

However, despite this failure it was so interesting to see the aphids hanging from the Grey Willow over by the West Scrub. Probably dead individuals of Tuberolachnus salignus, the Giant Willow Aphid.

Adult aphids are supposed to remain active over the winter period, through January and February. There appeared to be wingless individuals attached to the twigs further along.

Incidentally, all aphids appear to have co-evolved with a bacterial partner, Buchnera aphidicola, that helps them cope with their plant phloem-sap sucking lifestyle. Aphids, being typical animals, have distinctly poor chemosynthetic ability. However their diet is very limited in amino-acid content, for example being largely (not entirely) limited to a few non-essential amino acids like Arginine in the Phloem sap. So how do aphids get the essential amino-acids they cannot synthesise, such as Trytophan for example? The bacteria embedded in their many thousands in huge mycetocytes (cells) in their bacteriosomes (organs) are very limited nowadays, as they rely for much of their structure and nutrition on their host aphids. But they CAN produce (for example) the essential amino-acid Tryptophan from the non-essential Arginine, which they do.  Buchnera over-produces the essential amino acids which are needed by its aphid host, but none of the non-essential amino acids, for which it depends on its aphid hosts, like most of its other nutrients. This partnership goes back possibly 180 - 250 million years. The bacteria in their bacteriocytes are passed by cellular migration across the ovaries into the developing embryos (or are expelled from bacteriocytes to migrate into eggs in the sexual stage?) or......

Mainly dragons at Leybourne Lakes

I paused to see what I could find from the footbridge over the main stream through the park.

It was very interesting to see the apparent split in behaviour between the male and female Banded Demoiselles, with the males getting into territorial activity down by the water edge, while the females tend to hold back, often being seen higher up or further back, resting more calmly on the vegetation.

The males occasionally stayed still enough for a photograph, in their finery:

I only found one Black-tailed Skimmer, quite fresh, off the path by the side of the stream, perhaps as the paths were so well-traveled on this warm afternoon:

There were also a few Blue Tailed Damselflies on the vegetation:

Then I moved on to the "Key Conservation Area" pond, where there many dozens of male Common Blue Damselflies feeding and resting on the vegetation 10 m or so away from the water's edge.

Mainly dragons at Leybourne Lakes

I paused to see what I could find from the footbridge over the main stream through the park.

It was very interesting to see the apparent split in behaviour between the male and female Banded Demoiselles, with the males getting into territorial activity down by the water edge, while the females tend to hold back, often being seen higher up or further back, resting more calmly on the vegetation.

I only found one Black-tailed Skimmer, quite fresh, off the path by the side of the stream, perhaps as the paths were so well-traveled on this warm afternoon:

Salix viminalis catkins

Returning to Leybourne I looked in particular at the catkins of the Salix viminalis plants on the south side of The Ocean. The first plants were female, and the next ones were male.

The female plant was a beauty and at least some of the catkins were still "active" despite it being nearly the end of April. This is a shot of quite near the tip of a twig, with the bud scale still closed over the female catkin, and an Andrena bee, most likely a fairly well worn male, on the right of the twig. The scale of the opening catkin to the bottom left is below, just visible!

This is a shot of a later, but still early, female catkin on the lower right hand side, showing the silky white hairs, with the female stigmas and styles starting to project out and expand into their active Y-shapes. The catkin on the left hand side of the twig, slightly out of focus, has the stigmas more fully expanded. The two catkins (immediately above and above and to the right) are just losing their scales. The twig on the left shows the pruinescence of the young twigs of S. viminalis, making them look dark grey-green before they turn shiny yellow or yellowy-green lower down the twigs.  

Here the same bee is exploring an open female catkin a little lower down the twig, perhaps getting nectar from some of the nectaries in the female catkin.

One of the odd things is the sequence of catkins opening on the twig - here you can see fully open female catkins lower down, and partly open catkins higher up, with closed catkins in between.

Salix city at catkin time

Back to Leybourne Lakes and there are plenty of willows in flower.

The Salix viminalis was fairly well over, but I did find some female catkins that were only just past their best, with styles still in place, and some male catkins still with stames emerging from the inflorescence. This timing fits with Meikle stating that this is one of the first willows to flower, from late February onwards. I don't think that it was that early this year, but I certainly was seeing the tail end of the flowers by now. The female fruits on some trees were swelling with the vestigial remnants of the styles and stigmas only just still visible. It would be interesting to go back around the site checking to see which plants are male and which are female. They would have either been planted or perhaps germinated from seed. The distribution appears to be around "The Ocean" and I would feel this is consistent with planting whips or other propagules when the site was replanted after its use as gravel pits was discontinued. I need to look elsewhere and compare this with its natural distribution along river banks in Russia as according to Meikle.

As in Meikle, the male flowers each have two glabrous stamens, up to 1 cm. long, much longer than the catkin scale. From the same source, the anthers are oblong, yellow, about 0.5 mm long and 0.2 mm wide, and all these points fit with the plants at Leybourne which I have checked.

Leybourne

A second winter Herring Gull I would say. Note the pattern of the scapulars, the inner wing, the trailing edge, the primaries, and the tail pattern.

An early spring at Leybourne?

It was a lovely afternoon at Leybourne Lakes, still and quite warm. Many of the trees are getting going, while the birds appear to be keener and more forthcoming all round.

I was fooled initially by the size of this Gull - on first sight it looked certainly big enough to be a Herring Gull, but with its dark eye, dark hood and relatively dark back, of course it turned out to be a Common Gull, Larus canus.

Here you can see the broad white trailing edge on the inner portion of the wing, as the bird flies away.

Leybourne Lakes

Leybourne with Nain

A nice view of one of the two Common Gulls, Larus canus, at the North end of The Ocean, one chasing the second off its buoy. A nice view of the under-wing pattern, with a big white mirror at the tip, and a broad white trailing edge to the wing. The bill might have been yellow-greenish and had the dark sub-terminal band common to most individuals, and the legs looked somewhat yellowish. The eye was dark as always, and the head suitably streaked for winter.

A blustery Leybourne

A walk around the West side of the Ocean, and then on either arm of the Railway Lake. Most of the same birds as yesterday, with a few different shots.

And a shot in flight of a first winter bird. The two outer tail feathers are the last to moult so maybe haven't developed their black tips properly yet??

There was a beautiful Moorhen just by the bridge:

Leybourne with the camera today

As there was reasonable weather today I took the camera back to Leybourne, and very much enjoyed the birds through the lens.

The Black-headed Gulls, Chroicocephalus ridibundus, took starring roles of course, and here is an adult on one of the buoys by the feeding area, so well camouflaged against the background of the waves.

and another with better developed "headphones".

I tried to get some "in flight" shots, but most were very blurry, and I think the combination of poor light and limited ISO of 2000 meant the shutter speed was just too slow for the movement. 

Here is an adult in flight with coverts or perhaps scapulars(?) stalling: 

This photo is in because this appears to be an adult plumaged bird but with a rather light orange beak - compare with the other adults above, so perhaps a 2cy December bird. It also shows the white extreme tips to P 4 - 7.

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Murky Leybourne

When I arrived at 3 p.m., there didn't seem to be much light this afternoon, and initially very few birds on the Ocean. However after we got a bit further along the path and I let Monty off the lead, things went OK, with more Tufted Duck on the main water, and interesting ideas coming to mind on the trees by the side of the path. There were one or two Wrens by the wooden swan, and later on, a party of mainly Long-tailed Tits, but with at least one Blue Tit, in the Willows on the other side of the path to the hedge-line Alders in front of the first houses.

Many of the Crack Willows, Salix x fragilis, look very orange on the young twigs, particularly the upswept ones on the lower branches nearer the ground, and these may be a form known as nothovar basfordiana basfordiana, colouring up well as the winter proceeds. These are most obvious on the South side of the Ocean Lake, and the East side of the Railway Lake.

The unknown shrubby willow by the last Leybourne Way entrance could in theory be a White Willow. There are no cracks exposing orange in the bark of its main stem indicating that it might be the Almond-leaved Willow, Salix triandra, that I hope for, but it still doesn't look quite right for a White Willow and there is little to no pubescence on the leaves and twigs, although it is admittedly late in the season. It has retained a thin but widespread covering of small lanceolate leaves, but no overall structural jizz of a White Willow. It also feels as though it is naturally comfortable as a shrub, not stretching up to a tree shape!

On the taller and more likely White Willows there are still a few leaves on many of the brushy twigs. On one or two trees there are numbers of willow catkin galls, caused by a virus or mycoplasma.

Along by the wet woodland area, the Grey Willow Carr, I did find one bush of a yellow-green barked cultivar of White Willow, identifiable as such from its leaves on regrowth shoots. It was also possible to identify many of the Grey Willows from a distance, picked out by their retention of their relatively small obovate leaves, obviously colouring up well and often a good butter yellow.

There was also a "Grey Willow type" shrub there, with much larger leaves, so possibly a Grey x Greater hybrid. On the Italian Alders there was quite a lot of leaf weevil type damage, together with
some possible Heliozela resplendella (Stainton, 1851) leaf miners, indicated by the oval cut-outs seen. The leaves are holding fairly well although a bit dulled and some yellowing as they age.

On the Roaden Island Lake there were several Black-headed and one Common Gull, Larus canus, two Canada Geese and one very close-up Greylag, quite a few Coots, a pair of Mallard and some Tufted Ducks.

On Railway Lake there were dozens of Tufted Duck and at least two male Gadwall.

Leybourne getting rather gloomy

I shouldn't be surprised really, as I only arrived at 3.30 and the light was rapidly fading from the sky. I went up the West side of the Ocean, across to the Railway Lake and back via the oval pond, by which time it was getting too dark to see much.

There were Black-headed Gulls, one Common Gull, a Canada Goose, a Greylag Goose, several Tufted Duck, Moorhens, many Coots, Mallards, a Great Crested Grebe and Cormorants on the Ocean, but overall it was very quiet at the end of the day. Some Tits flew through the lakeside Alders and Willows, as I got to the Northern half.

On the Railway Lake there were two Great Crested Grebe, Tufted Duck and Coot. On the path I looked closely on the right hand side of the path at the willow (hybrid viminalis and cinerea?) between the lone small Alder and the clump of other bushy Willows. On the oval pond there were a female Tufted Duck, Coot and two Mute Swans.