A few mines on hawthorn and sallow

Phyllonorycter corylifoliella (Hubner, 1796) on Hawthorn, on a lush plant, heading down towards the Whetsted gravel pits, a fairly classic view of what is said to be a quite common leafminer, from what I can see on the internet. The second image is just a closer crop of the first.

and a closer view:

Here is another mine, again the second image is just a closer view of the first. An older version of the same leaf miner species, or more likely to be Ectodoemia atricollis, with maybe a narrow channel of a mine along the margin of the leaf to start with.

This next one might be a developing Ectoedemia mine, a full depth yellowish mine, with the larva still in it I think! There might be a bit of a thin mine along the edge. Again the second image is just a tighter crop. Ectoedemia atricollis, (Stainton, 1857), the pinch-barred pigmy, which does mine leaves from the end of August through to October.

and this one might be a better developed mine of the same species,

Here is a photo of a galled willow leaf.

Very muddy down at Whetsted Gravel Pits

Dozens of Tufted Duck, a few Gadwall, half a dozen Pochard, 2 Little Grebe, at least 2 Great Crested Grebes, at least one Cormorant, many Black-headed Gulls, and many Common Gulls, Larus canus.

One possible Reed Bunting on the thin hedge.

Down to Whetsted Gravel pits

As I got down to East Lock I paused to check for insects and particularly hoverflies at the wild-flower seed enhanced area just north of the lock. I had by now seen several Eristalis pertinax and here was my first Sphaerophoria female of the day, hovering about the Perforate St. John's Wort, Hypericum perforatum.

There was also this very nice hairy red beetle, which I feel should really be recognizable to someone if I had the gall to put this single side view on ispot !

While I was looking at the pictures of this Lesser Stitchwort, Stellaria minor, I noticed a tiny grub, possibly a Lepidopteran caterpillar (?) on the left-hand flower.

Crossing Poor's Meadow I saw that the farmer had started to cut the grass for hay, as is the tradition. The meadow is not particularly flower rich, but may contain some Dyers Greenweed on the southern wooded margin according to the BSBI visit report.

As well as keeping the field traditionally managed, the farmer has also, by accident or design, left the broken down old oak tree as a dead wood habitat.

After Poor's Meadow I crossed the wheat crop, which was ripening well, on the clay field which contains the Shepherds Needle Scandix pecten-veneris,

Moving on to the gravel pits themselves, there was a very nice patch of Hare's-foot Clover, Trifolium arvense, on the gravelly patch down at the southern end of the causeway across the west gravel pit. This plant is locally common in the Southeast of England, particularly at coastal sites and almost always on sandy soils. I am sure this particular patch has been here for several years, annually regenerating itself from the seed, which has effective dormancy mechanisms.

These are the woolly pink inflorescences that are the most obvious sign of the plant's presence - the leaves are fairly insignificant by comparison.

Here is a close-up of a single inflorescence - you can see the tiny whitish flowers in amongst the purple hairs of the calyces, each in turn fringed with a light pink fuzz, most easily seen in outline on the side of the inflorescence.

This is an older inflorescence in the centre, with the flowers browning from the base of the inflorescence upwards. On the left-hand inflorescence. a single white "pea-family" flower is absolutely fully open.

This may be a better close-up of a fading inflorescence specifically to show the hairs arising the calyx in the centre and the fuzz on the side of the inflorescence.

These are the narrow, grey, somewhat hairy (the hairs are adpressed) trifoliate leaves, with the two pointed reddish somewhat filiform stipules.

The plant keys out on the BSBI crib sheet for the genus, http://www.bsbi.org.uk/Trifolium_Crib.pdf. It is potentially a very important plant - it apparently contains a gene affecting tannin condensation that if successfully transferred into white clover could both increase yield and also reduce both bloat and methane emissions from cattle. This is due to be commercially available in about 2025, if it comes to market.

Another plant I found, in good numbers along the paths around the gravel pits, was the Common Birds-Foot Trefoil, Lotus corniculatus, in the pictures below possibly the cultivated variety cv. sativus. This variety, often used in wild flower seed mixes differs from the normal wild plant in having a hollow stem, being more generally yellow, and is also larger and more robust than the native wild form. When I cut the stem of this plant across it was clearly hollow, so my thinking is that it should be cv. sativus. I also checked the key species-characteristic feature, that the sepals were forward pointing, and not reflexed in the bud stage as in the Greater Birds-Foot Trefoil, Lotus pedunculatus.

In the picture below you can see the suffusion of orange in the petals at bud stage, the way the developing pod pushes the brown remnants of the corolla forward as the pod ripens and lengthens, and the generally forward pointing nature of the sepals.

I do keep on looking for the Greater Birds-Foot Trefoil, Lotus pedunculatus, but never seem to find it. This is known to be a similar robust plant which also has a hollow stem, but should be easily distinguished from corniculatus, whether sativus or not, by the reflexed sepals in the bud, no suffusions of red in the petals, and more than 5 (7) flowers in one inflorescence.

Another plant I was very glad to see today was the Common Centaury, Centaurium erythraea, which is only just starting its proper summer-long flowering season.  The flowers are a lovely pink, held on square stalks (both the pedicels and peduncles are square I think).

Part-way along the causeway I had come across a Long-Winged Conehead nymph, Conocephalus discolor, green with a dark stripe down its dorsum. I hadn't come across this insect before, and in its nymphal stages it is certainly a striking animal.

On the brambles in the hedge-line between the two western gravel pits there was what looked like an adult male (no oviposter) Dark Bush-Cricket, Pholidoptera grisoaptera, with its vestigial wings. I used this great site to try to compare the species. http://www.orthoptera.org.uk/account.aspx?ID=13 but I could not see the underside, which should have been yellow.





This is the first time I have seen the Azure Damselfly, Coenagrion puella, down here at Whetsted Gravel Pits - so I shall have to check the so-called "Common Blues" far more carefully in future. As this was also in the brambles by the big hedge between the gravel pits it may have come out of the small ditch there, as opposed to the Common Blues coming out of the main gravel pits themselves. I still believe the vast majority of the blue damsels seen on this site and around it to be the latter species.

For comparison, here is a Common Blue Damselfly, Enallagma cyathigerum, seen earlier, slightly tangled in some silky fibres, sitting quite quietly on the top of a fencepost along the causeway.

One of the nastiest insects around is the Horse Fly or Cleg, Haemotopota (pluvialis perhaps) with its vicious bite. There was one on the causeway which I admired before I fully realised its identity.

Whetsted Gravel Pits

There was a single Common Tern, Sterna hirundo, fishing the gravel pits stylishly and successfully! In the first picture, where the bird is dark against the lightness of the sky, I think I can see the light (sometimes called translucent) panel in the middle of the wing that is said to help to distinguish this bird from the Arctic Tern, Sterna paradisaea, where much more of the wing is said to be translucent.  That I don't find this convincing says rather more about my very poor skills as a birdwatcher than it does about Tern field characteristics!

Rather clearer here are the black tip to the otherwise comparitively light red bill, and the not excessively long tail streamers. It is also easier to see the black outer webs on primaries P10 - P5.

Above I think I would only just agree that the dark trailing edge to the wings in the outer primary section bleeds well forward into the rest of the wing but on the lower side there is a limited and sharper dark trailing edge. This does not taper off inwards. A limited dark trailing edge not bleeding forwards to form a dusky wedge on the upper side is said to be more characteristic of the Arctic Tern, and the dark trailing edge on the underside should taper off inwards in that species.

The bird seemed reasonably successful and the one time I followed a dive a small fish was apparently fairly easily taken, as shown below. Common Terns are said to be more likely to dive directly rather than hover briefly before diving as Arctic Terns are generally said to do (Bird Forum), and this bird seemed to halt, twist (bank sharply) and dive almost back on itself but nearly vertically into the water, perhaps flattening out a bit as it hit the water surface. However BWP claims that they do hover but less rapidly than the Arctic. It would be interesting to follow the sequence more exactly with high speed shooting, or even video.

Common Terns are flexible feeders but generally are dive-plunge feeders, often but not always submerging 20 - 30 cm. They also surface feed or even plunge from perches. The main prey is fish, but the diet also includes shrimps and other crustacea as well as insects perhaps taken from the surface. This particular bird just seemed to be plunge-diving for fish!

A more important point though is why hasn't it eaten the fish instantly, as BWP claims it should have done.. Where is it taking it? To a partner or a nest? Or is this bird just passing through, and just being slow to eat its catch?

Perhaps its not too surprising to see an individual inland, but its difficult to know if this is just migrating through the area, or perhaps specifically looking for an inland site to breed upon. This could be a late migrating bird, just arrived following the long journey North from the wintering grounds of West Africa. What a pity there are no nesting rafts on these pits. Once a pair has chosen a nest site they may return to the same site year after year (17 years is apparently the current record until one of the pair failed to return).

After fledging and learning to fish on their own, juveniles may start to move South either in family groups or small flocks of juveniles only. They may trek backwards and forwards for anything up to 3-4 years before first breeding, but sometimes breeding can start at 2 years old. When they are old enough to breed, they may breed in the colony they were born in, or nearby.

Mates do not seem to associate closely in the winter quarters, but arrive at the nest site paired up, having found each other perhaps in the winter quarters prior to departure, on passage, or in and around the colony. They arrive initially at a roost close to the colony and already paired birds can be recognised by roosting closer to each other than the average.

Once the next territory is established it is used for courtship, copulation, pair-bonding, nesting and initially (up to 23 days) concealing and feeding the young.

Population is about 15,000 in UK, fairly stable and the smaller inland population appears to be growing. This pattern not repeated consistently across Europe.

Whetsted Gravel Pits

The Reed Buntings down at the Gravel Pits, Emberiza schoeniclus, is now in full breeding plumage, with the head cap now so black you cannot easily pick out its eye. In contrast the white lenticels on the dark alder bark show out very clearly indeed:

The Grey Sallows, Salix cinerea, there are getting going. The male catkins are now starting to protrude their anthers, and the male trees stand out brightly in the otherwise slightly dull landscape.

A mega visit to Whetsted Gravel Pits

After I had deserted Monty for my walk along the Nashenden cycle trail, I took him for a walk along to the Whetsted Gravel Pits whist it was still reasonably sunny. First thing I found was a Nursery Web Spider, Pisaura mirabilis, ID'd by Chris Brooks on ispot.

Then there was what looked like a small Andrena with a largely reddish abdomen, which was again ID'd on ispot by Chris Brooks and then Stuart Roberts to be a good match to Andrena labiata, the Girdled Mining Bee, a slightly scarce Andrena that shouldn't really be found on the Low Weald at all. If it turns out to be this, then I shall be very pleased, although a little puzzled as to why it strayed into my territory! A very blurry picture I am afraid, I will have to try a lot harder.

Now, is this, or is it not, the same species? There is a clear dark centre along the top of the abdomen in these two pictures, and it seems to me to be unlikely.

My first Nomad Bee of the day was also found in the open on the herbaceous vegetation, and looked a lot like one of the species of the Nomada flava/panzeri species pair, with the likelihood likely to be on flava from its fairly yellow colouration. This was a female from its 12-segmented antennae, so in theory its ID should be distinguishable between flava and panzeri.

By the hedge below the grassy area were a lot of St Mark's Fly, Bibio marci, flying clumsily as usual. They look like something out of Lord of the Rings, rather scary.

There were quite a few Large Red Damselflies, Pyrrhosoma nymphula, on the hedges above the farm ditches, and I was quite pleased with one of the photos, of an immature female, forma typica I think.

Down by the pillbox there were quite a few Nomad bees, although I only got a rather poor photo of one of them. I think the first photo was perhaps a male Nomada flava, although I couldn't actually see any red stripes on the back of the thorax. This one here is also quite dark on the thorax, and the second insect is if anything even darker. I am therefore pretty sure that the second one at least is not flava. The back of the thorax is very dark (without any orange-red stripes), the tegulae are mid-brown rather than orangey-brown, there are definitely no orange spots on the back of the thorax, and there is little red on the dark abdominal bands.

Naturally wherever there are Nomad bees, there will be their hosts, mining bees such as Andrena species.

There were several around the pillbox, such as this one,

There was also a Dock Bug, the first of two seen today. Several have also been put up on ispot, indicating their abundance at this time of year.

A nice spot was the red and black hopper, Cercopis vulnerata, which is almost instantly recognizable, as well as being very obvious.

Walking across the meadow I was interested to see the number of what I think was Mouse-ear Chickweed, Cerastium vulgatum, plants in flower amongst the grass.

Before I reached the gravel pits, as I entered the last field there was an interesting looking umbellifer that was neither Cow Parsley, nor Common Hogweed. It was only half a metre high and flowering well, strongly bracted with thick umbel or even simple pedicel stalks. I was pretty stumped as I looked through the flower books, not even Francis Rose could rescue me! Anyway, here it is:

I also caught a solitary been on it quite well, From the reddish tail hairs coupled with very little foxy colour to the thorax, and quite obvious abdominal hair stripes, I rather think it might be Andrena chrysosceles, as opposed to Andrena haemorrhoa, the other "red-tailed" Andrena. I put it up on ispot, with my guess, but got no answers, so retired, slightly disappointed I must say!

At the gravel pits themselves there was quite a lot of leaf damage on the sallows, with a tiny beetle running quite quickly over the leaves. Quite elongate, with a reddish-bronze thorax and contrasting green grooved elytra, about 2 mm long, it would most likely have been

There was also a male scorpion fly, belonging to the family Mecoptera, perhaps Panorpa communis. The inflated genitalia, looking a bit like a scorpion's sting, indicates it is a male. They tend to eat dead insects, perhaps taken from spiders webs. Nuptial gifts are common.

One of the nicer plants to see in flower today was my first Bugle, Ajuga reptans, in 2012. On Sunday Mat had emphasised the importance of this plant as a nectar source for woodland butterflies.

This large midge-like insect was found on a fence-post by the edge of the shallow gravel pit:

And this is an alder-fly, Sialis, also on a fence-post.