Great drive down from Ruthin

Fantastic drive down today, only five hours with a ten minutes stop for fuel, and several slow periods on the M40 and by Heathrow. Five or more buzzards around Shrewsbury, and six or more Red Kites near the Cotswolds. Why so many magpies near Heathrow? Only one parakeet overflying the M25.

Male Tawny Owl calling and Grey Squirrels screeching in Dene Park as I managed two quick circuits between 6 and 7 pm. Also something calling kee-wick, kee-wick, kee-wick - young buzzard or a hunting tawny owl?? 

Olive's 90th

Olive had her 90th birthday party in her garden today, with Paula's wonderful flowers on the cake. Her actual birthday is tomorrow, the 21st.

Really nice to see Pascal van Ceunebroeke again, who was a visiting student from Belgium in 1993, and is now a horticultural trainer and a family man of 45! He has come all the way over from Belgium to celebrate with Olive. Other long-distance visitors included Virginie from North France and the Williamsii from the South of France, as well as my mum from North Wales of course! What a very nice chap Pascal is!

Comma chrysalis, Lawyers Wig and Willowherb Downy mildew at Dene Park

I really find it difficult to get satisfactory photos with the mobile - I don't know whether it is focussing or shake that is the main issue.

The Comma chrysalis was absolutely fantastic - and the photos do  not do it any justice at all. I would never have seen it if it wasn't on some sallow whips that had been largely stripped by what I think might be the Willow Sawfly - see below. The chrysalis was just under an inch long I would have said, and here there is a front view and then a side view. The photo just can't capture the wonder of the silvery patches.

I found two or three of the Sawfly larvae as well, maybe the final instar. They may be the Lesser Sawfly, Nematus pavidus, which seems to be the commonest on Goat Willow.

The Tawny Owl was heard for the third evening in a row, and it was heard twice tonight. Nice to think of this male setting up its winter territory for next spring, presumably having successfully moulted over the last couple of months. "Tawny Owls remain within their nesting territory all the year round and pair-bonds last for life. They are generally monogamous but some males are known to be polygamous. The first territorial fights occur as early as October and November, the male determining the territory, the female the nesting hole. The transition from autumn to winter is marked by a final establishment of territories and pre-breeding behaviour. The female and male tend more and more to roost together. Courtship feeding begins in the winter period (December to February), becoming progressively centred on the future nest site.  In Europe the Tawny Owl usually begins breeding in mid-March." from the website: http://www.owlpages.com/owls.php?genus=Strix&species=aluco.

The area for a territory in good woodland may be as little as 12 Hectares, and the area bounded by the track walk is 26 Hectares, so there is perhaps enough room in this central patch for perhaps two territories, and perhaps more in the wood as a whole. However I have only heard the one male, and it could be the same male as heard for the past few years, and therefore possibly the same pair, as pair-bonds are generally for life (although a few males are thought to form polygamous bonds - that must be hard work!). Any young produced over the years will presumably have dispersed to new vacant territories in the area, if any have been available!

"Tawny Owls lay from two to six eggs, but sometimes only one. The eggs are almost round and pure white and are about 46.7 x 39mm. Normally, they are laid at intervals of 48 hours, and are incubated for 28-29 days by the female alone. When the young have hatched, the male brings more food, either to the nest or to the female waiting nearby. Once the chicks are 6-7 days old the female may leave the nest only to hunt, otherwise remaining near the young. Fledging occurs after 28 to 37 days. Tawny Owls are dependent on their parents for food up to three months after leaving the nest.  As the young owls gradually learn to fend for themselves they also establish territories." (ibid.).

As well as the owls taking up territory, other signs of the developing season are the profusion of different fungi, including these Lawyers' Wigs, or Shaggy Inkcaps, Coprinus comatus, at the start of the track to Ringlet Triangle. This is the best of a bad set of photos. The season is rushing along. Already some have completely deliquesced.

This is a very edible fungus, but other species at least are NOT to be mixed with alcohol within the same week! Eat quite young and very fresh for best results!

A still morning at high tide, Cliffe Pools

In the middle of the banks of yellow crucifer along the track back from Flamingo Pool, I suddenly spotted an Asteraceae with sagitate lobes surrounding the stem. It immediately shouted the sowthistle picture I'd been struggling with in County Down, and when I got it back home it looked very like one, with one of the leaves half way up the stem being superficially exactly like the picture in Francis Rose of the lower leaf of the Marsh Sowthistle.

However you cannot do Asteraceae like this, and the involucre should have been covered with blackish sticky hairs, which they were not. Saved by the hand-lens from making a horrible mistake! So starting again I looked at the other possibilities, and by elimination it started to look like a Hawksbeard, and a Smooth Hawksbeard, Crepis capillaris, at that. And that is was it turned out to be: The leaf I was looking at must have been an intermediate form as it was half way up the stem, and I should have been looking for the basal rosette leaves. As I wasn't, the pictures in Rose are almost entirely misleading, and I need to learn that lesson very carefully.  

Here you can see the whitish outer surfaces on the outer ring of ray florets, which I cannot find mention of in the floras, but is in many of the images on the web. In this plant there is also a distinct and clear tiny orange tip to some of these florets. At the bottom of the picture above you can also see the developing inflorescences, which are held vertically in life (thank goodness for turgor pressure I say!) and also shows the adpressed lower ring of phyllaries. I would have said the stems were ridged and hollow (one of the characteristics that helped me towards my initial and misleading id of Marsh Sowthistle!).

You start off by identifying that all the florets are ray-florets, with no disc florets to be seen. This takes you into Group A, the quite large and diverse group of Dandelion-like Asteraceae. Then you look at them as yellow florets, with at least some stem leaves, so eliminating Dandelion itself, but then you can't get much further if it is without fruit (achenes), so it's back to eliminating the unlikely and impossible, such as the Lettuces (characteristic branching or spike like inflorescense with smaller narrow involucres), Cats-Ear and the other hawkbits (upper stem not leafy), Mouse Ear Hawkweeds (furry leaves) and Nipplewort . Then Crepis, the Hawksbeards starts to be a possibility in amongst all these others. I didn't think it was a Hawkweed as I don't know any Hawkweeds with these backward lobes, all the leaves seem to be fairly simple entire ovate shapes.

A still afternoon at low tide, Cliffe Pools.

A fantastic view of a Common Sandpiper today, best ever!

On Radar pool I saw about 3+ Greenshank, Tringa nebularia, and 2 more on Flamingo. 2 of the 3+ on Radar were moving about eagerly in an almost robotic manner - difficult to describe but very pleasing to watch. Their heads always look particularly pale and round to me. There were also 60+ Coot, c25 Mallard, 10+ Teal, at least 4 Tufted Duck apparently in moult, 30+ Lapwing, 10+ Redshank, 30+ Dunlin (I didn't notice any Little Stints, but...), 2 Black-headed Gulls and 1 Common Sandpiper - perhaps the one I got really good close views of later?

With the Lapwings on the Flamingo beach there were 2 Ruff, Philomachus pugnax, recognizable by their "long-necked but pot-bellied" appearance, and great for me to see and identify - I am hoping to become slightly more confident on waders! These birds were quite pale, with pale faces and shorter beaks than the Greenshank, and I was semi-convinced that I could see their "scaly" backs. Their legs were quite dark, which might perhaps indicate first winter birds, although I couldn't be sure by any means. 

Tawny Owl calling in Dene Park!

While doing the hard-breathing 4 mile walk at Dene Park this evening there were very few insects around but I did hear a Tawny Owl calling at about 6:50. My first this autumn which says more about me than the owls! 

Darland Banks East

It is many years since I've been onto the Eastern half of Darland Banks, so I made the effort to stop at Hoath Close today, and approach the steep downland slope from the East side, and this side does seem to have some different plants in it. You get equally good views across the green gap towards Capstone - its such a valuable lung for Gillingham.

A very nice plant to see a little way along the downland was the Blue Fleabane, Erigeron acer (L.), with its greatly reduced ray florets - remarkably pretty! It is also known as the Bitter Fleabane, and has the Latin synonym Erigeron acris, also from Linneaus.

It is an erect hairy annual or biennial about 3 to 15 inches tall with many linear-lanceolate unstalked leaves running up the upright reddish stem, unbranched until the panicle of inflorescences is reached. I didn't see the described basal rosette of stalked leaves.

The ray florets are only just longer than the yellow disc florets, pink-purple, narrow, erect. The bracts appear to me to be similar in shape, neatly pointed, but in rows of differing lengths, each row clearly overlapping the one above. Within a row they do NOT overlap. Each flower head could only just have been the described diameter of 12 - 18 mm as described in Rose, who may have got it from CTW - I would have said nearer 8 mm, and therefore as said to be less than 10mm in Luontoporti, the Finnish website! I need to go back with a ruler. The ring of white might perhaps be styles, but they could be "intermediate" florets, it is rather unclear. The flower heads themselves are held in a loose panicle of about three to half a dozen heads.

It is typically found on calcareous grassland in the UK and flowers from July to August, but is more broadly regarded as growing in rocky places and dry meadows in countries like Finland, where there are several subspecies known varying in factors such as hairiness, colour and number of inflorescences. It has a distribution that extends across to North America. In Kent it is well-known as a regular on this particular site, and I think found quite generally across the county.

Here is another head, this time just coming into fruit with each pappus joining together to appear as a strawy fuzz above the old disc florets. Stunning colour combination to our eyes!

The Yarrow was also looking good!

A very common plant at the top of the slopes was the Sainfoin, Onobrychis viciifolia, with its salmon pink flowers streaked with darker red.