Parched Meadows

Perfect weather for our Week 16 Butterfly transect at Trumpington Meadows yesterday lunchtime - sunny 25 degrees with gentle breeze. Lots of bees around including these two Cuckoo bees Bombus rupestris - a very large impressive orange-tailed bee (host ?Bombus lapidarius)  and Bombus campestris (host mainly Carder Bee). Butterflies looking a bit worn but still finding nectar in the sparse flower heads. Usual ID problems of distant Brown Argus and Common Blues plus quite wide ranging Small Blues. Also found an impressive Wasp Spider in the hedgerow.

Marbled Whites Roosting in Garden

When I designed our garden in Toft back in 2001, I could never have predicted that a species not breeding in many areas in the UK then would be mating and roosting and hopefully egg laying in the garden in 25 years time. Among the habitats I created (inspired by my flower-loving disabled 88-year-old mother) were woodland, shingle/Mediterranean  dry area, pond and marshland, hedgerow and  meadow. In the spring, the meadow is full of cowslips but by June, long grasses, scabious, knapweed and chiccory are the dominant vegetation attracting lots of butterflies including Skippers, several White species, Meadow Brown and Marbled Whites (a 'Brown'). They all nectar on the various cultivated scabious and composite species in the surrounding borders but were seen pairing up and settling to roost in the long grass regions. Here a set of images taken in strong evening contrasty light rather than the softer approach which works so well for these delicate butterflies. The first two are both males with the black markings, while the female on the scabious in the second image is being approached by a male.

Toft Butterflies etc in Flight

As I have a short trip coming up at beginning of July to Kent, hopefully to see some new species of Dragonfly (and lots of different butterflies) thought it time to try and master the various techniques that Olympus offer to catch the insects in flight (subject recognition, procapture etc). Thank goodness that there are plenty of Damselflies, bees and butterflies to practise on in the garden as this is still work in progress. Wonderful to have Marbled White and even a tatty Silver Washed Fritillary in the garden - with half a wing missing, I think it must have just gone with the wind!!

 

Spiders and Insects Toft and Trumpington

A mixed bag of images from the garden and from yesterday's Butterfly transect at Trumpington. The spiderlings on the parent's back caught my eye as I was deheading flowers yesterday along with various other spiders and beetles. Literally hundreds of Marbled Whites at Trumpington along with other species including the usual frustrating Skippers that are difficult to separate into species. 

 

Redland's Triangle Survey at Paxton

For our monthly wildlife survey at Paxton, we concentrated on an area of Redlands that is particularly good for Wasp Spiders later in the season so were not surprised at the number of Grasshoppers (wasp spider dinners) present in the long-grass areas. Delighted to find a Red-tipped Clearwing, 2 Marbled Whites and several Small Heaths. The plant tally was equally long!! ID sheets at end.