Autumn Colours Of Nature

As the wet summertime came to a soggy end,a brief spell of early Autumn sunshine brought out a wonderful selection of Butterflies that have had a hard year due to the weather.Some of the summer flowers also showed their late blooms, to provide much needed food while the Butterflies were on the wing.

A Large Skipper On Knapweed.

A Peacock On Buddlia.

A Comma On Buddlia.

A Small Tortoiseshell On Buddlia.

A Holly Blue On Ragwort.
Most Butterflies die within a few weeks or months of hatching out but some are very hardy and will hibernate through the winter to emerge in the early spring sunshine,these include the Red Admiral,Peacock,Tortoiseshells and Comma.The earliest new butterfly to emerge is usually the wonderful yellow Brimstone and they can be seen from late Feb onwards in mild winters,lets hope next year is a lot better for these wonderful and vibrant insects.
Just a quick apology for my lack of posts recently but a family illness has really taken all my time up but things are looking so much brighter now,  hope you enjoyed this short post i will pop a in depth fungi one on in the next week ,take care and good nature hunting  Nature man Andy.


 

Parks A Haven For All Kinds Of Wildlife

So many parks sprang up when old tips were bulldozed over and grass and new trees planted ,the ground was too unstable for building houses so new green areas emerged,one such park is the John Smiths Playing Field at Longridge.I remember when the place was a huge tip,Rats and Vermin were common place as were weasels and stoats,i even remember before that when the trains used to run from the stone quarries down to Preston.Nowadays the wildlife has returned with a vengeance as i hope this will show, a great picture to start off was one of a Yellow Tailed Mouse that i got within a foot of,he was enjoying a good feed on some seeds and it was a good job i am not a Owl or it would of been his last supper.

Yellow Tailed Mouse eating seeds.
Just a bit further on a flash of brilliant colour caught my eye and a Black and Red Frog hopper came in to view ,this is one of the largest Frog hoppers ,they and the smaller Frog hoppers are better seen some times as the tiny bug inside Cuckoo Spit .

Black and Red Frog hopper.
There are many old tunnels in the park and i noticed activity of bats by chewed off moth wings on the floor these tunnels have a wealth of ferns and flora growing all around them.

Old Railway Tunnel with Bats hiding away.

Walls festooned with Ivy great hiding place for Bats and Bird Nests.

In the shadow of the bridge fantastic Ferns flourish.

Going back out in to the light of the park a pair of Large Skipper Butterflies were busy enjoying a private moment after all the wet and cold weather i was pleased to see some out.

Large Skippers breeding.

There was a good range of flowers out as well and most had a good range of bees on them.

Red Tail Bumble Bee.

Red Campion .

Welsh Poppies.

                        Where the sides of the banks had worn away over periods of time a tree was clinging to life by sending its roots out looking to keep a purchase on the bank.

A maze of Tree roots there was a Robin nest among them with chirping young.

A multitude of Fungi in a shady spot.

This park also has a nature trail to follow its about a mile round walk and you get to see some fantastic descriptions of all kinds of trees ,dogs are also welcome as long as you clean up after them, if you ever get the chance try and visit it you there is also a play area for the children,and from the top of the park is a wonderful view of the countryside all around.

Nature man Andy.

Our Amazing Beautiful Moths

While you are tucked up in bed as the light fades outside,a whole new generation of Moths prepares to take to the wing,some Moths are day fliers but most emerge as the night sky beckons,many times flying in to a room and going round and round a light bulb,most moth activity can peak on moist humid nights when they will emerge in their thousands.
One of the ways to catch and log the type of moths flying is by use of a moth trap, a device that lets you catch Moths safely by enticing them to a strong light that then lets them slide in to a darkened container waiting to be examined, these darkened areas are usually full of empty egg boxes that keep the moths safe and hidden away.

My Moth Trap in full Glow.

There are hundreds of species of moths and over the last week here are some that i have captured taken their pictures ,recorded the data then released.

Popular Hawk Moth.
This large Moth is unusual in that the lower wings are higher up than the front wings, this is a large Moth and one i am always being asked to identify.

The Peppered Moth.
A wonderful moth now in decline in this area of Lancashire.

Common White Wave.
So delicate a wonderful Moth.

The Brimstone Moth.
Yellow and Browns a vibrant Moth.

The Cinnabar Moth .
Can also fly during the day found on Ragwort and Thistle.

Yellow Under wing.
A Brown set of upper wings that hide a Wonderful set of yellow under wings.

Small Magpie Moth.

White Ermine Moth.

Garden Carpet Moth.

Elephant Hawk Moth.
A wonderful Coloured moth stunning pinks and greens.
As time goes on i will keep putting up what i catch and record,Moths are a staple diet of bats and other birds and spiders but one ingenious moth the Garden Tiger also makes a noise like a bat so is left alone i will hopefully find one of these moths in the next few weeks and share with you,as well as some of the plainer moths as well .
Hope you have enjoyed these pictures and on my next moth blog i will show you how to tempt the moths that are not attracted to light ,don't be scared of them they are wonderful ,till next time take care and happy nature spotting  Nature Man Andy.

Our wonderful Bumble bees

As the first warming rays of early sun caress the undergrowth in late February ,early March the first of our Bumble Bees start to emerge from their winter sleep, these are all Queen Bees their large size and slow flight giving them away,some times you will see them crawling slowly on the floor and you might think they are dying but they need some sunshine to gain energy,most of the early flowers they feed on are yellow but exceptions like willow are commonly used as soon as the Queen feds herself she gathers a small amount of nectar and goes looking for a nest site,commonly this will be a old mouse or vole hole, holes in walls and banking's anywhere were she feels safe and warm.
The Queen then lays a few eggs and gathers more nectar to feed herself , she keeps the eggs warm by vibrating her muscles making warmth,these first eggs when they hatch are all female bees or workers,much smaller than the Queen and as soon as they can fly they start to gather nectar,clean the nest and guard the Queen who now her first job done will not leave the nest again .

Queen Buff Tail Bumble Bee in the sunshine recharging her body.

Queen Carder Bee on Daffodils.

Queen Red Tail Bumble Bee on Willow.
As soon as the first brood of Bees has taken too the wing the Queen then goes in to major egg production she is a amazing insect,she can make either male,female or Queen bees at will,as she feels what the nest needs,the male bees she uses for mating and these bees have a short but fruitful life,they carry no sting and when they leave the nest can be distinguished by having no nectar baskets on their legs as they do not collect for the nest just themselves.The best time to see these males is late summer when all the new Queens fly the nest and need to breed before they hibernate, many times 6 or 7 males will try to attend the same Queen.
Bumble Bees are crucial to the pollination of our flowers and trees so the decline in their numbers due to habitat loss and pesticides is a real concern many farmers are now leaving a small area on the edges of fields free growing so to try and help the Bees.Another bone of contention is the spread of Himalayan Mountain Balsam this fast growing alien invader has sprung up everywhere and to some nature lovers is a plant that needs eradicating but to bee lovers it could be the plant that helps save our Bees.
In 1993 a new species of Bee was spotted in the UK and has spread like wildfire it is the Tree Bumble Bee and had a brown head and a white bum this Bee likes to nest in bird boxes and holes in trees and seems to be doing no harm to our native bees.

Tree Bumble Bee.
One of our less common Bees is the Tawny Mining Bee,this beautiful small bee lives a solitary life making a small hole in lawns and parks and then laying a single egg with some nectar in the hole as well,it flies between April and July and once seen is never forgotten with its bright yellow and red body.

Tawny Mining Bee.
We have six common species of Bumble bee,the Buff tailed Bumble Bee, White Tail Bumble Bee, Common Garden Bumble  Bee, Tree Bumble Bee, Carder Bee, and Early Bumble Bee.
At the end of the year all the new Queens fly the nest looking to mate with the male Bees and the rest of the old nest Bees and old Queens slowly die out they are wonderful creatures and without them our flora would be decimated ,at the moment the Clover is out everywhere and is alive with bees try seeing how many types you can recognise.
Another type of Bumble Bee is the Cuckoo bee this is a bee that will infiltrate a nest and sting the resident Queen to death then take over her duties using the old Queens workers and drones to bring up her own brood ,this bee like the male bees has no baskets for pollen,but does have a sting.

Honey bees.
The Honey bee is a altogether different insect it can grow in huge colonies with just one Queen serving the whole hive ,if that Queen dies then a worker bee is fed a special food called Royal Jelly by the other worker bees and she then becomes a queen herself ,the honey bees do not all die out in the winter like most Bumble bees but huddle together keeping warm by vibrating their wings more about these amazing bees another time.Keep your eyes peeled for all these and more and if you take some pictures please look them up on the Internet and see what species you have seen .
Nature man Andy.

Salt Marshes and the wonder of Crabs

After a hectic weekend doing a Bio Blitz at Brockholes Nature Reserve,the first really warm day for six weeks gave me the chance to visit a wonderful place,the salt marshes and high tide marks at Cockerham sands.The area around the marshes is a absolutely wonderful natural piece of unspoilt nature,but a word of warning please do not wander too far out on to the mud flats unless you can read the beach, as the sign at the high tide mark gives you a warning why.

Some very soft sand/mud out there.
This area is part of the Lancashire Coastal way and is a walk i would strongly recommend as some of the nature and flowers you will see is quite stunning.

Signposted all the way along the walk.
On the day i was there ,the fields were full of Hares a wonderful animal that lives above ground and nests in shallow scrapes on the Field floor the young are called Leverets and many crossed the road in front of my car as i drove slowly down to my parking place,much larger than Rabbits they make a fantastic sight as they box each other rearing up on their hind legs.
The pathways are strewn with wild flowers and with all the flowers the insect life is varied and unusual.

Birds foot Trefoil a favourite of many Butterflies.

Thrift.
As i was walking along the pathway a sudden flurry of movement to my right was followed by a pair of Lapwings diving and screaming,a Stoat had claimed one of their chicks and was carrying it away ,all of a sudden a pair of Oyster catchers joined in the mobbing of the Stoat who taken by surprise dropped its meal, it was so sad to see the Lapwing parents near their dead youngster.
I made my way down to the low water mark where i turned a few rocks over and some large crabs were hiding buried in the sand/mud, this time of year is special for crabs as they make their way back to shallower water from their overwintering grounds in the deeper sea,the male crabs appear first and as the crabs have a exoskeleton,which means it is on the outside of its body to get bigger they must split this old shell and emerge with a new soft body that takes two to three days to get rock hard,as soon as the males have finished this peeling process the females emerge and start to shed their shells as well, as they can only mate when they have shedded their old shell and are soft but the earlier peeled males whose new shell has now hardened are able to protect them and can be very aggressive if disturbed.

Male Crab you can tell by the pointed segment in the middle of the picture the female is more rounded.

Female Crab with more rounded segment.

A Crab shedding its old shell you can see the soft new shell under the the old hard shell that's being cast off.
The crabs when casting off the old shell absorb some of the calcium to help make the new one, and then the crabs fill themselves up with sea water this then causes the weaker old shell to split and they emerge ,soft as jelly but much bigger, they are very vulnerable at this stage and fish and seabirds hunt them with great vigour.
The high tide mark can also be a great place to explore the debris washed up and many surprises can be found from Ray and Dogfish eggs to Seashells and other wonders more of which i will explore in future blogs.

A huge tree trunk at the high tide mark.

A high tide line full of interesting things.
And right on the high tide mark was a fungi i had never seen before showing how these remarkable plants can thrive in any environment.

A type of Fungi i have never seen before and i am researching the species.
I really hope you are enjoying the warm weather and keep your eyes open there are lots of butterflies emerging at the moment and the Dragonflies and Damselflies are also emerging take care Nature Man Andy.

Spring Tides At The Seaside

After a week of really changeable weather and knowing that the big spring tides were happening at the coast i took myself off to the complex of sand dunes and wide open beaches of Lytham St Annes .Spring Tides are caused twice a month at a time when the moon is closest and furthest away from the planet Earth the increase of gravity causes the sea to rise higher thus going out further as well,at  Lytham the tide will go out a quarter of a mile further at low tide exposing areas of beach only uncovered maybe twenty times a year,this area is rich in food for sea birds that flock to take advantage,two types of Worms found at the coast are the common Blow Lug Worm,and the much larger Black Lug Worm,the Blow Lug Worm lives in a u shape tunnel its head causing a dimple in the sand were it sucks in sand to obtain food, and a pile of squiggly sand showing where it has expelled the sand after filtering nutrients out.

Blow Lug Worm cast the hole is where the head lies and the squiggle of sand is where the sand has been expelled from the Worm.

The Black Lug Worm is a altogether different creature living down a vertical burrow up to two feet deep he sucks the sand and mud up from below him and then makes a large cast on the top of the sand ,if the cast has a hole in it it means the worm is within 2"of the surface .

Black Lug Worm within 2"of the surface.

Black Lug Worms live in concentrated colonies at the low tide mark.

The worms themselves can be as long as 18"but normally are between 6" and 10".The colours of he worm vary between black or brown with the hairs you see on the side of the worm its way of pushing itself up and down its burrow.

large Black Lug Worm 9" long note the hairs used to propel itself up and down its burrow.

On the day i was out on the beach there were also Hermit Crabs being exposed and the various seabirds were taking full advantage,These crabs have no hard shell, so use discarded shells as there own travelling homes moving shells when the old one becomes too small.

Hermit Crab tucked up in its host shell.

Another creature that is seen frequently is a type of Anemone called The Sea Potato it occurs in large numbers at extreme low tide marks and is covered in yellowish fine hairs.

Sea Potato.
There is a huge number of creatures at the extreme low water marks and next month i will explore more of these unusual creatures and their habitats,but moving on back up to the high tide mark i will try to explain what a wonderful job the Lancashire Wildlife Trust and its Dune Officer have done to create a new habitat for our native coastal plants.
If you go to the beach at Lytham you will see at the seaward side of the sand dunes a fence of wooden posts,these posts have been knocked in deep in to the sand,the idea behind this is that on the highest tides the debris from the tide is washed behind these posts and is left to be covered in turn by sand,this then creates a environment for new plants to grow,as the following pictures show this is being successful and new life is emerging all over the foreshore.

Fence posts looking towards Lytham.

Fence posts looking to Blackpool the area of new life is to the right of the posts.

New life springing from the sand.

Plants now growing and enriching the foreshore.
It really is amazing what is being achieved,these plants in turn will attract insects ,that in turn encourage bird life,so if you visit that part of the world please go and look at what i have described to you.As i made my way back to my car i came across some fungi in the sand dunes its amazing that where ever i go i nearly always seem to see some king of fungi.

Dune Brittle Stem fungi.

Dune Brittle Stem fungi

And nearly back at my car i found these two Snails mating ensuring populations for years to come.
As a closing piece my little girl Shannon 7 has just been awarded the Gold award at school with a display she made of some of the things she has found at the beach,Well done Shannon.

Shannon's display.
So if in the next few months you go to the seaside keep your eyes open for all the things we have seen here,and make sure you wash your hands before eating,keep your eyes open and have a great weekend Nature Man Andy.