Mark's Wildlife Blog

Lunar Hornet Moth’s at Priory Water

Mark — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 10:52:45 +0000

This all started last year when a group of us found several Poplar Trees at Ketton Quarry with loads of holes around the base of the tree trunk and exposed roots. These holes were made by Hornet Moths Sesia apiformis as we watched a newly emerged moth dry its wings on the trunk. The following weekend on 2 consecutive mornings 26/27- June 2010 we counted 9 Hornet Moths on each morning.

At the beginning of March 2011 I noticed holes low down in several Willow Trees at PRW. The first thing that struck me was the similarity of these holes and the holes we found last year at Ketton Quarry, the only difference being the species of tree.

I started to investigate these holes in the Willow Trees at PRW a little more and it all started to point towards Lunar Hornet Moths. This was all too good to be true so I thought I would proceed with caution and I asked Dr Frank Clark to have a look at the holes just in case it was a species of Beetle that had made the holes. The answer came back as definitely not!!

The next step was to get someone else to look at these pencil sized holes that has more experience with this kind of thing. The only person that sprang to mind was Keith Tailby I was confident that Keith would have seen these holes before. A day was arranged to meet Keith on site and after a good look at several places around the reserve Keith said “I would be disappointed if they weren’t Lunar Hornet Moths”. That was good enough for me.

I removed some of the lower branches to allow more sunlight in on the base of the Willow Trees and cleared the vegetation away from the exposed roots a few weeks ago. After several weeks of going and checking the holes also liaising with Keith I was finally rewarded with a fresh Exuvia Casing on 17-07-2011. I know it isn’t much but I now know they are definitely at PRW now. On 24-07-2011 Keith Tailby, Tim Goodlife and Graham Finch found another 5 Exuvia.

The next step is to actually find a living moth that has just emerged, sitting on the trunk drying its wings out.

And Another New Orchid

Mark — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 21:06:09 +0000

I couldn’t resist going out after another new Orchid species today especially as I have a new lens to play with and the sun was shining. There are not too many species left to choose from at this time of the year so the decision was Narrow-lipped Helleborine in Oxfordshire. Looking at various bits of information on some Blogs and Forums they give you the impression that the Oxfordshire site was not very good for this species. Undeterred by this we carried on and found the woods easily and once in the woods we found the particular area that was mentioned. As we started the search in the woods the first thing that we discovered 40+ Yellow Bird’s Nest plants and some of these were at least 180mm tall.

Walking further into the wood we discovered at least 100 Narrow-lipped Helleborine plants and maybe another 50 Violet Helleborines with the odd Broad-leaved Helleborine. I didnt take any photos of the Violet Helleborines as they need at least another 2/3 weeks to flower. Time to play with the new lens and it performed fairly well considering how dark it was. Some of these photos were taken at ISO 800 & 1000 using the lens OS as a few shots were fired off at 1/20th shutter speed all hand held!!!

So what was being said on the Internet about Narrow-lipped Helleborine at this site was a load of rubbish. I think it was possibly a “Stay away tactic”.

Finding Narrow-lipped Helleborine was my 12^th new species for the year so I am a happy chap!!

I think I might need another trip out to try the new lens again and maybe squeeze one more new species in if I get my finger out!!

Another New Orchid

Mark — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 20:37:08 +0000

Another successful Orchid hunt to Whisby Nature Park Lincolnshire to find Green-flowered Helleborine.

Grahame who is one of the Wardens at Whisby is very helpful and will give you directions how to find the Plants if you ask nicely!! He has been doing some sterling work to protect the c100 plants, his main problems are with Rabbits Deer and Slugs. He has taken some drastic measures to protect the plants by putting chicken wire around them. I was very impressed when Tim shouted across to me with “there’s a viridiflora variation type over here”. I then asked how he knew that it was viridiflora expecting a description of the flower difference but no he just pointed to the white sticker on the cage which said Epipactis helleborine Var viridiflora.

Sorry about the quality of the photos but it did rain all the time we were looking at them and the sky was very dark

Whilst we were trying to photograph these plants in these very difficult conditions we had the Mosquitoes to contend with and I have several bites as a memento.

This is my 11th new species of Orchid this year which brings my UK Orchid List to 35 species.

I am hoping to get 1 more new species before the 2011 season has finished.

Helleborine of a Day

Mark — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 20:46:34 +0000

Another trip up North to find Dark-red Helleborine at Bishop Middleham Quarry Durham and this trip turned out better than we expected.

Once we had found the right area within the quarry there were literally hundreds of DR Helleborine plants around and about 30 other people that drifted in during the morning. In amongst all the DR Helleborines was a single plant that stood out from the rest, it had a Pink flowers, I have no idea why this one was pink???

Satisfied with our photos we decided to move on to a place we hadn’t even researched or done any kind of homework on at all, this was going to be a seat of the pants job.

After being ripped off in a Burger King en route we finally arrived in Cumbria, all we had to do was find the reserve so out with my brand new mobile phone, get Google maps up and locate our position and get Google to guide us to the reserve, simple. I can honestly say using a mobile phone was a first for me and I’m sure it will be used for other things like getting a GPS location and maybe make a phone call!!

Enough about technology, after a very short walk along a track inspecting the Fragrant Orchids we found a Marsh Fragrant which is another new Species for me. We turned the corner and on the embankment there was around 1000 Marsh Helleborines which put the biggest smile on my face

With 3 new orchid species added in one day I have achieved my target of 10 new Orchid species for the year.

Yellow Bird’s Nest

Mark — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 09:25:15 +0000

A search at Ketton Quarry revealed an area covered with Yellow Bird’s Nest which is a very unusual plant and scarce in VC55.

It has no leaves and the entire plant is a uniform waxy yellow as it has no Chlorophyll. It is always found near Beach Trees as it feeds on decaying organic material in the soil and probably uses a fungi as a means of digestion of the food matter.

Also found at Ketton Quarry Hundreds of Common Spotted orchids that seemed to mark the path edges and in amongst them is the odd Common Twayblade.

Butterfly Conservation

Mark — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 14:10:41 +0000

Can you spare 15 minutes??

Butterfly Conservation is running a Butterfly Survey, all you need to do is spend 15 mins counting butterflies at any location in the UK.

They are trying to understand the current health of the UK’s Butterfly population, so with your 15 minute survey it will help them see the bigger picture!! There is a very simple Online sightings form to fill in.

Download your free butterfly chart Here

The survey is running from 16th – 31st July 2011 to find out more information click on the Butterfly Conservation link

Moth Porn and some Rape

Mark — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 15:52:04 +0000

A trip to Barnack Hills & Holes to find some more Orchid Species on the way home. First up was a good example of a Knapweed Broomrape which is not an Orchid species at all but its special in its own way. This plant does not contain any Chlorophyll hence the Brown dead appearance but it is very much alive. These plants seem to do very well at this site as we several of them all over the reserve.

As for the Orchids they were very disappointing we found 1 very small and weak Fragrant Orchid that just wasn’t worth photographing, 2 Bee Orchids, a few Pyramidal Orchids and a few Frog Orchids that were still in the early stages of growth. All the Orchid species at this site were struggling because of the lack of rainfall. I turned my
attention some Dark Mullein plants as they looked to me as they were doing well.

I was shouted over by Andrea as she had found something good

Andrea asked me to mention her name in any correspondence andrea@barnack.com

I couldn’t believe my eyes she had only found a mating pair of Yellow-legged Clearwings!!!

Lizard Orchids

Mark — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 15:05:09 +0000

Had a great morning photographing Lizard Orchids at a Cambridgeshire site.

The Orchids seem to have suffered in these current drought conditions and only a small percentage have flowered this year. We managed to find a total of 30 flowering spikes and the majority of these seemed a little on the week side to me. There were a couple of pristine plants that I concentrated on for my photos. Also whilst walking along at this site there were a few Pyramidal Orchids. There was a strange chap admiring the Lizard Orchids, he kept on smelling them and doing weird things with 2 pieces of pipe!!!

White Bee Orchid

Mark — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 10:34:07 +0000

After being sworn to secrecy I was taken to a fantastic Bee Orchid site within my home County, Leicestershire. Walking along the bridleway to the Bee Orchid area there were several Pyramidal Orchids maybe 30 plants. After about a 1 mile walk we arrived in Bee Orchid heaven. The area was covered in Bee Orchids maybe as many as 150 flowering plants in this one area that we stood in. In amongst all those Bee Orchids there is one special plant, a pure white one which is Ophrys apifera var. clorantha. Unfortunately by the time I visited this area the white flowered plant had gone past its best and the petals had started to turn brown. We also found a single Common Spotted Orchid in amongst all the Bee Orchids and I believe it is a new species for this site. No new species tick for me this time as the White Bee Orchid is only a subspecies.

Fen Orchid

Mark — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 19:23:02 +0000

We did go to Norfolk today in search of Fen Orchid and my fellow Orchid hunters words were before we left “As good as in the Bag”, that’s like the kiss of death !!!

After a quick pit stop at Ronnie’s home of the retards we arrived at the secret site in brilliant sunshine although we knew it was going to rain at some point today.

We searched the area for ages when my colour blind colleague Tim done his usual trick and switched to infrared mode and found a single plant. I just knew he had found a plant as he walked toward me because of the big grin on his face which he nearly lost the top of his head!!!.

Out came the cameras for some shutter therapy, happy with our photos of the Ugly Orchid we moved to other areas searching for more plants and I managed to find another 2 plants.

During our search for Fen Orchid we may have found another species of orchid a Pugsley’s Marsh Orchid amongst hundreds of Marsh Orchids and Marsh Orchid is another tick for me. I have sent some photos off to a Orchid Guru and I am waiting for his comments.

So the Orchid God did smile on us today or he felt sorry for us because of last weeks disaster. As we left the site the rain came down.

This is number 7 of the 10 new species for 2011 or possibly 8, we shall see!!! I am fairly confident that I will see the 10 new species this year.