Leaf Miners

I like the crazy patterns leaf miners make in the leaves. The traces are made by larvae, mostly of flies or moths, that live between the top and bottom surfaces of the leaf, eating their way around the interior in different ways until they eventually are ready to transform.  By the plant species involved and the pattern left by the larvae you can mostly identify which the species.  I've recorded mines on sugar snap peas, chard and aquilegia; also on weeds such as sow thistles, herb bennett & willowherb.  Mostly they're fairly harmless, though I'm not so happy about the damage to my chard - not that I can do much about it, if I don't want to use insecticide.

Leaf mine on sugar snap pea

#166 Beet leaf miner on Chard

#121 Aquilegia leaf miner

Summer Walkway at Slimbridge

On the banks of the River Severn, Wildfowl & Wetland Trust at Slimbridge is the best birding site near here. In winter the flocks of wildfowl and waders are huge, but on a beautiful summers day it's pretty good too - lot's of chicks from breeding avocets, lapwings and shelduck, cranes from re-introduction in Somerset Levels out on the meadows and plenty of butterflies too.  Amongst all this you can see the first signs of autumn as returning waders such as ruff, greenshank & green sandpiper start heading South from their breeding grounds in Scandinavia.

Slimbridge Summer Walkway

Poppies

It's been a good year for poppies in the garden. Some years there's none, this year lots of yellow Welsh Poppies materialized in May and now we have rather beautiful Opium Poppies (#175) popping up all over the place.  No idea where the seeds have come from; but they can lay dormant for several years in the soil waiting for the right conditions to germinate.  The current hot spell is obviously such a time.  It's also been great for butterflies, which is good news.

#175 Opium Poppy

Weekend Bug Safari

Spent some time, between World Cup matches, with my youngest son checking for bugs around the garden, and in the process adding several species to the list and learning about some garden inhabitants I'd previously overlooked. Checking the brown wheelie bin for garden waste always yields something after I've been doing some pruning - in this case #154 an oak bush cricket nymph.  Bashing some bushes & trees and catching the falling bugs on a white sheet was fun and also got some results.

#154 Oak Bush Cricket nymph

#161 Crepidodera fulvicornis Flea beetle

#159 Lesser Willow Sawfly larvae

#164 White-lipped Snail

#170 Tachyporus obtusus Rove beetle

#162 Green Orb Weaver Spider

BTO Breeding Bird Survey

I've just done my second visit to my BBS square on the Gloucestershire / Worcestershire border near Broadway. This British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) survey counts breeding birds, with two visits in April and June to log the birds encountered along two transects running through an assigned 1 km square.  The BBS itself is great to be part of: it's been running annually since 1994 and the data enables a detailed analysis of population trends for over 100 UK breeding birds.  This provides massively valuable input to discussions about the impact of changing climate and land-use on the nation's wildlife for the Government and organisations like RSPB.  I'm lucky with my square that it's very scenic and has plenty of wildlife, so as well as feeling like a worthy citizen I get to enjoy some good birding. 

#158 Blue-tailed Damselfly

I was wondering when I was going to find my first garden dragonfly or damselfly. Where here he (I think) is; a Blue-tailed Damselfly resting up in my tomato plants.

#158 Blue-tailed Damselfly

Over 150 species

Had a good few days adding some new species including my first pipistrelle bats of the year, a passing speckled wood butterfly (no photos sadly) and even a couple of trees I hadn't noticed before (very small ash and beech saplings).  Small fauna included a smooth glass snail, pollen beetles (which really seem to like yellow Hypericum flowers) and a Capsus ater capsid beetle which flew in through the window, but should normally be sucking the sap out of grass stems in a nearby meadow.

#150 Smooth Glass Snail

#153 Pollen Beetle

#152 Capsus ater Capsid bug

Beware of the Flower Bug

Flower bugs come with a nasty bite; one of the garden's predators - this species #139 Deraeocoris flavilinea is actually (another) alien species, which has spread out from the Mediterranean, reaching UK for the first time only in 1996. They live up in the trees normally, eating aphids and other small insects.

Flower Bug: #139 Deraeocoris flavilinea

Volunteering at Tewkesbury Nature Reserve

Gabi and I have joined the team at Tewkesbury Nature Reserve doing some hedge laying and cutting back grass (the old-fashioned way).  The reserve is on flood plains near Tewkesbury and is often totally submerged in winter, hence it is set aside as a green space for the local community.  There's no shortage of work to do to manage and improve this site.  Sessions are on Tuesday evening, so if we're aching a bit on Wednesday mornings, that's why!

New Bugs

A couple of Scarlet Tiger moths (#81) around the garden this morning enabling me to get decent photos, and my first ladybird, #124 a Harlequin Ladybird.  These ladybirds are non-native ones from Asia that have been accidentally introduced and are increasing fast in population - I hope that they can co-exist ok alongside the native ladybird species.

#81 Scarlet Tiger

#124 Harlequin Ladybird

Counting skylarks on Bredon Hill

Undertook a site survey on the Overbury Estate for the local FWAG (Farming & Wildlife Advisory Group).  Happy to report there were plenty of skylarks and other farmland birds on the hill, where the fields are managed very sensitively: low grazing levels, wide field margins, minimum spraying. Lots of butterflies and wild flowers too, including white campion, grass vetchling and common rockrose.

White Campion

Grass Vetchling

Common Rockrose

What's Going on with my Plum Tree?

I noticed many of the leaves have lumps forming, mostly around the leaf edge. Turns out these are caused by #106 the Plum Leaf Gall Mite. Apparently this is harmless.  Wish I could say the same for the extreme damage done by #3 the Woodpigeon, which have pecked at most of the leaves except on outermost branches, and in the process either eaten or knocked off all but a handful of the many plums that were forming on the tree.

Three-in-One

I was not aware how different plant species have their own species of aphid. Here we have #18 Broad-leafed Dock with its own #95 Dock Aphid, which in turn are being "farmed" by #107 Common Black Ant. The ants feed on honeydew which the aphids secrete, and at the same time they protect the aphids from other insect predators.

#98 Reedmace Brittlestem

Very few fungi at this time of the year, but I start out with an obscure one - reedmace brittlestem - that specialises in growing on dead stems of the bulrushes that are growing in my small container pond.

100 Species in my Backyard, 900 to Go

Starting the tally on 1st June, I'm quite quickly over 100 species.  Even getting that far I've learned a lot about species I never really noticed or studied before, especially the weeds. The birds are not so easy to see right now - in nesting mode they're keeping themselves discretely hidden in thick foliage - and I didn't really try to get to grips with the insects yet, which anyway due to cloudy weather have not been so evident.  Common flowering plants though are looking good...

#88 Ribwort Plantain

#36 Ivy-leaved Toadflax

#42 Orange Hawkweed

#44 Wall Daisy