Colourful gathering

Before stepping out on to Further Roughdown from the cover of the trees in Lower Roughdown, I always pause and scan for birds. Often, there's a lovely mix of species feeding on the ground, out in the open. Today, I was treated to 8 species, all commuting back and forth from the sun drenched, south-facing hedge, to the worms, seeds and insects on the soft ground.

2 Green Woodpeckers
2 Mistle Thrushes
3 Blackbirds
14 Redwing
11 Greenfinch
4 Goldfinch
5 Blue Tit
4 Great Tit

Further east, there were also 3 Magpies foraging on the ground.

Autumn blooms!

The 1985 SSSI listing for Roughdown Common includes the jewel that is Autumn Gentian (Gentianella amarella). At that time, it seems to have been limited to the steep slopes of the chalk pit in Lower Roughdown. Since then, it has clearly spread and there are a good number of specimens out on Further Roughdown. These are a lot more accessible even if they do take some spotting. If you’ve never seen these flowers before, they are tiny, but well worth the effort required in searching them out.

As its name suggests, it is late flowering, continuing right through October. It’s a flower of chalk grasslands and sand dunes, and if you’d like to find out more, there’s a very detailed article here.

Next generation of moths

Whilst out looking for Purple Hairstreaks and Purple Emperors this week at Roughdown, I spotted a couple of moths in their pre-adult stages of development. A Burnet moth species had formed a chrysalis on a stem of Agrimony…

Burnet sp (likely 6-Spot) chrysalis on Agrimony

And, a fabulous Small Elephant Hawk-moth (Deilephila porcellus) larva was feeding on Hedge Bedstraw. The head of the mature larva has incredible eye-like markings on the top. When alarmed, the larva retracts its long nose/mouth parts or trunk (from which its name is derived) and rears up like a snake. Very convincing it is too.

On the 11th June, the Trust mothing team trapped a Small Elephant Hawk-moth adult at Roughdown and it could well be the parent of this larva!

Left: larva/caterpillar; Right: adult/moth. Both photographed at Roughdown

Purple Hairstreaks!

Fellow Trust volunteer and experienced butterfly recorder, Brendan Sheridan, sent the following news:

"Carried out my [butterfly] transect walk on Saturday morning [18/07/2015]. Nothing particularly unusual until I had almost finished when I caught sight of a Jay watching me from a tree close to the access track to Lower Roughdown. Whilst keeping an eye on it to get a photo my attention was taken by three butterflies moving in an upward spiral above the tree canopy. I watched two of them eventually settle and flit intermittently around the upper branches of the canopy for the next 10 minutes.

This was my first sighting of Purple Hairstreaks (Favonius quercus) since 2013 (also at the exact same location). Pleased to see that they are still on Roughdown!"

This is really fantastic news and they should be around until early August.

Track to Further Roughdown from locked gate. Purple Hairstreaks seen in tree tops, right hand side.

Mid June Butterflies & Moths

This morning, I had a gentle wander around Roughdown Common in the warm, calm, sunny conditions. A Chiffchaff was still singing and the butterflies and moths of note were:

1 Small Purple and Gold
1 Yellow Shell
1 Large Skipper
3 Common Blues
1 Green Hairstreak
3 Brimstone

Small Purple and Gold (Pyrausta aurata) (a rather worn specimen), chalk dell at Roughdown

Large Skipper (Ochlodes sylvanus)

After Roughdown, I headed over to Westbrook Hay to photograph the Bee Orchids. Once again, there are good numbers around, at least 50+. Butterflies and moths of note in the NE region of Bovindgon Reach:

8 Meadow Brown
12 Common Blue
3 Yellow Shell
2 Burnet Companion
1 Large White

Moth Trapping

Ben Sale and the Box Moor Trust mothing team were again trapping at Roughdown Common last night. I joined them for the first half and the evening seemed to go very well. Overall, the team recorded 105 species! For the full story, including photos, see Ben's expert write-up HERE.

Moth Trapping at Roughdown

Ben Sale and the Box Moor Trust mothing team were trapping at Roughdown Common last night. The target species was Light Feathered Rustic but, for whatever reason, this didn’t materialise. However, as the night progressed, the number of moths grew and the catch was eventually one of Ben’s biggest for the second week of May. For the full story, see Ben's witty report HERE on his great mothing blog.

A Common Solitary Bee

I was out searching for Green Hairstreaks again at Roughdown on Monday. Spotted 4 but also came across one of the solitary bee species present on site. I think this one is Andrena nitida.

The main ID features are the “bright, foxy-brown hair on the thorax and a polished black abdomen (see insert A). Females have thin apical side-bars of white pubescence on abdominal segments 1-3 (just visible in insert C), and males have copious white facial hair, especially on the clypeus.” This is a female so minimal facial hair (insert B).

It likes open grassland habitat and doesn’t need or prefer bare earth sites for nests. It’s fairly common throughout southern Britain and present from April until June.

I did note a Nomada species fairly close by but didn't get a good enough view. These are "cuckoo bees" targeting the nest sites of Andrena mining bee species. Like Cuckoos, they don’t bother to create their own nests and provide for their young. Instead, they parasitise the nests of mining bees, laying their eggs in the “cells provisioned by the host bee. When the cuckoo bee larva hatches it consumes the host larva's pollen ball, and, if the female kleptoparasite has not already done so, kills and eats the host larva.” Nice!

A bit late adding this observation but, along with the other more common butterfly species now emerging, a male Holly Blue (Celastrina argiolus) was also around Lower Roughdown last Thursday 23rd.

Has it snowed? No, it's the Blackthorn blossom!

In my previous post about the cowslips, I was looking forward to the golden dust that lights up lower Roughdown Common at this time of year, but the dry weather has meant they aren't fully out yet on the field, though a few are visible.

The sloe bushes are a mass of frothy white.

Below them are areas sheltered from the wind and damper so this is where I find the cowslips  flourishing. 

I have often seen rabbits there, bouncing in and out of the hedgerow, and there is evidence of a predator with a sad pile of pigeon feathers by the hedge.

Green Hairstreaks

At Lower Roughdown, I was really pleased to come across a couple of the rare Green Hairstreak (Callophrys rubi) butterflies today. The colony was found last year by a dedicated butterfly surveyor and it is wonderful that they bred and made it into a second year. Purely by chance, I managed to photograph both specimens. One had noticeable scuff marks across the underside of the right forewing.

Green Hairstreak (Callophrys rubi), specimen 1, Lower Roughdown

Green Hairstreak (Callophrys rubi), specimen 1, Lower Roughdown

Green Hairstreak (Callophrys rubi), specimen 2 (scuff marks on right underwing), Lower Roughdown

Another lovely butterfly to see today was a female Holly Blue (Celastrina argiolus). I only saw one at Roughdown Common last year and, in 2013, only 2 were recorded on the butterfly survey. In the hours that I was on site today, it only settled once and briefly, so I had to be very quick to grab photographs!

There were at least 2 Willow Warblers, 4+ Chiffchaff & 3+ Blackcaps all singing close by. In the chalk bowel, there was a Willow Warbler and a Chiffchaff and both had very odd songs, as if trying to add a little of the other's song into their own. I didn't have the time to wait and record them, unfortunately - one for another day or someone else to investigate. There were a couple of Mistle Thrush pairs, one adult from each pair was busy collecting worms, presumably for young.

Wild flowers and butterflies 9th April

Yesterday I was disappointed because the cowslips on Roughdown have only just begun to show their leaves. I'll have to wait a few more weeks for the highly anticipated yellow carpet of blooms. But here's a beautiful specimen I found in the sheltered quarry of lower Roughdown.

Throughout the woods and on the 20 metre strip that borders the A41 the violets are in full bloom. Another annual treat to see that special spring colour before the ferns and nettles hide them.
Primroses twinkle in the shadows of the woods and all over the quarry slopes where we cleared the dogwood last year.

The bees are very excited by the pulmonaria or lungwort in the quarry too

. I'm not sure if this is a native plant but it is extremely popular with the insects and very colourful.

As well as bees of many kinds, there are lots of butterflies waking from their winter sleep and dancing in the glades.

 The hawthorn buds are just opening to tempt the bees.

The brilliantly coloured Peacock and the Comma are instantly recognisable.

Cowslips

Spring again! Looking for Cowslips on Roughdown and hoping they are as good as last year...

Common Carder Bee (Bombus pascuorum) feeding on Cowslip (Primula veris).

Cowslips (Primula veris).