Ring of Fire

Can you see the ring of fire that inspired my title?

This is my butterfly from a few days back, the first of November. It is a Red Admiral, Vanessa atalanta. Not really a British butterfly at all it is a summer migrant, flying in from Southern Europe and North Africa in the spring and early summer and returning home in the autumn. Well that is how it used to be.

If you Google for the UK Red Admiral you will learn that very rarely it will overwinter in the extreme south of England. Well that is also how it used to be.

You have got a little something on your nose there.

This might turn into a post about climate change. If I asked you for your childhood recollections of October 24th , say from the 1960’s you probably would not remember anything specific but if I changed that date to November the 5th… People in the UK would have no trouble at all recalling that exact day, forty or fifty years ago. It is Bonfire Night.

I don’t have any specific memories of my own childhood birthdays but I can recall the excitement of bonfire night fifty years ago. It was a night of duffle coats and scarves and woollen gloves. Sparklers,  red faces in the firelight and baked potatoes, it was cold.

I have just been reading on the RSPB website that Red Admirals can be seen until October and very rarely into November. When Fizz and I go out this afternoon if the sun is shining we will see Red Admirals. It isn’t rare any more and they will overwinter here in Gloucestershire.

Times have changed and winter is warm.

The last few days the weather has been really fantastic here. Well, it has been cold, with lots of sunshine but we have also had sudden downpours of very heavy rain and then hailstones and then more sunshine. It is very lively and I am really enjoying it.

It is nice that it is cold enough to wear a coat out and that is useful when the rain comes over but I have not even thought about wearing gloves yet, it isn’t that cold.

I have chosen my butterfly photographs today to focus on that ring of fire, I think that it is lovely 🙂

I am going to be keeping a close eye on the insects as we head toward winter. A friend has been asking about Dragonfly sightings. The Migrant Hawker is often seen well into November and I might do a post about that one soon. I would like to see one for myself.

There are some really good Dragonfly spots around here but we need a sunny day and I need Fizz to get a clean bill of health. I am pretty sure that she is not in season and a mistake has been made, that is good because I can take her to public places but I need her owner to confirm that and that she is happy for me to take her out.

The second dog in this video, Buddy, is a male. Can you see why I don’t think she is in season?

There is just nothing in her behaviour to suggest such a thing.

So you sort yourself out and then we can go and look for insects. Okay?

I apologise for my absence over the last couple of days. A prolonged power cut meant that I lost most of yesterday but also I have had a lot to do getting the farm straightened out for my landlords return 🙂

I will be around to visit you shortly.

With Fizz.

Back Off or I’ll Sting You!

Oh no you won’t, you’re not a wasp.

Am so!

So are you a male wasp or a female wasp.

You won’t care when I am done stinging you!

It’s just that most male wasps have seven segments to their abdomen and seven stripes and females have six… and you have got four, so I was wondering, are you a male wasp or a female one?

Right I’m ready. You’re for it now.

I’ll just have a little drink, then I’m going to sting you!

You better start running.

The problem with this little fly is that she hasn’t got a name. She has got a scientific name (Chrysotoxum festivum) but she hasn’t got a common name.

Nobody has noticed her or deemed her important enough to be included in their conversations.

“Look out Mavis! It’s one of them Dangerflies. You watch the kids and I’ll get a stick to whack her if she comes any closer.” “Don’t whack her Fred, she’s a harmless little pollinator.”

Nobody has ever been frightened by her. She is of course a Hover Fly and a strikingly bold and beautiful one and she should have a name. Perhaps not Dangerfly though.

The Beautiful Game

Common  Blue Butterfly, Polyommatus icarus

Getting these pictures today makes me very happy (There’s more to come). There were a few of these butterflies about today and a few good open wing shots that I just couldn’t get but it is probably best to leave something for tomorrow.

Strangely I found them just above an emerging Six-spot Burnet. There must be something in the air

 

Butterfly Safari

Fizz and I are going on safari. We are hunting Butterflies but we are not going to the sweet flower meadows where we have been playing, today we are going into the jungle.

It is dangerous out here there are lots of bugs and most of the plants either bite or sting, you could lose your ball out here and no-one would ever know.

Okay, we think we have seen one, we are not completely sure but decide to take it’s photo anyway.

That is a good start to the day. We congratulated each other and pressed on deeper into the jungle.

 As we hacked our way through the swarms of biting insects we suddenly spotted another one. This time we were sure that it was a butterfly and we approached with stealth.

With our goal accomplished and noting that it was getting late and we had not brought sandwiches, we decided to retrace our steps and head for home.

It was not going to be that easy the rate of growth in the jungle is very rapid and the path that we had cut had simply vanished.

However luck was on our side and as we wandered aimlessly through the undergrowth we came upon our final trophy of the day.

Eventually we found the trail and escaped the Jungle. We had achieved everything that we set out to do and we hadn’t lost our balls in the process. A good days shooting.

The animal that featured in this post was called a Comma Butterfly. There were a few other species about that were not quite so co-operative and they can have a separate post, “The Ones That Got Away”

A Little Large Skipper

Wingspan: Large Skipper male 29-34 mm

Wingspan: Small White male 38-57 mm

Here are some pictures of the tiny Large Skipper that I took yesterday.

Bright Sparkly Things

The first damselfly to appear in the spring is the Large Red Damselfly.

Regarding identification, we only have two species of red damselfly and the Small Red Damselfly is rare, only found in the south of England and has red legs, so this is a Large.

Damselflies rest with their wings closed whereas dragonflies rest with their wings open and damselflies tend to be smaller. Also damselflies avoid people, a dragonfly will often hover in front of you having a look  at you but I have never known a damsel to do that. You have to sneak up on damselflies.

I think that they are wonderfully intricate and beautiful. Like nature’s jewellery but a pin made of precious metals and jewels could never compare to the real thing.

Flight time for the Large Red is from April until the end of August so there is plenty of time to see them.

 

 

Animal Magic

“Just like that”

It’s your destiny

The Swallows have fledged, or at least they are fledging. They are still in the nest today but they have been out and they can fly.

It has taken me a few days watching and all that you get are a couple of short video’s but for me, my understanding and the pleasure that I got from watching them makes a few days just a drop in the ocean. It was time well spent.

Anyway you should be glad that you don’t have to watch the whole twenty hours of video, that I now have to sort and delete from my machine to free up space.

Here are the best bits.

Yesterday morning there were five birds on the nest, there were five birds on the nest and then there were four birds on the nest. I had missed the very first flight and only realised when number five returned to the nest.

This first video starts with the mother calling for them to leave the nest, there is a little comic interlude of the way that they follow flies, their little heads bobbing in unison and in the last bit the second bird to approach the nest is the returning chick. Does he bring food back or do the others just think that he has?

This next video shows them leaving the nest and returning. They spent most of the day fluttering around inside the little alley way that has become their home and by the end of the day they were all settled back on the nest but this is fledging. Today I think that they have ventured outside and seen the blue sky but they still return to the nest.

These birds have made me think a lot about nature as a whole thing and about life and death in the wild. The caterpillars that I am trying to raise are falling to the parasitoid flies that these Swallows depend on for food and survival. The parents have done a really good job of raising them given the wet weather we have been having. I have often looked out in the pouring rain and wondered how they are managing to raise a brood and now this, flight.

I am so in in love and in awe of them and so damned jealous.

I am jealous because they get to eat those delicious crunchy flies, or perhaps because they can raise offspring in a matter of weeks and not the 26 years it usually takes us. Maybe I am jealous of something else altogether…..