A quick update on a couple of sightings today. Crossbills have been seen up at Binn Green with the males looking particularly spectacular. Over at Chew Brook we've had sightings of Tree Pipit. At Dove Stone, of course, our main Pipit is the Meadow Pipit. Also a Reed Bunting has been seen from the main trail. The Peregrines are continuing to wow people - why not drop-in to our Peregrine watch at Ashway Gap for a closer look ? Elsewhere around Dove Stone good sightings of our some of our regulars, check out this posting from earlier in the week: http://www.rspb.org.uk/community/placestovisit/dovestone/b/dovestone-blog/archive/2012/05.aspx
Just a quick mention too of Green Tiger Beetles ( Cicindela campestris ). Lots of them about at the moment - look out for them until around September. They prefer areas of bare ground with little vegetation as bare ground warms up more quickly than soil under vegetation.
Green Tigers are ground beetles ( of which the UK has over 350 species - wonder how many we have at Dove Stone ?!) And within this there are five species of tiger beetle in Britain. But back to the Green Tiger. They're very distinctive - the colouring can vary from light to dark but in the sunshine they look irridescent. Green Tiger Beetles are predators - they'll be feeding on any small invertebrates they can catch including spiders, caterpillars and ants. Check out those mandibles ! Obviously they'll be breeding over the summer. They'll lay their eggs in small burrows in the ground and when they hatch the larvae will stay in the burrows over the winter feeding and growing until emerging next year. Unless of course they meet Methoca ichneumonoides. Methoca ichneumonoides is a solitary wasp that is a parasite of Green Tiger Beetle larvae. Basically this wasp will insert an egg into the larva’s burrow and when this egg hatches the wasp larva will feed off the beetle larva. Anyway. More sightings soon...