We usually think of late-summer as a quiet time of year, the birds have finished breeding and stopped singing and the sounds of wintering wildfowl are still weeks away. However, the reserve was anything but quiet as I made my way around our butterfly transect route this afternoon. In the woodland, the air was alive with the high pitched buzzing of hoverflies, there were so many insects that it sounded like a swarm of bees overhead!
Further round the transect, the grassland was full of Roesel's bush-crickets, or Metrioptera roeseli, a stunning Orthopteran species, that makes a continuous high pitched rasping noise using it's wings (also known as stridulating). This 'song' is characteristic of the species and is made by the male. They are a medium sized bush-cricket, up to 25mm in length and can be identified visually by their diagnostic yellow coloured 'U' shaped marking just behind the head. Interestingly, the Roesel's bush-cricket had a restricted range in the UK up until the mid-20th century. From their core population in the south-east, they have spread northwards in recent years, now occupying much of England.
Also in the grassland, there was the sound of vetch seed pods popping, spreading their seeds throughout the area and who says birds have stopped singing?! Yellowhammers and reed warblers were still in full voice this afternoon in the hedgerows and reedbeds around Phase 1.
Also on site this afternoon was a green sandpiper on Phase 1, yellow wagtails on Phase 2, a second generation common blue butterfly on Phase 2 and an adonis ladybird near silt lagoon 4.
Some photos from today....
Meadowsweet, or Filipendula ulmaria, a common species of damp areas. It is a perennial and produces clusters of small white flowers, that are well liked by nectaring insects.
This uncertain moth (yes, that really is it's name!), also known as Hoplodrina alsines, was nectaring on wild carrot. Usually a night flying species, they will also nectar on flowers during the day.
By the woodland, this guelder rose, Viburnum opulus, has likely been attacked by the viburnum leaf beetle, or Pyrrhalta viburni. A member of the beetle family Chrysomelidae, they feed on leaves of trees in the Genus Viburnum (guelder rose and wayfaring tree).
And one I didn't expect around Phase 1!