Despite the sometimes indifferent weather of the last week or so, it's a superb time to watch Minsmere's amazing variety of insects. It never ceases to amaze me how beautiful some of these tiny creatures are - and what incredible lifecycles some of them have. They also have some impressive names.
Let's look at the butterflies for starters, where you have admirals, skippers and coppers, not to mention hairstreaks, peacocks and emperors (the latter not at Minsmere, though). Then there's the dragonflies, which include hawkers, chasers, skimmers, darters and demoiselles, or the wonderfully named beewolves, pantaloon bees and green-eyed flower bees that I've blogged about recently.
When it comes to unusual names, it's perhaps the moths that really take the crown. There's carpets and thorns, tigers and hawks, gems and pugs, old lady's and footmans, and even mochas and a species called the uncertain!
Some of these insects are proving particularly popular at the moment. Takes the bees and wasps in the North Bushes, for example. Our wonderful volunteer guides can spend hours showing visitors these fabulous creatures, as featured in Monday's species of the week blog and this excellent Forum post entitled Digger Alley updated. Nearby, the six-belted clearwing moths along the North Wall are attracting a lot of attnetion - these small day-flying moths look remarkably bee-like, which no doubt helps to minimise predation.
Another moth that always proves popular is the hummingbird hawkmoth, one of which has been seen around the buddleia bushes near the visitor centre for the last few days. So called because of their striking similarity to hummingbirds, these brilliant moths are regular summer visitors to gardens so it's worth keeping your eyes peeled at home.
With the buddleias coming into flower they're also attracting a variety of butterflies including red admirals, commas, small tortoiseshells and large whites. However, for some more exciting and unusual butterflies it's worth a walk through the woods. Several gorgeous white admirals have been seen around Bittern Hide this week, as well as in the more typical locations along the Woodland Trail, especailly where there's a ny honeysuckle. The latter path has also yielded an impressive silver-washed fritillary today, so it's worth checking for these large orange butterflies on the buddlieas too. One butterfly that takes a bit more effort to find is the purple hairstreak since it favours the tops of oaks trees, but they can often be seen from Bittern Hide or Canopy Hide.
A purple hairstreak by Jon Evans
July is also a great month for watching dragonflies and damselflies, as well as grasshoppers and bush-crickets, but perhaps the insect that cuases most confusion is the larvae of the great silver diving beetle, which looks like a huge black caterpillar with fearsome pincers. Look out for these monsters crossing the path near South Hide or Wildlife Lookout.
A great silver diving beetle larva
Of course, there's loads of great birds to look for too. An immature purple heron continues to frustrate and excite visitors in equal measure as it spends most of its time hidden in the reedbed before flying around from pool to pool for a couple of minutes. Luckily, whilst waiting for it to fly you will have a good chanc eof spotting bitterns, marsh harriers and hobbies over the reedbed too.
Out on the Scrape, the record count of Mediterranean gulls now stands at 535 and the first little gulls have started to return for the annual post-breeding gathering. Sandwich tern numbers have gone up to more than 100 birds too, and they've been joined a second year Arctic tern with it's black bill and white forehead (beware as there is a similarly plumaged common tern on the Scrape too.) The avocets nad black-tailed godwits have been joined by up to 12 spotted redshanks, and we're also seen the first green and wood sandpipers, ruffs and curlews beginning to move back south. Numbers of teals have also increased, suggesting that they too are beginning to return for the autumn!