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Monday, 4 September 2017

Hollas Lane walk - Sept. 2nd

Blessed with fantastic weather the turn out was good - around a dozen people showed up. Peachysteve lead the walk and his local plant knowledge and ID skills are something to behold! There were a sprinkling of knowledgeable plant folk who I'm sure left the walk having seen new plant or fern species. From a lepidopterist's point of view it was a worthwhile trip becoming familiar with a range of plants that moth larvae use such as Grey Alder, Sneezewort and the goosefoot/orache family.




BIRDS: Kingfisher and Grey Heron on the river with Pied Wagtail, Nutchatch and Great Spotted Woodpecker all heard.




SPIDERS: I took a couple of shots of "interesting" looking arachnids - maybe Bruce or Julian can enlighten us? Their bodies were small pea sized.





LEPIDOPTERA:
Quite a few Red Admirals using the numerous Buddleia bushes on site.

A new one for me was this Coleophora argentula case on a Yarrow seedhead. After taking it home for further study I was surprised to find it was tenanted, the larva is now happily feeding away on the seeds. It will "hibernate" over winter to resume feeding in the spring. The adults emerge in early summer.
A leaf mine found on Downy Birch was Stigmella confusella. The frass (caterpillar poo) line is black and narrow throughout the mine which helps ID this species. The mine is complete and the larva will have exited it a month or two ago and have dropped to the ground to pupate.
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5 comments:

  1. Steve Blacksmith4 September 2017 at 19:56

    Nice write-up and photos Charlie. Thanks.
    We had a Wall Brown Butterfly at Nab End, Sowerby on Bank Hoiday Monday. The only other ones reported have been on Ringby Lane, Ploughcroft; two seen by Dave Sutcliffe.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Annie Honjo5 September 2017 at 13:59

    Great post Charlie! Sorry to have missed this, Peachysteve always does good walks. Your photo of the leaf miner is a work of art, so much detail.

    ReplyDelete
  3. charlie streets6 September 2017 at 10:42

    Hi Steve,

    Not seen Wall butterflies for around 11 years now - something of a major rarity round my neck of the woods.

    Hi Annie,

    I often think leaf mines are a work of art, I think it's an unexplored subject for an aspiring artist :-)

    Lawrence has posted a comprehensive fern and plant list here:

    http://cromwellbottom.blogspot.co.uk/2017/09/hollas-lane-plant-walk.html

    ReplyDelete
  4. Charlotte Weightman7 September 2017 at 09:33

    What a great walk that must have been - I was so sorry to have to miss it! Enjoyed reading about it, Charlie - and seeing the pics! Peachysteve always leads an excellent and informative walk.

    ReplyDelete
  5. charlie streets8 September 2017 at 11:14

    Just had a message from Bruce about the spiders posted for ID:
    "Theridion sisyphium is the first species (the globular one)
    The second looks like linyphia triangularis."

    Both are pretty common.

    ReplyDelete

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