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Written by Jeff
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Friday, 10 July 2009 21:20 |
Spot The Difference
As the County recorder for Ladybirds in Cheshire I'm hoping to encourage as many people as possible to get involved in helping to put a new atlas together, to show the real distribution of ladybirds in the rECOrd recording area.
Today I was out doing a little beating in an area of 'New Town' landscaping in Whittle Hall, close to the new proposed Omega Business Park, in Warrington. I quickly added 8 new species for the location and two are worth showing here in photographs to display the similarities and obvious differences.
On the left is the Cream-spot Ladybird Calvia quattuordecimguttata and on the right Orange Ladybird Halzia sedecimguttata. Part of the clue is in the the name Cream-spot has 14 spots and Orange has 16. Apart from the obvious colour difference the orange ladybird has a transparent head shield as an extension of the pronotum. This is the 'shield like' area between the, often hidden, head of a ladybird and the wing cases.
The best place to find Orange ladybird in July is on Sycamore trees where it mostly grazes on mildew, although it will also supplement its diet with aphids and honeydew. The Cream-spot is an aphid eater which will also take mites and honeydew. Cream-spot Ladybirds are found on a wide range of hedgerow plants, normally at low density. Both species are regularly attracted to moth trap lights, though the Orange Ladybird is by far the more frequently recorded by this method.
If you want to get involved in recording Cheshire's ladybirds drop me a line through the website contact form. |
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Written by Jeff
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Tuesday, 07 July 2009 10:14 |
One Earth Festival
Sunshine and smiles are my abiding memories from the One Earth Festival that took place at Cheshire Wildlife Trust headquarters Bickley Hall Farm in south-west Cheshire on Sunday 5th July. The weather certainly encouraged the crowds and with such a sparkling array of activities available to visitors I'm sure everyone left with a really positive vibe about the event. Hopefully it also encouraged a few more people to fight for the natural environment in Cheshire and beyond.
I was there principally to promote the new education project that I am running on behalf of the the 'The Trust'. The funding for the project derives from Heritage Lottery Fund and is part of the partnership with the Cheshire and Wirral Ornithological Society (CAWOS). CAWOS have a commitment to deliver an educational spin-off from their recent landmark publication Birds in Cheshire and Wirral a Breeding and Wintering Atlas. As you can see this is a bit of a mouthful so I'm marketing the lessons to Primary schools under the heading of 'Primary Feathers'. A major part of my website will devoted to this project in the coming months.
During the day I was showing people how to improve their bird identification skills by teaching them how to do annotated sketches, this is much quicker and easier than writing long descriptions in a notebook and it also makes people look at birds in the whole and stops them focusing to closely on one element. I also headed a guided walk walk around the farm to demonstrate the critical relationship between bird species, habitat and food supply. For me the highlight was playing my birdy version of 'Deal or No Deal, called 'Cheep or No Cheep'. An interactive game where people can win bird food for their nominated school. Based on the level of cheering and jeering going on I think it went down pretty well.
I believe Cheshire Wildlife Trust have really started to get to grips with the real problems facing our local natural environment and their new philosophy of Living Landscapes is definitely taking them in the right direction. Hopefully many of the people who attended the One Earth Festival left feeling the same way. |
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Written by Jeff
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Tuesday, 07 July 2009 09:04 |
Count Me In: Big Bug Hunt
Firstly thanks to Tom Hunt and Charles Jarvis for the use of some of the images used in this blog.
One of my ambitions is to pass on enough of my knowledge and enthusiasm for the natural world to ensure that when I finally shuffle off this mortal coil someone is coming along to take my place. I do seriously worry that fewer and fewer people see the natural environment as the arena where they want to make their mark. So I when I get the opportunity to 'show-off' in front of a crowd I always hope that at least one of the people in the crowd goes on to develop their interest and that in some small way I've been a contributing factor to that process.
Saturday 4th July gave me the chance to front the latest in the Count Me In biological recording days. The venue was the wonderful Chester Zoo, arguably the most forward thinking and environmentally ethical zoo in Europe. We were blessed with the weather and the fact that a significant number of experienced biological recorders had given up their time to guide members of the public through the fabulous diversity of invertebrate life that we have on our doorstep. We were able to demonstrate a wide range of sampling techniques and see some really fascinating creatures in to the bargain. The number of smiling faces in the crowds tells me that it was a really worthwhile exercise. The ultimate aim is to get more people recording the diversity of life and the session ended by encouraging more people to contribute their biological records to the Local Record Centre, AKA rECORD.
My personal highlight of the day was watching the Leaf-cutter Bees, bringing back leaf segment after leaf segment to the nest chambers that they had excavated in some rotting timbers. By a weird coincidence that same evening a gentleman called Charles Jarvis sent me an image asking me to identify what it was. It turned out to be Leaf-cutter Bee nest cells. After consulting Carl Clee of World Museum Liverpool they were identified as belonging to either M.centuncularis or most likely M.willughbiella, otherwise known as Willoughby's Leaf-Cutter Bee, the same bee that was at Chester Zoo. |
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Written by Jeff
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Wednesday, 01 July 2009 18:51 |
Numbers Game
Though I only had a an hour or so to enjoy the sultry weather outdoors today it proved a fascinating experience. I took a short bike ride to visit an area of cornfield annual sowing that was reaching the peak of flowering. This linear strip some 133 metres long and averaging 12 metres wide sits rather unpromisingly between the lanes of a dual carriageway.
I arrived imagining I was going to get a few floral pictures but I was immediately aware of the incredible concentration of 7-spot Ladybirds Coccinella septempunctata , final instar larvae, inumerable pupae and countless adults in all states, from freshly emerged to fully coloured. Examination of the various plants showed a plentiful supply of aphids upon which they could feed. So dense were there numbers that I had to tread very cautiously to avoid squishing them.
As I tried to photograph the more mature adults many would rear up and wave their forelegs at me, as if in threat, like mini-pugilists itching for a fight. I was momentarily distracted by an Adonis Ladybird Hippodamia variegata, a rare beast in Cheshire with just a handful of records. I then returned my attention to the 7 spots.
I decided to try and estimate the number of ladybirds in the patch so I did several counts based on a single square metre. The minimum was seven and the maximum 17. After several more counts I averged it out at 12 ladybirds per square metre. I then paced out the length and average breadth of the meadow. On my return I got out the calculator, my brain having failed on the mental maths side. 133metres by 12metres gives 1596 square metres x 12 gives a staggering total of 19,152 ladybirds in this on small patch of meadow.
Everyone old enough can remember 1976 and the phenomenal numbers of ladybirds present that year, Well for what it's worth I'm predicting the same this year, particularly when you look at the quantity of aphids there are on most types of vegetation. The leaves on the sycamores outside my house are literally coated in them. The last two summers have been terrible for ladybirds, the weather played havoc with most things, if it was bad for ladybirds I suspect it was the same or even worse for their parasites and predators, which means that once the ladybirds begin to bounce they are going to come back with a vengeance and then some! |
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Written by Jeff
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Tuesday, 30 June 2009 21:02 |
Green Day
I was out moth trapping last night at a private site in the north of Cheshire. it's always fun to trap a new location because you never quite know what you are going to get. Last night was almost perfect, very warm and humid. The wind in the early part of the night finally died about midnight and the party really got started.
Though the mix of species wasn't quite what I was hoping for there were a few highlights among the more regular ensemble. The theme of the evening was green. Moths included Common Emerald, Scarce Silver lines (A very beautiful Green moth), Green Oak Tortrix, Light Emerald, July Highflyer (Green form) and so on. It was a real joy to catch Blotched Emerald, a species that has apparently declined markedly in recent years, at least here in Cheshire. This was backed by Green Arches, a rather smart looking noctuid moth that is almost washed with a green metallic iridescence, but then incongruously topped of with a little dash of crimson on the thoracic crest.
If this hot spell continues moth trapping over the coming days should produce plenty of immigrant moths from South and Eastern Europe. |
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