High pressure at last

The seemingly endless cycle of low-pressure weather systems appears to have ended, and we currently have a high-pressure area coming up from the south. This will bring sunnier days and colder nights, but that's a vast improvement on the rain we've had since November.

The relative heat brought out a fresh Dandelion, although they seem to be in flower all year round nowadays:

Dandelion

We have quite a few Buzzards in the local area, and I see some most days. Now that the next-door Rooks are nest-building, the Buzzards like to survey the rookery, presumably planning future raids. I heard this one calling to its mate and got a quick shot (with macro lens!) as it flew overhead:

Buzzard

They usually fly in pairs, although later in the year we can see whole family groups flying when the youngsters are being trained up.

Work on my Donegal Wildlife database is continuing at a reasonable pace, with perhaps 400 of my 1550 species in place at this stage. It's certainly worth a look, although there are still some broken links and blank pages. You can find it here: http://donegalwildlife.altervista.org/ 

The 'News' section at the top left of the home page is always kept up to date with the latest entries.

Feedback is always welcome, whether it's here or on the guestbook page on the database.

Heat at last

We had a couple of warm days and suddenly everything is moving.

Solitary bees dig private tunnels in soil where they lay their own eggs and bring back pollen to a store which will feed the larvae when they hatch. These nests are often grouped in 'aggregations' of tunnels where the situation is favourable, but each individual tunnel remains self-sufficient. The largest family is Andrena, where the females can often resemble small bumblebees. My favourite is Andrena cineraria, where the female appears to be wearing a Barbarians rugby jersey:

Female Andrena cineraria gathering pollen

Once the pollen has been gathered, the female will seal the tunnel and the larvae will hatch, eat the pollen, pupate and then hibernate until next spring. The species with the shortest season is Andrena clarkella, which feeds exclusively on Willow pollen, and most nests will already be sealed: this is a bee that can be seen for perhaps 50-60 days each year.

Staying with Dandelions, I spotted this 14-spot ladybird in the precise centre of one. this will give a good idea of scale:

14-spot ladybird on Dandelion

And an intriguing shot of an aberrant Dandelion:

Aberrant Dandelion

Dandelions belong to the Compositae, which includes Thistles, Daisies, Knapweed, etc. Each 'flower' is actually a composite collection of individual flowers, some of which are Ray florets (the outer ones), and an inner group of Disc florets. This specimen appears to have dispensed not only with disc florets, but also with the reproductive parts of the ray florets. I rather suspect that this is a genetic experiment that is doomed to be unfit for survival. All flowers on the same plant were identical.

The following shot shows just how late this year has become. I normally see Greater Stitchwort in late March, but this specimen is at least 6 weeks behind the usual date:

Greater Stitchwort

Lady's Mantle has a habit of not being there one day, and then being fully opened the next. When I was down taking a shot of the lovely folding leaves, I noticed a couple of other leaves waiting to be discovered:

a) Lady's Mantle b) Meadowsweet c) Meadow Buttercup

Flowers of the Lady's Mantle are at the lower left.

I wasn't expecting to see too many fungi at this time of year, but I found a couple of very old Polyporus badius on dead Snowberry:

Polyporus badius

And a couple of specimens of a Psathyrella which I think is Psathyrella spadiceogrisea. I'll do some microscopic work on these once the spores have been gathered:

Psathyrella cf. spadiceogrisea

Yesterday, I saw 3 species of butterfly in the garden. There were perhaps half a dozen Small tortoiseshells, a single Green-veined White and late on, a single Speckled Wood.

Small Tortoiseshell butterfly

The Green-veined White and Speckled Wood are this year's first butterflies, whereas the Small Tortoiseshells are actually last year's autumn brood which have emerged from hibernation. Orange Tip has to be next, since the Cardamine is out.

Bilberry has flowered, so perhaps we might see a Green Hairstreak or two in the next week or so:

Bilberry flowers

I was a little surprised to find Field Woodrush on the patch. I normally see Heath Woodrush, and maybe I have been ignoring these smaller specimens. One major clue to identification is the pale 'blob' at the end of each leaf:

Field Woodrush - Luzula campestris

Lastly for today, a few specimens of Green Alkanet were spotted on a verge at the side of a remote road:

Green Alkanet

These are garden escapes, but I cannot imagine anyone taking their garden refuse for such a distance in order to dump it. Maybe bird-sown.

Season under way

When I woke up this morning and saw the clear blue sky stretched all the way to the horizon, I knew that today was the day for the season to start. I waited until mid-day before I ventured forth, since insects need time to emerge, inflate and dry their wings and have a few test flights before they start nectaring, not to mention a decent temperature to support flight.


The first specimen I saw was a female Eristalis tenax, which was entirely expected (see my earlier post here). She was on a Dandelion, which flowers for 12 months around here:

Female Eristalis tenax on Dandelion

I chose that shot because it shows the very wide dark facial stripe.

I went to a sunny bank where the Celandines are in full bloom and quickly found a male Platycheirus albimanus, also on Dandelion:  

Male Platycheirus albimanus on Dandelion

I noticed that this close-up shot shows one of the conclusive identification features: a clump of thick, dark bristles under the front leg, near the top:

Male Platycheirus albimanus, showing dark tuft of hairs

Although this isn't the earliest I have seen this species (last year I saw it on March 27th), it is a good indicator that we're catching up at last.

Fungal rusts are usually specific to one family of plants, although some are unique to species. This is Puccinia umbilici on Navelwort - Umbilicus rupestris:

The fungal rust Puccinia umbilici on Navelwort

Notice how fresh the Navelwort leaf is: rusts don't waste any time.

I suppose I should clarify my 'specific to one family of plants' statement. Fungal rusts very often have two hosts which are completely unrelated. This odd situation arises because fungi need somewhere to exist when the primary host loses its annual growth (perennial) or dies altogether (annual). So they tend to live on one host in the summer months before transferring to their overwintering host. The most extreme example I know of locally is Puccinia sessilis which spends the summer on members of the Allium family (in my case on Ramsons), but overwinters on Canary Reed-grass, which I don't have locally. The airborne spores must therefore travel many miles to ensure their overwintering survival. The detail is even more complex, since the fungi have different parts of their reproductive cycles on differing hosts. Sometimes I begin to wonder if these travelling rusts are actually an amalgam of two species. The more I study wildlife, the more complex it becomes.

Finally for today, a shot of the fungus Milesina scolopendrii on Hartstongue fern:

Milesina scolopendrii on Hart's-tongue Fern

This one doesn't need an alternate host, since the fern is evergreen, but as an example of perversity, complexity and downright confusion, other members of the Milesina family (which all infect different ferns) rely on Pine trees as an alternate host.

Blue skies smiling at me

We rarely have high pressure weather systems over Donegal, but the past week has been like this:

Con-trail over Mongorrey

High pressure at this time of year produces sun during the day and frost at night, so we have had a couple of nights with -4 and -5c, but the days are warm enough to bring out the first insects.

I can almost predict that the first hoverfly of the year will be a female Eristalis tenax, and sure enough, I spotted this one today on a Dandelion:

Female Eristalis tenax on Dandelion

Females of Eristalis tenax overwinter as mated adults, so they are ready to produce eggs as soon as it's warm enough. Related Eristalis species overwinter as pupae, so although the tenax females have a head start, they are at risk if the winter is very cold.

I went up to see if there was any frog spawn at the usual places, but none was visible, although I have seen a few frogs at night. I did, however, see a few midges in loose clouds:

Midge cloud

This is still a good time of year to see lichens before the green growth obscures them. I found a large specimen of Peltigera membranacea (Rabbit's-Paw Lichen):

Peltigera membranacea - 'Rabbits-paw lichen'

The underside of the thallus is covered with spiky rhizines, which are used as anchors:

Rhizines on the underside of the thallus of Peltigera membranacea

There are quite a few different species of Peltigera on the patch, but P. membranacea is easily distinguished by the pale blue thallus.

Evernia prunastri can be distinguished from other similar species by the twin-forked branching structure:

Evernia prunastri on Willow

Cladonia portentosa is most often seen apparently growing on the ground amongst mosses and heaths, but it's actually growing on buried wood. This specimen is growing on a badly-decomposed log:

Cladonia portentosa on decayed log

Night brings out the spring moths, and my first for the year is the Dotted Border:

Dotted Border moth

The Dotted Border feeds on a wide range of broad-leaf trees as a larva. I'll leave you to work out where its name comes from.

Here's the result of living in a wet climate:

Peziza domiciliana

Peziza domiciliana is a fungus which is most commonly found indoors, growing through concrete. This specimen is happily growing in the boot of my car.

New to my species list (and not previously recorded in Ireland, although I find that difficult to believe).

Having mentioned in my last post that St. Marks Flies (Bibio sp.) are out, I got this shot of a male this morning:

St. Mark's Fly - Bibio marci (male)

We can tell it's a male by the large eyes, which meet in the middle. In Bibios, like many other flies, the male has much larger eyes than the female, and often emerges earlier in order to establish his territory. Bibo larvae are root-feeders on many plants, especially grasses. St Mark's day is 25th April, and the flies get their name from the fact that they usually emerge around that date. I've been seeing them for about a week, so the year is still rather early. Bibios are large flies that fly around in large groups - almost swarms - often with their rear legs hanging downwards.

When I was checking the images, I noticed that I had a decent shot of a couple of interesting features:

Bibio marci head (close-up)

Firstly, we can see how hairy the eyes are. Interestingly enough, the hairs don't interfere with the fly's vision: an insect's compound eyes are made up of tubes with sensors at the inner end and a lens at the outer end. These lenses are all arranged on a curved surface, which makes them all point in slightly different directions, which is good for all-round vision. The hairs grow parallel to the tubes, and as a result have minimal impact on the vision, since the line of sight is along the hairs, not across them. These large eyes are used for navigation and for identification of mates, prey and food.

Secondly, we can see the triangle of three ocelli (auxiliary eyes, arrowed) which react very quickly to changes in light intensity, and are used to detect quick motion in order to avoid predators.

A few years ago I took a series of 'bug's-eye' views of plants. Here's a view of a Dandelion seed clock from an unusual perspective:

Dandelion seedhead

 I rather like that shot.

A few of our hoverflies have grey abdominal bands rather than the usual yellow. This is a female Platycheirus albimanus feeding on Dandelion:

Platycheirus albimanus (female)

This is by far the most common species of hoverfly in my garden at the moment.

Gathering pace

Some images have an artistic component to them, as well as scientific fact. I rather liked this crop on the shot of a female Melanostoma scalare on Dandelion.

Melanostoma scalare is one of the more readily identified of the smaller hoverflies due to the 'oven glove' shape of the yellow markings on the abdomen.

The male hoverfly to the upper right of the next image is Platycheirus clypeatus, but I can't see enough of the female to make an attempt at identification. She might well be a female P. clypeatus, however, since I often see pairs feeding together.

St. Marks Flies are so-called because they usually emerge on or around St. Marks day - 25th April. Things are running a little late this year, however.

My first Ichneumonid of the year was this tiny (7mm) specimen running around on and under a Bramble leaf. I saw a couple of them along the hedgerow and I presume they were looking for some moth or sawfly larva that I couldn't find.

Scathophaga sp. dungflies feed on dung as larvae, but are voracious predators as adults. I often see them poised and ready to pounce when suitable prey comes along.