July 2023 - Page 3 of 4 - A Year in the Valley

Peacock and Green-veined White Butterflies

So far, I have managed to photograph the Red Admiral, Peacock, and Green-veined White butterflies in the watermeadow. I have also seen brown and blue butterflies, but they flew around too much to be photographed and formally identified.

There are four white butterflies to choose from. The Orange Tip can be discounted from our investigations, but I was trying to work out whether it was the Large White (Cabbage White), Small White or Green-veined White.

This is not what the Peacock usually looks like, but it is resting on the fence, so you can only see the back of its wings. It flew away before I could focus on its outstretched wings.

The black tips are the key. They are not dark black across the edges of the wings, like the Large White. So that leaves the Small White or the Green-veined White. They are a bit patchy across the edges, which points to the Green-veined white. The veins are fairly noticeable, though I didn’t think that was conclusive by itself. However, you can see a yellow and black stripy look to the back of the wings. This marks it out as a Green-veined White, as the Small White has plain creamy wing-backs. The females have two black spots.

The Green-veined White is feeding from a Herb Robert flower. The Green-veined White is feeding from a Herb Robert flower. It also likes the Cuckoo Flower and prefers to live in damp areas.

Peacock update 17/07/23: I managed to take a picture of the glorious Peacock butterfly.

Green-veined White update 05/09/23: on a day when everything flew, hopped or scuttled away from me, this charming butterfly proved without a doubt that green-veined whites are still visiting our watermeadow!

Daisy D

11 July 2023

Butterflies, moths, caterpillars

Green-veined White, Herb Robert, Peacock, Peacock Butterfly

Nettles and Gypsywort

The nettles are out in flower now. I’m getting used to tingling arms in the afternoons after I’ve been gardening – anywhere between the gloves and the t-shirt sleeves are fair game it seems. I should be immune by now! Is it an Old Wives Tale that once the nettles are in flower they lose their sting? I decided to find out. I literally stroked a stinging nettle in flower, and it didn’t sting. However, when I looked this phenomenon up online, I found out that common nettles bear both stinging and non-stinging hairs, but there is a sub-species of nettle – the Stingless or Fen Nettle (Urtica dioica galeopsifolia) that only has stingless hairs. The flowers look the same as the Stinging Nettle, but the leaves are slightly narrower. So I went back down to the watermeadow and discovered that the nettles out in flower at the moment do indeed have narrow leaves.

Then I got stung by a greener, meaner Common Nettle (Urtica dioica). Notice the proportionally wider leaves. So, we have both types in the watermeadow.

Stinging nettles work like this: the tips of the stinging hairs are broken off when touched and turn the hollow hairs into needles, which inject irritants like formic acid and histamines into our skin.

Finally, there is Gypsywort (Lycopus europaeus). Looking just like a nettle, maybe with more exaggerated teeth on its leaves, it is slightly hairy but non-stinging and decorated with small white flowers.

We try to pull up the stinging nettles near the pathways for obvious reasons, but there is a nettle bed in the far left of the watermeadow, which I am keen to keep. Nettle beds are good for caterpillars, ladybirds, and aphids. In turn, caterpillars are good for the birds. Nettle flowers are good for the pollinators – bees and butterflies – in particular, red admirals, peacocks, and small tortoiseshells.

Daisy D

10 July 2023

Flowers

Common Nettle, Fen Nettle, Gypsywort

Common Carpet Moth

When Mr C showed me this photo that he had taken, I was amazed at the striking monochrome patterns on this moth. I was a bit upset that I hadn’t seen it myself, but as this journal is essentially a tally of the species in the watermeadow, I decided that it wasn’t cheating. And it’s good that Mr C is getting excited about this project. And I still had to identify it. It turns out – surprise! surprise! – that there are at least three types of Carpet Moth with similar markings.

The Common Carpet, the Garden Carpet and the Wood Carpet are all moths with black and white markings. (Try searching for information about these and not getting bombarded with flooring websites!!)

See the broad black wavy line halfway up the wings? Well, the Garden Carpet just has a black patch on the far side of each wing. In effect, the line is broken in the middle.

That just leaves the Common Carpet and the Wood Carpet. Now, look at the thick white wavy line below the thick black one we’ve just been looking at. Notice that it is split with a faint black line, giving a marmite sandwich effect. Well, that means it’s a Common Carpet, because the Wood Carpet just has a thick white band, not split in two.

Although they are called Carpet moths, the Common Carpet feasts on cleavers and bedstraws, which as previously mentioned can be found in our watermeadow.

Daisy D

09 July 2023

Butterflies, moths, caterpillars

Cleavers, Common Carpet Moth, Marsh Bedstraw

Common Green Bottle and Green Dock Beetle

I’ve heard of blue bottles, but this is a green bottle. It eats pretty much the same things as blue bottles – dead and decomposing plant and animal matter. Here it is resting innocently on some grass. I wondered whether it was going to drink the dew on the grass and found out that adult flies have a more varied diet, including pollen and nectar. Also, they are attracted to flowers that smell like carrion, and the colour yellow.

The Green Dock Beetle appears to be relatively common in the watermeadow. It feeds on dock and sorrel. Here it is on some bindweed, but there is a dock leaf skeleton next to it.

I spent the morning trimming round the alders we have planted along our back fence. One of them had got strangled with bindweed and had its stem/trunk broken. I weeded a lot of bindweed and stinging nettles and chopped down the hollow stalks of Hemlock Water Dropwort that were leaning against the back fence. I strimmed a pathway across the bank and around the alders so that they had a nice wide margin round them. They are growing fast but were only 1-2ft when we planted them in April. Now they are 2-4ft, but still prone to getting hidden and tangled in the undergrowth unless we keep a check on it. Whilst I was over the other side of the stream, I saw a brown type of damselfly, but didn’t have my camera with me. So, I went out with my camera later and managed to take some photos of grasshoppers and butterflies.

Daisy D

08 July 2023

Insects

Alder, Bindweed, Common Green Bottle, Common Nettle, Dock, Green Dock Beetle, Hemlock Water Dropwort, Sorrel, Stinging Nettle

Hedge Bindweed (Calystegia sepium)

We have been mistakenly calling this Bell Vine, but I now discover that that is something else entirely and this plant is Bindweed. It’s a real pain as it twines round the Reed Canary Grass and pulls it down. It has broken one of our Alders. And although I try to pull it up in the late spring when it emerges, I can’t keep on top of it and have to resort to damage limitation. Also, it’s probably not right to eradicate it entirely from the watermeadow. There are several types of Bindweed. This is Hedge Bindweed as it has large white trumpet-flowers, a red-ish stem, but no hint of pink on the flowers. It’s not one of my favourite plants, but I have to admire its tenacity and striking white bells.

Update – we spotted some Meadow Bindweed in Wadebridge by the River Camel. It was creeping along in the grass. Very different to the Hedge Bindweed.

Daisy D

07 July 2023

Flowers

Bindweed

The Watermeadow in July

We went for a walk round the watermeadow and pushed our way through the overhanging grass down the paths. We saw baby frogs, but they hopped out of the way before I could focus the camera on them. We saw a Drinker Moth caterpillar again. It was huge, around 6cm and quite chubby. We also saw a dead animal, very dead, very smelly. I thought it was a rat, but it had a short furry tail, so I’m wondering whether it was a water vole, as even though it was flat, it still looked too large, wet, and dark to be a field vole. It would be very exciting if we had live water voles in the stream – I’ve never seen them in our garden before. Signs to look for are a) a burrow with nibbled grass ‘driveway’ b) a pile of grass stems nibbled at a 45° angle, like a quill, as they tend to eat in a regular place, and c) tiny oval droppings.

Again, compared to last month the watermeadow looks ravaged and untidy. The grass is longer and brushed with its pink-ish blooms.

Daisy D

06 July 2023

Butterflies, moths, caterpillars

Drinker Moth, Frog, Reed Canary Grass, View, Water Vole

The Valley in July

We have had rain over the past three days and wind. The valley and the watermeadow are looking ravaged again, as the Reed Canary Grass has grown tall and fallen over. Compared to last month, you can see the HWD has finished flowering and the valley has tints of pinky-orange where the grass is in flower.

Daisy D

05 July 2023

Views

Hemlock Water Dropwort, Reed Canary Grass, View

Seven-spot Ladybird

According to the Woodland Trust, there are 26 types of ladybird in the UK, the most familiar of which is the seven-spot ladybird. You can tell this is a genuine seven-spot ladybird by the location of its spots, like dice they are always in the same places, the seventh spot being centrally-placed at the back of its black and white spotted head. I was pleased to see it, as I feel we don’t come across them often enough, but there were three altogether in the water meadow. This was at the top of the bank, nestled into the body of a willow dragonfly that I’d made at WI.

UPDATE PHOTO BELOW:

Daisy D

04 July 2023

Insects

Ladybird, Seven-spot Ladybird

Red Admiral

So, this is what a Red Admiral looks like in repose. I thought it was in a sorry state, but then I researched online and saw other photos of Red Admirals resting and their wings really do look this tatty when they are closed. I suspected it was a Red Admiral because of the flashes of red and white, which correspond with the white stripe and dot, and a glimpse of part of the bright red stripe, though not the red edge, on the other side. Red Admirals are quite common and like a variety of habitats. The caterpillars particularly enjoy eating nettles and we do have a nettlebed and a good scattering of nettles in the watermeadow.

Update – I was able to photograph a Red Admiral with its wings outstretched. I just had to wait patiently for a while. It turned upside-down before it flew off!

Daisy D

03 July 2023

Butterflies, moths, caterpillars

Beautiful Demoiselle (female)

As you know, I’ve been having a lot of trouble catching flying insects and birds with my camera and of those that I have photographed there are a number of UFO’s to identify – mostly variations on housefly-type flies. So, I was delighted to capture this Beautiful Demoiselle. That is its actual name. It’s green metallic body and translucent brown wings mark it out as a female. The males have a metallic blue body and dark blue shiny wings. They are found along streams and rivers and mainly distributed in Wales and the South West.

UPDATE – I managed to catch a photo of a male Beautiful Demoiselle. Quite different to the female with metallic blue body and black translucent wings.

Is your toadstool instagrammable?

Well, this one clearly isn’t as its sticky top is covered with bits of grass, where I’ve been strimming the steps down into the watermeadow. I deliberated whether it would make a suitable picture and I still haven’t identified it. To be honest, I don’t know where to start with that, so it doesn’t qualify for its own post. However, I could add a generic ‘toadstools’ item to my tally to be going on with.

Daisy D

02 July 2023

Insects, Toadstools and fungi

Beautiful Demoiselle, Toadstool