Mark Lawlor's Nature Blog

Nothing much too unexpected was observed bird-wise in August. However, this may have been more to do with finding time to spend out in the field is becoming increasingly difficult at present. A Caspian Gull was present on L’Eree beach mid-month and was one of two birds on the island that was colour-ringed from the same colony in Czechia this spring. A Great Crested Grebe at the Reservoir was one of the few I’ve seen here in breeding plumage. I did try a wee seawatch on 24th August but a Sooty Shearwater and a Storm Petrel was all that was noted. August can be quite busy here but it just never happened this year.

Great Crested Grebe - Reservoir, 17 Aug 24

Gannet - Chouet, 8 Aug 24 - I had visions of a booby when I came round the corner and saw this hauled up on the rocks, but alas…

The garden moth trap had some great nights during August, a time of year when I have total flexibility when I can put it out and only do so on the best of conditions. A new micro was seen on 11th - Teleiopsis diffinis - a small brown critter which I didn’t even take a picture of. Conditions were poor mid-month but a warm spell later on threw up some great species. On 26th I had a Musotima nitidalis (Australian Fern Moth) which has only just colonised the island after raging through the UK in the last few years.

Golden Fern Moth (musotima nitidalis) - garden, 26 Aug 24

The next night on 27th was even better and quite a few belters was hauled out of the trap amongst the thousands of ants. A Garden Tiger was the first I have seen for 19 years. It was a touch of a shabby one but what a beast! It used to be more common in Guernsey but is really rare nowadays. A species that seems to be being seen a little more often here though is Golden Twin-spot and a superb shiny gold one was present - a lifer for me. Other good species that night were Latticed Heath, Engrailed, Coleophora salicorniae and an Ant-lion, only my 4th of these and first for a few years.

With the warm weather and time to spend at the microscope, I managed to find plenty of new species for the pan-species list which brought me above 3100 for the UK and above 2600 for Guernsey. Some interesting new things are shown below.

Ero aphana - garden, 5 Aug 24 - I don’t idenify many spiders but this one with its 4 bumps on the back was quite straightforward

Syagrius intrudens - Garenne, 7 Aug 24 - an odd species, and an introduction from australia, few records for Guernsey

Presumed Dexiosoma caninum - Garenne, 7 Aug 24 - not a new species but a few of these were “lekking” or so it appeared over a few bramble leaves

Mottled Shieldbug - Icart, 27 Aug 24 - another of the recently-arrived shieldbug species to the island - a new species for me.

Arhopalus rusticus - GROW, Aug 24 - found just resting on the wall in the car park, we don’t seem to have many longhorn species here.

Guernsey Fleabane (left) and Bilbao Fleabane (Right) flower heaDS - I had always presumed that more or less all the fleabanes here were Guernsey Fleabane but when I made a concerted effort to find Bilbao Fleabane I saw that that species was far more common. The differences in shape and hairiness of the flower head are clear through the lens but they don’t look at all different otherwise.

Some pics from the German Underground Hospital where I was taken on my birthday - in all these years in Guernsey, I had never visited before.

It was agreed by everyone that I thoroughly deserved a morning’s peace and quiet whilst I was visiting the UK and so I decided to have a walk somewhere in the Yorkshire Wolds to look for some chalk-loving species. I chose the area round Wharram, between Driffield and Malton, which is one of the highest parts of the Wolds and has a small nature reserve. It was a hot, sunny day and I pulled into a car park right at the top of the hill ready for a mile walk to the Wharram Quarry Nature Reserve.

The Yorkshire Wolds - from the car park overlooking the valley where the nature reserve sits

Immediately, as I started walking down the chalk path, I started to see unfamiliar species, such as Yellowhammers perched atop bushes and on wires. The most common butterfly in the valley appeared to be Marbled White which I’ve hardly ever seen, although many were very worn, as were the handful of Ringlet that were still on the wing.

Phosphuga atrata - Wharram, 29 Jul 24 - a new species of beetle for me

At the bottom of the valley there was a walk up an old railway track which was quite a shaded, wooded place. There were lots of wildflowers growing along the side including lots of Meadowsweet, Butterbur and Wild Angelica, none of which we get in Guernsey. I ticked off two new species here - Meadow Crane’s-bill and Common Comfrey, the former being very common in this part of the world. In the sunny spots, butterflies congregated, plus a Shaded Broad-bar moth was flushed and a dead Mole on the track (which didn’t flush, and was quite confiding).

Meadow Crane's-bill - Wharram, 29 Jul 24

Scorpionfly sp. - Wharram, 29 Jul 24 - despite being relatively common in the UK, we don't get any of the species in Guernsey

At the end of the railway track, the path went through a tiny hamlet and I went through a gate into the old quarry nature reserve which was a large flat area full of wild flowers. I was a little late in the month to see it at its best but it was still fabulous, with lots of useful paths going through it. I spent about an hour here poking around but I regret not taking more time to find more things.

There wasn’t a lot of new plants to tick as I had seen a lot of late-summer chalk species a few years ago down south. If I’d spent more time on my hands and knees and focused, I could have found probably a few more subtle species. The Yorkshire Wolds are the most northern chalk hills in England and a lot of species don’t get this far north so the selection here was more limited. Reading the information sign, I was surprised to find that there was a big rarity here and it was easy to find. First of all was to find the Cotton Thistles (also a tick) which was easy because they were massive, and sprouting out from their base were a few (albeit very crispy) Thistle Broomrapes. This species is very rare and only occurs at a few sites in Yorkshire in the whole UK and I wasn’t aware that this was one of them until I got here - bonus.

Cotton Thistle - Wharram Quarry, 29 Jul 24

Thistle BROOMRAPE - Wharram Quarry, 29 Jul 24

Autumn Gentian - Wharram Quarry, 29 Jul 24

Carline Thistle - Wharram Quarry, 29 Jul 24

The best species I found at the nature reserve was a small, plain brown moth that I happened to spot resting on the flower of a Red Clover. I potted it up and looked at it through the lens but could not notice any features that could identify it in the field. I thought about throwing it back but something told me to keep it and take it home for proper study. When I had a look through the microscope, the only notable features that I could pick out were a very pale underside to the lower abdomen and some pale scales around the eye, palps and mouth area. Reading through the books, this seemed to match a species of Scythris and picaepennis looking the most likely. It needed checking though and I managed a tricky dissection on such a small moth and the gen matched female Scythris picaepennis. I had recorded this species before, in Scotland (must have been an ambitious ID!) but looking at the Yorkshire Moths website, there are only 3 records listed in the county, none since the 1800’s. I have sent the record in and am awaiting confirmation of the rarity. Goes to show, if you’ve got a gut feeling about a specimen, always keep it to check.

Scythris picaepennis - Wharram Quarry, 29 Jul 24

I saw very few other moths as I kicked through the grass, but there were some burnets buzzing about. They mostly were Six-spot Burnets which is widespread throughout the UK but is surprisingly absent in Guernsey. There were also a couple of faded five-spots which was very useful to me because, in the UK, I have only ever seen five-spots in areas where the two species’ range overlaps. However, in Yorkshire, only the Narrow-bordered Five-spot Burnet occurs, so this becomes a new species for me, even though I will have seen some in the past before I knew of such things.

Six-Spot Burnet - Wharram Quarry, 29 Jul 24

Narrow-bordered Five-Spot Burnet - Wharram Quarry, 29 Jul 24

Small Skipper - Wharram Quarry, 29 Jul 24 - we have no skippers in Guernsey

Marbled Whites - Wharram Quarry, 29 Jul 24 - a much fresher individual (in both senses of the word!)

Just off the track back to the car was Wharram Percy, “Europe’s best-known deserted medieval village”, so I went to have a look. It might be the best-known but I was certainly not the most visible. It really consisted of rectangles on the floor showing where things used to be. I guess it was more of archaeological excitement than anything else. The church was first there in the 10th century but most of what can be seen is a lot newer than that. After a quick look around it started to get very hot and I headed back home.

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August 2024

July 2024 - trip to Yorkshire (part b)

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