Butterflies and more from St Marys in Harefield

By the side of St Marys churchyard, on the edge of the woods and before you start the climb up the hilly meadow, there is a large wide expanse of nettles, long grasses, docks and brambles which is alive with wildlife. 

I've always been drawn to areas of scrub like this. So many people walk past without seeing what critters are lurking and loitering on the leaves, flowers and berries, but I can hang around a scrubby patch for hours with my camera. I often get odd looks from passers by but it doesn't bother me, haha. 

but back to St Marys.... I was there yesterday and again today looking for one particular butterfly. 

I did find it, but more about that little beauty later. 

I spotted at least six species of hoverfly but have only manged to photograph four. Species names are under each pic ...

Episyrphus balteatus - the commonly called 'Marmalade Fly

Helophilus pendulus - also called the 'footballer' due to it's stripy top half

Chrysotoxum bicinctum - one of the wasp mimics

Syrphus species - there are three hoverflies in the Syrphus family but my photo is not clear enough to narrow it down

In late spring and summer longhorn beetles are out and about, and this one is a head on view of Rutpela maculata commonly referred to as the Black and Yellow Longhorn, for obvious reasons ...

My favourite bugs are the Dock Bugs. I find their appearance fascinating, almost like mini dinosaurs. As their name suggests, they are often found on Dock leaves and these are turning red now with age.

The bug below is from the same species family as the Dock, and is roughly the same size. This one is the Hairy shieldbug, sometimes called the Sloe shieldbug. I tried to get a photo of the amazing colours of it's shell from the top but the little critter was too fast for me and disappeared under a leaf.

As to be expected there were hundreds of damselflies around the scrub. This one is a male Common Blue ...

If you're a follower of my blog posts you'll know that I also have a fascination with ladybirds. They come in all sizes and colours, and have four life stages. Egg, pupa, larva and adult. I recently got very excited because I'd found my first 14-Spot larva. Very small and very fast. Yesterday I found another one on the St Marys scrub, and there was a 7-Spot larva right next to it that gives a good size comparison. June is the best month to look for larva before they start pupating...

14-Spot larva on the left and 7-Spot larva on the right

Today it was the butterflies that stole the show. I saw 12 species but only managed to photograph the seven below …. names under each photo …. 

Comma - a bit too high up on the brambles for me to get a decent photo

Small Tortoiseshell sheltering under a nettle leaf

Meadow Brown underwing

Meadow Brown - male

Meadow Brown - female

Meadow Brown - underwing

Large Skipper - male - the males have a dark band across their upper wing

Large Skipper - male

Small Skipper - they lack the light patches on the upper wings that the Large Skippers have

Large Skipper

Large Skipper

Large Skipper - male

Large Skipper

I also found the aptly named Ringlets today, my first ones of the season. They are very hard to sex when they have their wings closed, but when open the females are slightly paler than the chocolate brown males and have obvious ringed circles on both upper and lower wing. The males lack the ringed circles on open wings but do have them on their underwings. Sadly I couldn't get any photos of either with their wings open, so you'll have to make do with these … 

Ringlet

Ringlet

Ringlet

And the one particular butterfly that I really wanted to see, did not disappoint ! 

The beautifully intricately marked Marbled White. 

It is a fairly common butterfly in the south but is rare in the north, and it's not uncommon to find them in large numbers when roosting. Males are slightly smaller than females and their underwings are predominantly black and white. Female underwings are more bronzey-brown and white. 

At Cranford Park, where I have recorded all butterfly species since 2016 for a nationwide scheme, I have only seen a Marbled White twice and both times it flew past me without settling. At Maple Lodge NR, one of my favourite nature reserves, I have seen and photographed the odd individual. And yesterday at St Marys scrub I had two fly past me without settling. But today there must have been in excess of 30-40 Marbled Whites. They were on the brambles, in the long grasses, settling to feed and chasing each other. It was a wonderful experience and hence I took over a 100 photos. 

As it's my blog I wont apologise for all of the pics to come and hopefully you'll see why I find this beauty so enthralling. 

Hope you're sitting comfortably … 

Today has to go down in my books as one of the best wildlife experiences I have ever had, and no doubt I'll be popping back there again soon. 

Lockdown loftroom action from Friday evening and Cranford Park butterfly news from Saturday

 I've been watching the muntjacs in the field behind the lockdown back garden for a few weeks now. One of them has an awful leg injury, and when I first got a photo of it on the 11th May it was very swollen with an obvious abcess...

11/05

and to be honest I didn't think it would survive. I spoke to Chris from CW Wildlife Rescue at the time and we decided it would be against the animals interest to try and catch and treat it. The stress would possibly be too much for the poor old boy (the muntjac, not Chris). Sadly Muntjac (along with Grey Squirrels) are now classed as 'alien' species which means if any are taken to a wildlife rescue centre, they will be euthanised rather than treated and released. 

The old muntjac is surviving though. The photo below was taken on 17th May, and even though the leg still looks sore, it is not affecting the old boys ability to survive...

17/05

and when I photographed him again in early June, it's clear that he can put weight on the leg....

11/06

On Friday evening I was lucky enough to spot him quite close to the back gardens, so could get a much better look through my binoculars. The leg will always be deformed now, but at least the wound looks to be healed and the infection from the abcess hasn't spread ...

I'm letting nature take it's course with this animal. No wildlife rescue centre could or would help anyway, as with the new regulations they risk being fined if they were found to be treating these 'aliens'. 

The sky was particularly colourful on Friday evening ...

and another 'alien' species was just as colourful and twice as noisy ...

On Saturday I was back at Cranford Park to carry out the UKBMS transect (counting and recording the butterflies). Despite the cloudy and cooler weather, the count was very good. Figures below ….

Small/Essex Skipper x 9

Large Skipper x 3

Large White x 16

Small White x 3

Holly Blue x 1

Red Admiral x 1

Comma x 8

Speckled Wood x 2

Meadow Brown x 27

Small Heath x 12

Total of 10/11 species with 82 counts

The Small and Essex Skippers are grouped together because unless you photograph and carefully examine each one, it is impossible to say which species it is in flight or perched. Essex Skippers have antennae that are black underneath the tips. Small Skippers have orangey brown antennae tips.

Compared to previous years, yesterdays results are about average. Personally I'm really chuffed that the Small Heath are doing so well. For the first time in four years I am now recording them in double figures. They used to be found only in one corner of the park, but they are spreading through the meadow now, and I even managed to find one pair busy making the next generation deep down in the grasses ...

The Commas we are seeing now are likely to be the offspring of the ones seen at the beginning of spring, so a lot of them are looking very fresh. Second flush Commas tend to be a little darker and smaller in size than their 'parents' ...

but this individual below is probably a first generation Comma and is looking battered and aged ...

The skippers are widespread and common, but I think they are probably the most attractive butterflies with their weird moth-like appearance … 

Just like the Comma, the Speckled Wood also has two generations each season and the later ones are generally darker ….

Last Saturday I found Peacock butterfly caterpillars and when I checked on them yesterday they were still there but had dispersed across the large patch of nettles and feeding vigorously ...

Part of my transect route takes me through the cattle paddock. We have four Red Sussex cows at the moment and although I know they wouldn't hurt me, I still constantly check over my shoulder when I have to walk through that part of the meadow ...

After the transect I spent some time at the wildlife pond. 

At this time of year there is so much to see there, including these two Speckled Bush-crickets... 

and this female Scorpion Fly...

There are still hundreds of Common Blue and Large Red damselflies at the pond ...

There was no sign of the female Banded Demoiselle that I spotted last week, but the male Broad-bodied Chaser was back patrolling the pond and seeing off any other dragonfly that dared to rest on his patch …. Luckily for me he was regularly stopping on a flower head right by the willow fence ….

There are several water boatmen in the pond and I spent some time trying to photograph them. There are more that one species of these peculiar little predators, but I'm not skilled enough to distinguish between species …. the ones I spotted are the species that swim upside down ….

The ladybird season is still in full swing, and I found evidence of three species near the pond ...

14-Spot adult

Harlequin adult

Harlequin pupa

Harlequin larva

7-Spot larva

and two hoverfly species ...

Leucozona lucorum

Helophilus pendulus 

Helophilus pendulus

 Yesterdays 'view of the day' was this lovely scene below. This is part of my butterfly transect route and runs from a corner of the woods through scrub and comes out near the meadows. It's sheltered and quiet and often the rabbits don't even know you're there ...

I didn't photograph any birds yesterday but did see five Skylarks singing high above me and then 'parachuting' down in to the longer meadow grass. These lovely little birds are nesting now so PLEASE stick to the grass paths and don't tramp through the unmown areas. The majority of park visitors do stay on the paths, but one guy yesterday was continuously throwing a ball into the meadow areas for his dogs and disturbing the Skylarks. 

There were a pair of Grey Wagtails at the Cranford Lane end of the river, and a Common Buzzard was being mobbed by crows as it soared the thermals above. 

No sign of our Kingfishers, nor any sign of the resident Kestrels, but I'm hoping we will see the juvenile Kestrels in mid July when they practise their hunting skills in the meadow. 

Another lovely visit and it was great to catch up with a few other park regulars, Lin, Ron, Martyn and Gary.