Dunstable Downs; Butterflies, Bees, Burnets and Poplars...

The temperatures throughout the day have been much more tolerable over the past few days. The searing heat seems to have receded into comfortably sunny days, shaken with a few immense storms and heavy showers. However, it has taken me a while to get around to sitting, sorting the photos and writing the blog, so we will have to cast our minds back to the days where by 9 am, wearing only a t-shirt and shorts was far too much (unless you can work the sodden arm-pit look).

Between shifts at Whipsnade, I decided to head over to Bison Hill, and have a little stroll through the chalk grassland meadows across the hillsides. It has been an absolutely incredible year for butterflies, and I had hoped to find the time to get out and spot some!

Orchid in the grassland

Remaining flowers of a Pyramidal Orchid

By the time I got out onto the grasslands, it was plenty warm enough for the butterflies to be extremely hyperactive. And in the slight breeze, there were swarms of them. As I strolled the pathway, chalk blues, probably in their hundreds across the site, lifted up from the grasses like turquoise gems with wings.

Chalk Blue

Female Chalk Blue; a really naff photo, but one that shows off the beautiful colours!

Phwoarrr! Mating Blues...

The colours are astounding. Peacocks, with their deep, rich red scales decorated with the blue, black and cream eye spots. Large and small whites, as their name suggests, are pure white with the very tips of their wings dipped in black, sometimes with small black spots. The bright orange little gatekeepers, rest on the ground before fluttering off at first sign of disturbance.

Gatekeeper

The little larger, and much darker, meadow brown makes a frequent appearance. Ringlets, a very dark brown, with black spots surrounded by a ring of white or yellowy cream.

Ringlet

Another white, this time with a green tinge and some dark and defined scales along the veins of its wings, giving the butterfly its rather imaginative name... green-veined white!

Green-veined White

Not to forget the skippers. A dusty orange brown, the male of both small and large skippers were aggressively defending their territory, whilst keeping their eyes peeled for any passing females they can mate with.

Large Skipper

Large Skipper

Small Skipper

And last, but definitely not least, the marbled white...

Marbled White

An absolutely stunning butterfly, and the first I have ever seen! Not only have I seen a species I have never seen before, but I got to see tens of them. Tens of them amongst hundreds of other butterflies. However, I did notice a parasite on one of the marbled whites; check out the red mite on the photo below. It does not look very nice for the butterfly, but, apparently, the mites do them no actual harm. 

Butterfly with parasite

Of course, being out on the downs there was plenty of other animalian activity!

Six-spot Burnet Moth

I came across what looked like the next entrance to a colony of red-tailed bumblebees. Outside of the nest entrance lay tens of deceased bees. I do wonder whether this was a natural part of the cycle of life for a bumblebee, maybe the worker bees have moved them outside of the nest, or maybe there was another cause for a mass of dead bees to accumulate by the hole in the ground??

Dead bees!

Within just a 40-minute walk, I found 11 species of butterfly, of various sizes, colours and shapes. Surely, evidence enough that you do not have to travel halfway around the world to find the exotic and tropical colours of the wild. Try a short drive up the road to a wildflower meadow in summer. Here in the UK, we have 59 resident breeding species to choose from. So keep your eyes peeled, whether its in your back garden, whilst taking your kids to the park, or on your next spot of birding down the local nature reserve, and see how many colours you can spot!


I will end this heavily insect based post with another insect. This time a moth, found at work, by the wonderful catering team next door who have made me their first port of call to come over to help rescue any moths that have ended up inside the cafe. I am extremely grateful they do... stunning animals!

Poplar Hawk-Moth

On the tree

Once again, thank ya'll for reading folks! I really do appreciate it. Next post will include my brief trip to Strumpshaw Fen, Norfolk... Surely not more butterflies!?!

In Search of the Black Fallow of Ashridge, Yellow Wagtail and a few Chicks

Whipsnade. Having a lot of native trees and great wild places on the edge of the Downs provides for a wealth of native wildlife in and amongst the exotic zoo animals.  To this day, I will always remember seeing my first grey wagtail as a youngster and wondered why it was not called yellow, having that spectacularly bright yellow breast and belly. Ever since, I had kept my eyes peeled for the truly yellow wagtail, a bird that has always managed to elude me for some reason. And here, in all its glory,  the bird casually bobbing its tail and foraging in the dirt by the lake in Whipsnades deer park. Beautiful! The male a bright yellow, from head, breast and belly to the underside of its tail.

At last!

Having migrated all the way from Northern Africa, I do wonder what adventures these fragile looking birds must have been on.

Yellow Wagtail

What a wonderful little bird. Made even more enjoyable by the fact that next to the wagtail, lay a whole load of deer and some Bactrian Camels...

Bactrian Camel

Ashridge: In Search of the Black Fallow

Fallow deer were thought to be introduced to the UK by the Normans in the 11th Century. They are beautifully tan coated deer covered with elegant white spots and a pale belly. The males antlers are palmate, growing like the palm of a hand with a large flat section with lots of 'fingers'. The coat of this species can vary greatly; from pale leucistic varieties, to extremely dark and melanistic varieties. I had heard lots about the black fallow deer living amongst the woodland around Ashridge Estate and up by Ivinghoe Beacon. Between morning and evening shifts, I took the time to search for them (but not before a slice of carrot cake and a cup of earl grey).

The canopy kept me cool from the intense sun we had for a few days!

As I amble through the woods, the last few remains of the bluebells, that had not either withered away or been trampled on, cling on to their short spell in bloom below the woodland canopy as the trees slowly shut out the light. Deep lime green ferns climb above the layer of bluebells and form a mini-canopy above them - surely, ending the season of the bluebells.

Bluebells, Fern and Trees in leaf

Seed pods burst through the papery flower cases, spreading their seed ready for next years spring magic. 

Bluebell Seed Pods

A female scorpion fly hangs on to the side of a fern. In search of dead insects, this insect will often steal food from spiders webs. The tail in males often arches over its back, just like a scorpion, and is used in courtship displays, in attempts to attract a female and mate with her.

A female-looking Scorpion Fly

Quite disappointingly for this time of year the butterflies were few and far between. With only the odd sightings of speckled wood and large whites throughout the woodland, with the occasional common blue in the open grassland surrounding the woodland.

Speckled Wood

Walking the track up away from the estate, I noticed a large shape move between the branches of dense woodland up to my right. A pair of fallow deer, they had not noticed me. I climbed through the trees to get closer. I wondered whether they were habituated to humans and would not be bothered by my prresence. Until a couple of walkers along the track appeared. The deer lifted its head, looked across at them, then directly at me.

Spotted! 

They scarpered towards the woodland edge. I slowly followed and managed to watch them anxiously watch out for me between grazing.

The melanistic fallow deer

Venturing further towards the top of the ridge, I spotted another deer down the hillside to my left foraging in the open. Once again, the deer spotted me, most likely with its exceptional hearing first. Finely acute senses allow deer to keep a watchful sense out for predators at all times. Their hearing, sense of smell and extreme peripheral vision allow them to effectively avoid predators most of the time. 

Just before the deer shot off into the bushes

Reaching the top, Dunstable Downs could be seen in all its glory, stretching across the flat valley beneath. The White Lion of Whipsnade, proudly marks the side of the hills. I stand near the point where workers would have had to walk to whilst building the lion, just to look back and check how progress on the feature was coming along. No wonder why it took 18 months to carve into the land!

The White Lion of Whipsnade and Dunstable Downs

Heading back across the fields, I noticed a small herd of fallow deer grazing in the field. One of them held the tan colouration, which could be an unrelated fallow that has joined the melanistic herd.

Leaping the fence!

I end this blog with a few shots from around the home. On the River Ivel, lots of chicks have been popping up all along the riverbank. Adorable!

Mallard Chicks

Moorhen closely followed by her chicks

 Harriet spotted a hedgehog in the garden. I was dying to see it, but by the time I got home from work and got out into the garden it was near midnight. I settled for some experimental shots of leaves in the torchlight.

I hope you enjoyed reading and, especially if you could not be bothered to read it, I hope you enjoyed looking at the photos ! Til' next time ya'll ...

Toads, Red Kite & a Badger Sett in a Car...

Finally. The weather is ideal; comfortably warm enough to sit outside in the morning with a cup of tea, squinting slightly in the bright, low sunlight. Blackbirds and song thrush fill the air with their wonderfully refreshing song, whilst tits call with cheerfully repetitive phrases. My room is now warm enough in the evenings to leave the window slightly ajar, allowing me to hear the faint high-pitched squeak of echo-locating pipistrelle bats, as they hunt for insects that have taken flight in the night. The sudden change from the freezing conditions that gripped the country, to the warmer days of spring has unleashed all plants and animals that have laid dormant over winter. 

Common Frog

Walking through Whipsnade was impossible to do so without coming across toads every yard or so. On a short walk through the zoo at night, we counted well over 80 toads. A mixture of males and females, chirping  furiously in an attempt to locate a mate and produce young.

The horny toad

Males, wisely, often ride on the back of females and get carried to their ancestral breeding grounds. Males will mate aggressively with females, latching on until she releases eggs for fertilisation, sometimes drowning them. In their somewhat blind desperation to reproduce, they will also attempt to mate with deceased females, or, if you are Rachael, a human hand moving them to safety from a busy road. Chirp!

Toad face

To Dunstable Downs. My new favourite place to visit. Already violets scatter the steep chalk hillside here. Never have I enjoyed being and feeling so intimately close to wild birds of prey. Not for the first time, I pulled up in the National Trust car park, and being a big fan of the odd nap, I wound the seat back, and nodded off for half hour or so (Not bad for a 24 year old!). When I woke, as I opened my eyes, a red kite with its wings arched into a 'W' formation, forked tail balancing it in the strong winds, bombed directly across the front of my car. What a sight. 

Red kite above

Rich red and brown in colour, grey heads and with white undersides to their primaries.That classic and diagnostic forked tail makes them easily distinguished from other large birds of prey. 

Another red kite rose on the wind forced up against the side of the downs. Holding its wings stiff, the kite reached down to its talons mid-flight and tore scraps from the prey it most likely scavenged. 

Feeding mid-flight

The red kites are a conservation success story, being brought back from near to extinction in the UK. And it is not just the red kites that love patrolling these hills. Kestrels hover, head motionless in the wind. Whilst buzzards soar in a circling fashion, with their wings stretched wide. 

Buzzard

Olivia joined me after work for a walk on the downs, where we investigated some of the woodland in the area. Immediately, we stumbled across some entrances to what turned out to be a huge badger sett. The entrances appeared to have been used recently, nesting material strewn messily around the site, latrines full of their messy tar-like faeces, scratches set into the bark of nearby trees, and even badger hair caught onto branches by some of the entrance holes. 

Curiously, the remains of an old, rusted car sat amongst the woodland. Slowly it has been reclaimed by the land, filled with dirt and tangled by new growth. What was strange, was to find an entrance to the badger sett  underneath where the drivers seat would have been. 

Rusty old car in the woods

Hair was caught on the shard of metal that hung from just above the sett entrance. There is something fascinating about the idea of human waste being claimed and used to the advantage of wild plants and animals. Something that would have been an appalling act of littering and dumping, has conversely become what appears to be a useful shelter and protected entrance to the badgers sett.

Sett in the car

Even stranger, was the discovery of three skulls, amongst a heap of bones from a range of animals. Rabbit, as you would expect from an area prowled by aerial and terrestrial predators. Then what looked like the jaw of a cow, possible due to the grazing that has occurred on sites nearby. Two badger skulls, fairly close to the sett. And a third, very similar in size and shape as the two badger skulls; it had the same dentition, but lacked the sagittal crest that runs along the centre of the two badger skulls, instead fused by two separate fibrous joints. Confusing indeed.

The three skulls

Whilst eating sandwiches, a spotted wolf spider came crawling out of the undergrowth.

Spotted wolf spider on the chalky downs

Close-up!

Back in Langford, and a red lily beetle perched on a blade of grass in the garden. Luckily flying off before I cut the grass. Apparently they devastate lilies and are a burden to gardeners.

Red lily beetle, poised on the end of a blade of grass

Little beauty!

Quite frankly, I am a red lily beetle fan. A very good-looking insect, that can ruin any of my lilies any day.

Back at Whipsnade, and a metallic trill echoes through the woodland. Faster paced than the cackling of the green woodpecker, and a lot tinnier. A bird lands on the trunk opposite. The wonderfully slate grey back, separated from its chestnut orange underside by a black eye band running back from its bill. Reaching its head out, it eyes up its nest hole. Then dashes into the nest hole where a branch used to be. Packed with dirt, the hole is now only big enough to fit the nuthatch through.

Reaching out

Eyeing up its nesthole before entering

Nuthatch are hot on the heels of the treecreeper for their amazing ability to effortlessly scurry both up and down tree trunks and branches.

Calling from the top of a tree

Collecting dirt

And just below this wonderful bird, the newborn wild boar piglets charge around and snuffle through the mud, imitating their boisterous mother. Cute or what!? 

Boar-lets

And I shall end with this photo of Ellie, enjoying the cool River Ivel on one of our sunnier days....

Expect some butterflies and some bloody faetus' in the next blog.... Bet you can not wait!