Day 299 - Terrificaly Omniscient Tawny Owls

Tawny Owl (Strix aluco)

Hey everyone today's Day 299 and I like to go to a place called Silton Forest on the edge of the North York Moors. Now, when you go on a wildlife walk, you shouldn't just look out for wildlife when you are actually there, you should look around when you are going to and from the place. So, when I was coming back from the Forest, we noticed something in the middle of the road. We looked closer and we found out that it was a Tawny Owl! We got some pictures and watched it for a while before it flew off. It was a wonderful encounter as the Owl didn't seem at all bothered by our presence. It hopped of the road on to the hedge on the side of the road and sat there surveying the countryside while we watched. I was amazing, I've never spent so long so close to a wild owl before. Truly an amazing experience!

So, I did my research and here are the facts:

What's that in the road - it's an Owl!

• They are resident in every single area of the British Mainland but nowhere else. Not Ireland, the Orkneys, The Isle of Wight, nowhere.

• They are a Green status as there hasn't been any declines in the population in the last century or so. It would seem they are adaptable and able to cope with all the changes that have happened in more building and more intense agriculture.

• There are about 50,000 breeding pairs in the UK meaning there are a huge 100,000 adults in the UK! Amazing then that I haven't seen many before!

• Now, why don't see them very often? Where are they all? If you look at their eyes are you'll see they are black, this shows they hunt at night...

It flew up onto the hedge to survey the countryside

• ...I was told this at a Birds of Prey show and they said that if the eyes are orange, they are usually seen at dusk and dawn and if they are black, they hunt at night. All the more surprising that the Owl I saw was so accomodating, it was still quite light when I saw it! 

• Surprisingly though they cannot see in complete darkness but it takes a very overcast night before they cannot hunt in woodland as they eyes are much much better than ours in the dark.

• They have a wingspan of 38cm and their wingspan is 99cm. Their ring size is G.

• Males weigh, on average, 420g. Females are bigger and are usually 520g. This is known as sexual dimorphism.

It didn't mind us being there - this was one of my best bird experiences!

• They first breed at 1 year and usually live until 4 years. The oldest died in 1988 and lived for 21 years, 5 months and 13 days.

• A Tawny Owl will have one brood a year and will lay around 2 to 3 eggs in a clutch between March and May.

• Eggs hatch in around 30 days and the chicks are in the nest for a further 35-40 days before they fledge

• Their diet is rather varied and can include small mammals, birds, amphibians, worms  and beetles

• When Owls in general eat they consume all of the prey and then collect all of the bits they cant digest into a pellet. They then cough this up. If you find a pellet you can have a great time dissecting them and you can work out which Owl coughed up the pellet from its content. I did a post on this a while ago. Here's the video that I did on my dissection of a Bran Owl pellet.

Barn Owl Pellet Dissection Video

• Part of a Tawny Owls latin name translates from latin meaning 'screech owl'. They are quite vocal birds that I love to hear at night and make noises like 'tu-whit tu-whoo' (males) and 'keewick' (females).

Here are a few links to some more information:

RSPB - Tawny Owl

BTO Birdfacts - Tawny Owl

BBC Nature - Tawny Owl

Hope you enjoyed,

Z.

Day 298 - Sublimely Super and Beautiful Six-Spot Burnets

Six -Spot Burnet Moth (Zygaena filipendulae)

Hey everyone today's Day 298, getting close to the big 300! Now, today, where I am, was very sunny and it reminded me of my time in Norfolk. So, I thought that I would do a beautiful creature for a beautiful day. This is one I spotted on my walk down to Blakney Point, which was quite hard considering it was completely on shingle! I spotted this on the way back when I had time to poke around the sandy areas. When looking in some Knapweed I managed to find a lovely Six-Spot Burnet!

So, here are the facts:

• I saw this in the bright sunshine around 9 o'clock in the morning. So you might think this is a lovely butterfly, but it's actually a day-flying moth.

It was busy feeding on the Knapweed
so I got some good shots

• This is a very brightly coloured moth, an these bright colours warn potential predators that they are poisonous. Predators need to take this seriously as apparently they contain Cyanide (a very toxic chemical!)

• They are called Six-Spot Burnets, but the number of spots can vary, and sometimes , the spots are fused. This is jolly confusing because there are also Five-Spot Burnets!

• Antennae on this moth are club shaped, which is apparently unusual. They use them for feeling and smelling

• They like to live in grassy areas where they can find the wild-flowers that they and the caterpillars feed on. They like the coast where I found this one but are found inland too.

• The adults have a wingspan of 30mm - 38mm and the caterpillars measure but 22mm.

It was very busy so I got very close

• Adults will take nectar from a range of wildflowers but the larvae are a bit more fussy and tend to feed on Bird's Foor Trefoil, Clover and Kidney Vetch.

• In July of August the adults lay their eggs on the food plants. 

• Caterpillars hatch quickly, in just a few days, and get busy eating! They hibernate as caterpillars.

• As they are growing, they will moult several times, and may even stay as caterpillars for two Winters.

• Once they are fully grown, the caterpillars spin cocoons with silk from a special gland called a spinnaret. In this cocoon, called a pupa, they undergo the transformation to adults.

• Adult Moths emerge in June or July and fly around on sunny days. 

Saw another one on a different plant too

• Sadly the Adults only live for a short time. Once they have mated and the Females lay their eggs, they die.

• They aren't a moth that is threatened at present but the grasslands that they live in are disappearing so they could be in future.
  

Here are a few links to some more information:

Wildlife Trusts - Six-Spot Burnets 

Butterfly Conservation - Six-Spot Burnets 

UK Moths - Six-Spot Burnets 

Hope you enjoyed,

Z.

Day 297 - Charmingly Lovely Common Lizards

Common or Viviparous Lizard
(Zootoca vivipara - formerly Lacerta vivipara)

Hey everyone today's Day 297 and I am going back to Norfolk today, where I saw a load of these down at Hickling Broad. There are always a few of these about down there, always in exactly the same place, every single year. They like to sunbaths on the edges of the wooden jetty's where the boat tours start.  I do see them in other places but I see them most often here. The most beautiful ones, were the ones that actually were the most docile and I was able to get some pretty good shots of them. The Common Lizards that were smaller weren't as nicely coloured and were the ones that were most 'scampery'. (That's a great word!)

So, here are the facts:

They were docile enough that I could get quite close

• They are one of three types of lizard that live in the UK, the Common Lizard, the Sand Lizard and the Slowworm, which is actually a leg-less lizard

• They are on average about 10-15 centimetres long, from their nose to their tail.

• They have lifespan of up to 12 years which I found pretty surprising for such a small creature.

• They are a protected species (under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981) and are a priority species in the UK Biodiversity Action Plan.

Ok, very close!

• Their habitat is woodland edges, heathland, grassland and sand dunes. Heatlands and Grasslands are threatened which is probably why they are protected.

• It turns out that they might not be THAT common after all, just like the Common Gull.

• Their diet consists of small insects and spiders. 

They have beautiful markings

• They are also known as Viviparous Lizards. This means: the Females keep fertilised eggs inside their bodies until they are almost ready to hatch. 

• The eggs are kept nice and warm until the time is right to lay them. When they have been laid, the young hatch in seconds. I also read, though, that they 'give birth' to inch long lizards in August. So if anyone can tell me which is right, I'd be grateful.

• They are cold-blooded so you will often find them lying on stone or logs in the sunshine, as they need the heat to warm their bodies.

• Common Lizards have a trick up their sleeves to avoid being captured by predators: if they are caught by the tail, they can snap it off and escape.

There were younger ones around too
but they were much more 'scampery'

• Another amazing fact is that, if they live long enough, they can grow a new one back, although it will be shorter and thicker than the old one.

Here are a few links to some more information on these amazing creatures:

The Wildlife Trusts  - Common Lizards

UK Safari - Common Lizards

ARC Trust - Common Lizards

Hope you enjoyed,

Z.

Day 296 - Fabulously Gorgeously Marked - Feathered Gothic Moths

Feathered Gothic Moth (Tholera decimalis)

Hey everyone! Day 296 and I'm going to cover something I promised to do when I covered my day helping out at Nosterfield Local Nature Reserve Open Day. I had a little surprise related to this today, my picture was in our local paper! There was a nice little article about the open day and a photo of all the volunteers. Anyway, as you probably know I was helping out with the moth trapping and one of the species that was found that was new to the reserve was today's species - the Feathered Gothic Moth. It's a very pretty moth and it has some fantastic antennae.

So what did I find out about these lovely creatures:

The Feathers - fantastic antennae

• The wings of these moths have a lovely white tracing which looks a bit like the stone parts of abbey or church windows and is why they have the Gothic part of their name, if I remember what Jill and Charlie told me right. 

• The feathered bit of the name is because they have some fantastic antennae, see the pictures!

A side view, zoom in to see the hairs

• I found a site that said that in the 1850's they were renamed. Before this they were in a genus Heliophobus which means 'Dread of the Sun' - that fits very well with their Goth image!

• They are most common in the South of England but get less common as you go North and don't seem to like it in the highlands of Scotland.

• You will find them in August and September, this is when they are 'on the wing'.

• The larvae eat grass. when they are little they eat the leaves and as they get older they will eat the stems.

• Habitats they like to live include lowland areas, rough grassland and woodland

Setting it free I got a great bugs eye view

• They have a wingspan of 38-48mm

• As they fly quite late in the year they overwinter as an egg.

If you want to see more pictures try these sites, I think I've covered all the facts I could find!

UK Moths - Feathered Gothic Moths

Shandy Hall Moths - Feathered Gothic Moths

Nature Spot - Feathered Gothic Moths

Hope you enjoyed,

Z.

Day 295 - Fascinating and Dashingly Wonderful Field Digger Wasps

Female Field Digger Wasp (Mellinus arvensis)

Hey everyone today's Day 295 and in your garden, there's so many different species. Someone I met at Birdfair said to me that he had 1000 species in his garden. This person is called Dr. Roger Key and he lives not too far away from me. Roger is extremely knowledgeable about insects and I hope to go on some bug hunts with him. Now when I asked him what this was,  he said it was a Female Field Digger Wasp or, the Mellinus arvensis. I saw this lovely looking creature when on a walk at Ripon. There was a lovely sandy bank down to a pool in the beck there. It was flying around the sand when it caught my eye 

So here are the facts:

• This particular Digger Wasp is actually the Field Digger wasp and is one of the commonest of its type.

Bug caught - looking for a place to dig

• Now, its type is actually a solitary wasp. These are basically wasps that don't live in groups. the only live in their own.

• They are found quite commonly in the South of England getting less common the further North you go, it seems most common in Ireland on the East coast.

• This Wasp flies quite late in the year, from July to October but is most common in August and September..

• They are actually quite small, only being 12mm long, their wings, when folded up, are 8mm so their wingspan would be 16mm.

• Their family is actually Crabronidae but Roger told me the families can change because about a year ago their family was Specidae.

Still looking

• Roger actually told me what it was that it was doing. Now I said at the start they are a nice looking creature but this bit is a little gruesome.  

• It has caught a dung fly Scathophaga stercoraria and this is part of its life cycle. It hunts them on piles of dung, walking across the dung and leaping on its prey.

• The digger wasp paralyses the fly with its sting and lays an egg on it and buries it in the sand in nests which are as much as 30-40cm underground.

• The egg then hatches and the larvae eats the fly while it grows, the fly remember is just paralysed and is still alive!
  

  

  Here you can see the dung fly better

Here are some links to some more information:

BWARS - Digger Wasps

Wikipeida - Digger Wasps - This one doesn't have much

Natural History Museum - Digger Wasps

Hope you enjoyed,

Z.

Day 294 - Greatly Wonderful and Excellent Great White Egret

Great White Egret (Ardea alba) - thanks to Dawn Balmer

Hey everyone today's Day 294 and as you know I have recently been to Birdfair and when I was there on the first day there was a huge traffic jam on the way in so we decided to leave early to avoid the jams on the way out so we thought we would do a bit of Birdwatching at Rutland Water Rutland Wildlife Trust reserve. Before we even got out of the visitor centre we were told that there was a relatively rare Great-White Egret just on the other side of the lake. It was quite far away so my camera wasn't very good for pictures but thanks to @_ieuan and @DEBalmer I've got a couple of good ones. I'm very grateful to them as I had written my whole post before I realised my pics were not that good!

So what did I find out about these wonderful birds, here are the facts:

• It seems they are resident in the Southern hemisphere, but not Antarctica, but they only breed just above the equator.

Another one from Dawn

• The reason I say where they live in the world is because they aren't normally in the UK. The RSPB doesn't even have a map of where they live here!

• They don't have any status in the UK probably because either they have been introduced here, or there isn't enough to actually do an assessment on. Globally they don't seem to be a threatened species.

• What I do know about them, though, is that the Great-White Egret population has risen in the last few years and they are most common in South-East England, as well as East Anglia.

• Another thing I know is that they are very rare here and there are only 35 wintering birds here in the UK! That's not very many!

/\                  
Much better than mine!

• They look much like the Little Egret, as the name suggests. The way to tell them apart in Summer is to look for the Greater's Black feet over the Little's Yellow.

• Also, Greats are much larger, that of a Grey Herons size. As well as this, the beak when they are in Juvenile and Non-Breeding plumage is yellow.

• I guess it might be because they are a similar size to a Heron that their latin name means white heron.

• Because of the slaughter of these birds for their plumes, the Society for the Protection of Birds was formed, which, 15 years later, received a royal warrant and because the RSPB.

• They are 94 cm long and they have a 155cm wingspan. Both Male and Female birds weigh about 870g.

• It seems they are adaptable and will eat insects, fish in the wet season and small mammals in the dry season.

Here are some links to some more information:

RSPB - Great-White Egret

BTO Birdfacts - Great-White Egret

Birdlife  - Great-White Egret

Hope you enjoyed,

Z.

Day 293 - Pretty, Beautiful and Fantastic Pearl-Bordered Fritillaries

Small Pearl-Bordered Fritillary (Boloria selene) - feeding but not on Bugle

Hey everyone today's Day 293 and, as you know, I have recently been to the Lake District (saw Bee-Eaters - yes!). I went to a place called RSPB Geltsdale which is an incredible reserve. I read that it's one of the darkest places at night in England, so it's great for seeing stars so I'll have to get back for a night time visit. It has some incredible habitats and most importantly, it has some amazing wildlife. Yesterday I covered the first of 2-3 'lifers' that I saw there. So here is the second. The lovely Pearl-Bordered Fritillary.

Note: I will be covering both the Small Pearl-Bordered Fritillary and the Pearl-Bordered Fritillary in this post.

So, here are the facts:

• The Pearl-Bordered Fritillary is seen most commonly between April and June but they have been seen from March all the way through August.

• The Small Pearl-Bordered Fritillary is most commonly found between June and August but they can also be found about a month either side, less commonly.

It was hard to get close to and I had to follow it about

• These butterflies get their name from the 'pearls' that run along the edge of the wings, although other Fritillaries do have these too such as the Marsh Fritillary.

• The reason the Small Pearl-Bordered Fritillary is called this is, is because its maximum wingspan is a bit smaller than the normal Pearl-Bordered Fritillary...

• ...More precisely the Large is between 44mm and 47mm while the Small is 41mm to 44mm. They can stretch either way in genders though.

• They are mostly found in the South of England, the North of Scotland and Wales. They don't seem to be found in Ireland at all though or there are no records on the sites I saw.

• One of the best ways to tell between all of the Fritillaries is that the Pearl-Bordered and the Small Pearl-Bordered always have 12 veins on their forewings. You can also tell from when and where they are found.

It settled down again for a moment.

• Even though we found this one in a marshy bit of a moorland up a hill, they are most commonly found in woodlands.

• Their caterpillars are quite fussy and are only found on Dog Violet or Marsh Violets.

• As adults their main source of food is nectar from Bugle but they also take nectar from a range of other plants too.

• This species is a conservation priority as it has been in decline. The main reason is probably as we don't do much coppicing of woodland anymore which is what creates the best habitat for them.

Here are some links to some more information:

UK Butterflies - Pearl-Bordered Fritillary - Small Pearl-Bordered Fritillary

The Wildlife Trusts - Pearl-Bordered Fritillary

Butterfly Conservation - Pearl-Bordered Fritillary - Small Pearl-Bordered Fritillary

Hope you enjoyed,

Z.