
Green Bottle Fly

Comma Polygonia c-album
Contents
August – finches, squirrels and more
Oak Galls
Wood Pigeons
Bullfinches
‘Fence Runner’
Damselflies and Dragonflies
Butterfly and moth list
Other insects (and spiders)
Bird list
August is the month when birds are hiding away as they go
through the moult, so it
is handy to know their songs and calls if you want to know what’s about. On the 1st
of August I stopped on ‘Lower Path’ in
Mules Park to chat to a partially sighted
man about wildlife. As we were
talking, a Red Admiral butterfly landed on the
man's arm much to his delight. I
also pointed out a Speckled Wood butterfly, in
perfect condition, on a bright
green new sycamore leaf. The Red Admiral flew from
the man's arm to the back of
Ollie, the dog I walk regularly. Ollie moved away
wondering what the tickle was and off it flew.
Grey squirrel families can be heard munching loudly on
sycamore seeds and
discarding the seed cases which fall all about me as I look
up into the tree. The park
felt fresh and happy after recent rain. Cobnuts are
falling, unripe, from the hazel
trees. Squirrels eat them that way so that you don't often find ripe nuts from hazel.
At the beginning of August, I noticed that there were
still Greenfinches about but
by the end of the month I couldn't hear or see any.
I think they've moved further
inland to find food, unlike the Goldfinches which
are now very common in the park.
I’ve seen flocks of twenty to thirty Goldfinches
as they twitter in group flight from one
side of the park meadows to the other.
When they’re in the trees they are hard to spot
in spite of their cherry red faces and bright yellow wing bars.
I noticed a few different galls on the English, or
pedunculate oaks in the park.
Brown marble galls I previously called oak
apples until I found out that the oak
apple is a different gall that looks
rosy, like an apple, and has a rougher surface.
I've seen and walked on
hundreds of knopper galls, these are knobbly and sticky to
the touch. I've also
seen Robin's Pincushion galls on oak branches although it is
most common on
wild roses. In each gall a single egg is laid by a gall wasp of
which there are over 90 species in Britain, 42 of them inducing galls on oak trees.
I often hear, in August, the growling coos of breeding Wood Pigeons sitting on
hidden nests, often in the ivy that surrounds a tree trunk.
Many Wood Pigeons nest
in autumn and some nest as early as April. They lay two
eggs and can have one or
two broods a year.
Always, when I pass a certain garden fence in the Dell, I
hear the whistling snore of
a male Bullfinch in a tree just by the fence at the
edge of a garden. I’ve seen the whole
Bullfinch family on pagoda feeders, high
up in a garden nearby. I’ve seen another
family of Bullfinches in the trees of
the Overdell Path. The male is always so shiny
with his reddish orange breast, black
face and cap on a robust head (which the
female also has) and bright white area
under the tale. They eat buds, flowers seeds,
berries, and shoots.
On the fence, near to where I hear the male Bullfinch, a
grey squirrel which I've
named ‘Fence Runner’ likes to tease dogs by running
along the top of the fence
noisily then leaping into a nearby tree. I've seen frenzied
dogs barking and trying to
reach it, but the squirrel is having fun knowing the dogs can't get to it.
Over the ponds, I've seen Common Blue damselflies, sometimes
in mating pairs,
Common Darter dragonflies (seen often away from the ponds too), Emperor
dragonflies patrolling the top pond, and Southern Hawker dragonflies
which often
patrol territories away from the water. On 12th August, I saw a damselfly on the
leaf
by Overdell Path. I didn't recognise the species but noted down its appearance
and looked it up at home. It was a male Variable damselfly, mostly turquoise
but
with thin black stripes on the thorax, thicker black stripes along the
abdomen, and a
black tip to the end of the abdomen. 32 35-mm, flies May to
August, breeds in still
water i.e. ponds.
Abundant Green Bottle flies, shining a lovely mechanic greenish in the sun.
18th of August
I was lucky to see, briefly, a female sparrowhawk with
something in her talons as she
flew towards trees at Rowdens Edge Path. She landed
somewhere within the dense
foliage so I couldn't locate her. I do often find
feathers of wood pigeons along the
path which are the main prey of the female
sparrowhawk but she had something
smaller like a young squirrel in her talons.
Berries of Wild Arum, bright reddish orange in clusters on
bright green stalks in
woodlands. So many berries around in August on Hawthorn, Rowan, Viburnum,
Blackthorn (sloes), Bramble (blackberries), Spindle, Black Bryony, Holly,
Tutsan (related to St Johns Wort, berries go from red to black
in the centre of the
yellow flowers).
11th August
A great day for seeing insects of all kinds in the park, it was
a sunny and very
warm.
The Hemp Agrimony was in full flower, in a sunny spot by
the Dell Path, and on it
I noted hoverflies of all kinds, including seven of
the very large hornet hoverfly,
Jersey Tiger moths, Bumblebees, Solitary bees
and Honey bees a small white
butterfly and a shining green oval-bodied leaf beetle.
Also on the 11th I saw four Common Builder flies,
a lot of Small White
(butterflies), a Large White, a Small Tortoiseshell,
fourteen Common Blues in the
meadows, six Painted Ladies, seven Meadow Browns,
four Red Admirals, and two
male Emperor dragonflies seen patrolling the top pond in The Dell.
Butterflies seen in August in Mules Park
Small White common
Large White uncommon
Painted Lady common this year from Morocco
Red Admiral common late August into September
Speckled Wood common
Common Blue uncommon
Small Tortoiseshell uncommon
Comma uncommon
Meadow Brown common
Gatekeeper common
Marbled White I saw just one in the park in August
Holly Blue quite common
High Brown Fritillary rare just one seen in the Rowdens on bramble flowers
Moths seen in Mules Park in August
Jersey Tiger moth, particularly common this year, from the end of July onwards
Silver Y,( Autographa Gamma) moth, common day flying species
Hummingbird hawk-moth, I've seen three, together on flowers of hemp agrimony at the beginning of Dell path
Straw Dot moth, common meadow species, food plant various grasses
Other insects
A lot of common green grasshoppers heard (sometimes seen) in top meadow in late August. craneflies or daddy long legs seen in the meadows some mating
Unusual insects and spiders
A hunting spider and a smaller one next to it, perhaps a male and female of the species Pisasaura Mirabilia
A pale brown shield bug sized insect with violin shaped body and curved antennae, species: Syromeistes Rhombus
Green shield bugs seen near the top meadow. Feed on deciduous shrubs and tall herbs, they turn bronze in autumn.
Birds in August
Robin (very abundant)
Blackbird (very abundant)
Magpie (very abundant)
Crow (very abundant)
Jay (common but secretive)
Wood pigeon (very abundant and conspicuous)
Blue tit (abundant)
Great tit (abundant)
Long-tailed tit (abundant)
Coal tit (quite common)
Wren (abundant)
Goldfinch (abundant)
Greenfinch (abundant in early August)
Bullfinch (uncommon)
Chaffinch (rare in park)
Goldcrest (uncommon)
Blackcap (quite common)
Song thrush (uncommon)
Mistle thrush (rarely seen)
Tree creeper (rarely seen)
Nuthatch (uncommon)
Great Spotted woodpecker (uncommon)
Willow warbler (uncommon)
Kestrel (uncommon)
Sparrowhawk (uncommon)
Buzzard (quite common)
Raven (uncommon)
Housemartins (abundant when insects are swarming over the park)
Swallow (uncommon)
Swift, all gone back to Africa by early August
read the page for September 2019
Catherine Locke