Where are all the butterflies?

All photo`s taken with hand-held Canon Powershot A640

There has been a distinct lack of butterflies this summer, none more so than on my recent visit to Bedford Purlieus the other day. The sun was shining and Lisa and I had finished work relatively early so we decided to go for a walk around the nature reserve to see if any butterflies were on show. After 2 hours of trudging around a very beautiful wood we didn`t have much to show for our efforts! Lots of Speckled Woods, a few Meadow Browns, a couple of Ringlets (not pictured), several Small Whites (again, not pictured) and what I think is an Essex Skipper, although it could be a Small Skipper, not quite sure as the antenna do look black, but I am no expert!

The day after our visit White-letter Hairstreaks and Silver-washed Fritillaries were being reported, so we obviously chose the wrong day! However, we will return and hopefully get to see a few more species at this lovely wood.

Butterflies are having a tough time of it at the moment with overall numbers in massive decline, with common species such as Meadow Brown falling by up to a fifth in numbers in 2010 compared with 2009. Certain species are showing signs of improvement due to the help of conservation work, but the future does look bleak. Follow my link to Butterfly Conservation to see what you can do to help.

There once was an ugly duckling

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so they say. I don`t know who `they` are, but they must have been thinking about young Moorhens. A chick that only its mother could love, it always amazes me that this ungainly little ball of fluff with a bald head can become such a beautiful bird.

Gulp!

An old joke that my Dad is fond of saying is, `What sound does the Swallow make? Gulp!`, the reason for this posts title. As I have said to Dad before, don`t give up the day job Pops!

The Swallow, or to give it the `proper` name of Barn Swallow is a bird that most of us are familiar with. The bird comes to this country from South Africa in the summer months to breed and I am fairly sure that most people have seen one.

The photo`s above were taken at a site that holds breeding House Martins, Sand Martins and these Swallows and is where I work on a Wednesday. Some of us are lucky enough to work in places such as this and being a gardener I have my fair share.

Reed Bunting male

No words, just pictures.

Common Tern

This is the first year that a `tern raft` has been placed in the water at Maxey gravel pits, it is there for the Common Terns to breed on.

There is always next year!

The only time I have seen Common Terns near this raft is when they have been perching on the posts surrounding it, they have had a look, but don`t seem too impressed! I have not seen any sign of tern breeding on the site, there are still a couple of pairs about, but I have not yet seen any chicks. Hopefully the raft will remain and be in place for when the terns return next year after their long migration. We may then see a successful breeding year.

Yellow Wagtail

The Yellow Wagtail is a migrant bird that arrives in Britain between late March and mid May, with the brightly coloured males arriving first. In August and September it starts its return flight, first to south-west France and then to Portugal, with some flying to the Bay of Biscay in Spain. From here they then fly to North Africa and across the Sahara desert, some in a single flight which takes 72 hours.

The birds are frequently seen with cattle and horses in their search for food, which is a mixture of small invertebrates such as flies and beetles. These are normally caught around the feet or dung of livestock.

The male (seen in these photo`s) is an extremely brightly coloured bird, having bright yellow underparts and face with olive-green upperparts. The head markings do vary between geographical races, with the British race having a yellow head. The nearest other race is from Europe and has a blue head, indeed this race can often be seen in Britain. The female is a lot duller with a brown back, pale throat and a pale eye stripe.

This is another farmland birds which has mixed fortunes of late with some surveys showing declines of between 67% and 90%, with most of this occuring since 1978. Their range in Britain is contracting, with the loss of mixed farming, land drainage, conversion of pasture to arable and changes in farming practice are all possible causes of this.

In the Peterborough area we are fairly fortunate in that we seem to have a fairly healthy population with the Nene Washes and Maxey GP (where these photo`s were taken), to name a few, being good places to see this stunning bird.