Weymouth Relief Road.

Adonis Blue.      Click to enlarge   Photo. john Elliott

In rather dull and windy conditions a walk down the Weymouth Relief Road bridleway to look for butterflies proved disappointing as far as numbers were concerned, but the dozen that were seen were quality.  The brilliant Adonis Blues, seven of them,  provided the main interest. together with two tattered Painted Ladies and a single Brown Argus. The Painted Ladies which take part in a staged movement north in the early part of the year are probably now moving back south towards Africa where they will over winter. Amazingly some of these tiny, fragile insects will end up south of the Sahara desert.

Wheatear.        Click to enlarge.   Photo. John Elliott

Seen perching on the walls or fences and moving south to their winter quarters were several Wheatears. This very fresh looking one is probably one of this years brood.

Migrant Cuckoo.

Nussey.            Photo BTO

My sponsored Cuckoo, Nussey, which got as far as Morocco on its first attempt to migrate and then backtracked to Spain, has not responded to the tracking satellite since the 10th of August, seventeen days ago. There must now be concern that the bird is in trouble and if not already dead, will be unable to tackle the difficult Sahara crossing to its Central African rainforest winter quarters.

Hundreds of butterflies on the Forage Kale in the field halfway up the hill to Ewelease Dairy today. All three species, Large White, Small White and Green Veined White were present .Some thousands of Caterpillars could arise and munch away at the Kale, not leaving much for the cows.

Beech Trees in Danger.

Phytophthora kernoviae is a fungal type pathogen which was first seen in Cornwall in 2003 and has since spread into Devon, South Wales, Cheshire and Scotland, but has not, so far, been reported in Dorset.
 Beach trees are one of the species affected and symptoms are bark lesions and necrosis (blackening and death) of leaves and stems. It is disturbing therefore that one of the beaches on the Church Green is showing darkening of the stems and leaves at the ends of branches, which could be consistent with necrosis rather than normal autumnal browning. The fungus is easily spread and the danger must be that it may infest the Copper Beach in Hardy Close and also the tree in the Manor House grounds, which could well be the oldest, as well as the largest tree in the village.

Necrosis of Church Green Beach.         Photo' John Elliott

This is a young tree which may well have to join the two Cherry trees which have recently been removed, as well as the Chestnut, which is infected with the micro moth Horse-chestnut Leaf Miner, Cameraria ohridella. The brown patches are where the minute larvae have been eating away at the inner parts of the leaves.

Wayward Cuckoo.

Nussey           Photo BTO       

 

My sponsored Cuckoo , having turned back again from North Africa, is now once again in Spain south-west of Valencia.The latest bulletin from BTO:-

These aborted attempts must have been in response to unfavourable conditions and we are now a little worried about what this mean for the rest of his journey, as he will have expended a huge amount more energy in order to back-track. He will be one lucky and tenacious Cuckoo to survive the added burden of these attempts. We'll have to wait for further signals to see what he does next.

Life and Death..

 My weekly reports on the birds using my garden  have a space to report dead or sick birds but I rarely have anything to fill in.  Today has been a bit of an exception as there have been two casualties. I heard the typical sound of a bird hitting a window at first light but was unprepared for the sight of a partly eaten Wood Pigeon outside the back door when I went to replenish the bird tables later in the morning. It was partly plucked and the innards eaten, typical signs of a Sparrow Hawk attack, but the head was missing, not something I would expect a hawk to be involved in.  
The second a juvenile House Sparrow, which was fluttering about yesterday not looking too well, appeared to have been killed and partly eaten in the night. 

My sponsored Cuckoo is up to its tricks again as the latest report from the British Trust for Ornithology shows.

By 6pm on Friday 2 August, Nussey had flown 744 km (462 miles) south and was near Oria, a municipality of Almería province, in Andalusia, Spain. He didn't stay there long however and by 10:10 am on the morning of Saturday 3 August he had flown a further 406 km (252 miles) south, crossing the Mediterranean and landing in northern Morocco, just south of Guercif. A series of poor quality locations received since suggest that he set out across the desert before turning back so we'll need to await some better data before we can be sure of his new location.  

This is the second time this bird has turned back north. Very odd behavior.

Wandering Cuckoo.

My sponsored Cuckoo, Nussey, has at last decided to fly south again, following the other tagged Cuckoos which are all well on their way to Central Africa. It is now in Southern Spain approaching the Mediterranean for a second time. I hope that it has managed to fatten up enough to tackle the long flight across the barren Sahara.

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