Beefly

Looking like a miniature Humming Bird Hawk Moth, the Large Bee-Fly, Bombylius major  is making an appearance in village gardens. Moving rapidly from one spot to another in a behavioiur known as 'yawing' it is searching for the entrances to the underground nests of solitary bees, on which it is parasitic,  in order to lay eggs which on hatching will start feeding on the wasp larvae.
The Bee-fly has only one pair of wings as opposed to a bee's two, and is thus a true fly.

Large Bee-Fly              Photo: John Elliott

                      

Webcam Wildlife

For those of us having to  restrict severely our wanderings in the countryside there is much interest to be gained from two Dorset webcams, one run by DWT at its Lorton reserve where a pair of Barn Owls inhabit a nest box, and one on a Bournemouth University building where a pair of Peregrines are already incubating eggs.
The DWT webcam is at Wildlife webcam | Dorset Wildlife Trust  
The Bournemouth University is at H O M E - Bournemouth Peregrines

Country Coronavirus.

I attempted earlier in the week to continue my monitoring of our spring butterflies by taking my exercise along public paths only to meet strangers, both walkers and cyclists, some of whome made little attempt to maintain a two metre separation. At the age of 90 I cannot afford to take any chance of infection and will so record what I can  from the house. From my bedrom window the Rooks are back after last year's wipeout and busily rebuilding their nests.The sticks are broken from living branches, often with much difficulty, and if dropped are not picked up but left lying on the ground. Some of the smaller ones are  picked up by my resident pair of Woodpigeons who are starting a nest in the Pittosporum by the gate.  No sign of the blackbirds nesting yet though.

Badgers, Beavers and Butterflies

Wildlife enthusiasts and dairy farmers will be relieved to know that the Government  has announced that the ineffective cull of Badgers and cattle as a means of reducing bovine TB is to be phased out in favour of a policy of vaccination, and an earlier and more effective test for infection in cattle  to replace the present skin test which doesn't detect early infection and thus results in a reservoir of infection within the herd. It is sad that scientific advice which has been available for several years has taken so long to be accepted.
Dorset Wildlife Trust has announced that it has now secured the necessary licenses to proceed with its enclosed Beaver trial, the first of its kind.The project will host research that will help us to understand the positive impact this species could have on chalk stream water quality, flood prevention and wildlife. Though highly desirable on the presently much abused South Winterborne we are unlikely to be lucky enough to get Beavers in the near future.
And a welcome sign of spring, a Brimstone butterfly, the first for the year, has just fluttered across my front garden.

First Frogspawn

A

1st February

Only the first of February and already the first batches of frogspawn, six of them, have appeared in my small garden pond. The picture above, though it looks a bit rough, isn't a sketch but a close-up photo. The two green leaves of duckweed give an idea of the scale. The embrio tadpoles show clearly in the centre of each gelatinous blob and hopefully I may be able to get similar pictures as they develop.
Watch this space.

13th March 2020

My tadpoles disappeared two days ago ( I blamed the heron that as been flying round the village)  but they have now reappeared hiding below a mass of bubbles. This I have never seen before but, according to the current issue of New Scientist, it is the way they breath at a certain stage in their developmnet. Most tadpoles develop lungs as well as gills and need air to survive, but they are too weak to break the surface tension 'skin' to take in air. Instead they can form bubbles and take in air from them. 

Tadpoll Bubbles  Click to enllarge

21st March 2020

The Tadpoles have grown enormously in the last week and are now attacking any likely food such as this unfortunate snail.

Tadpoles eating drownned snail   Click to enllarge

 

Sika Deer.

Sika Deer,  on Black Down

A trip up the hill today in the late afternoon to watch the sun set from the new stone circle. Wildlife was not much in evidence, a couple of Carrion Crows, a few Rooks on their way to their night roost, the occasional Herring Gull belatedly making its way to the coast, plus the odd Wood Pigeon. Nothing very exciting perhaps, but suddenly everything changed and on the skyline a magnificently antlered Sika Deer appeared, silhouetted against the rapidly darkening sky. Before I could get the camera from my pocket for what would have been a very dramatic shot it moved away across the heath  but continued grazing, occasionally looking up for danger. The distinctive white rump is clearly visible. Said to be nocturnal and spending the daylight hours in the woods this one has clearly made an early start on its browsing.
Shortly afterwards I caught a few short glimpses of the sun, partially obscured by thin cloud, as it set bang in the middle of the aperture through the south westerly facing pillar which  is aligned with the winter solstice sunset.

Rookery Restored.

During the summer the Rooks which inhabited the Horse Chestnut tree outside my bedroom window suddenly disappeared during the course of one day, along with many others from the village. At the time the law on pest species was in a state of flux and amid uncertainty as to whether the Rooks would remain on the list or become a protected species, did someone do a precautionary cull, 
perhaps at the night roost over the other side of the A35 ?  All went silent for a while, but this week a few of the birds which must have survived, returned to the Horse Chestnut  and are busily rebuilding three nests.

Rooks back in the Horse Chestnut.

 A pair of birds are working on the nest at the upper right and a single bird, probably the female, waits by the rather sparse nest in the centre for her mate to return with another stick which she will, with much pushing and pulling, add to the nest