Comet NEOWISE.

Nothing much to do with valley wildlife, unless you can spot the Pipistrelle bat which has emerged from the side of my dormer window where there is a roost, but  newly discovered comet, NEOWISE,  now visible from the village. It can be seen just below the Plough in the north west sky just after sunset. It is visible to the naked eye in more favoured locations, but light polution in Martinstown makes it necessary to use binoculars.It is now moving away from Earth and will be getting fainter. Its orbital period is stated to be 6700 years, so better grab it now.

Comet Neowise. Click to enlarge. Photo. John Elliott. Exposure. 30 secs. at F4.5

My Cuckoo flies south.

Cuckoo. Valentine.

My sponsored Cuckoo, Valentine, has left this country on its annual migration south and is now in south east Spain, 41 km (26 miles) north west of the town and seaport of Aguilas, feeding up in prepararation for its long flight across the Sahara.

This bird was tagged in 2019 and so has already completed one round trip from its birthplace in Norfolk to Central Africa and back.

I would have prefered to have sponsored one of this year's hatch, but BTO, understandably, seem to have been unable to attempt to capture and attach transponder tags to any of the new birds.



Details of the satelite tracking technology being used to track the current batch of cuckoos may be found at:-
              www.bto.org/our-science/projects/cuckoo-tracking-project/tracking-technology

Fabulous Flyers

I have sponsored a new Cuckoo to replace the one which disappeared last year in Spain while on its way to Africa  My new bird, Valentine, has now started its migration to Central Africa. Here is the latest report from the BTO on its journey.

Valentine has flown a further 512 km (319 miles) south from his last location in north-eastern France and by yesterday evening was in an area of farmland just east of Nimes in the south of France. Last year his route took him further west down through Spain so it'll be interesting to see whether he flies direct to Africa from France or travels first out to Spain.

Much neare home, round my small garden pond to be precise, a new species for the garden has appeared, the Beautiful Demoiselle damselfly. 

               Beatiful Demoiselle        Click to enlarge.   Photo. John Elliott.

    

The male is easily identified by its brown/blackish wings with iridescent blue veins and its metallic blue body, This damselfly is typical of fast flowing streams in southern and western Britain,  and so cannot have started life in my pond, but probably came into the village from down the Weymouth Road.

 

Heavenly Honeysuckle.

A late evening walk up the ( three metres wide, making two metre separation easy between walkers and runners)  bridleway to Ewelease Dairy mkaes it possible to enjoy the heavenly scent of the HoneySuckle, now in full bloom, a reminder that the natural world is carrying on as normal and working its way through the season, virus or no virus.

Honeysuckle.  Click to enlarge.           Photo. John Elliott

Also in full bloom are the various species of Bramble, of which there are over 400 microspecies, promising a good harvest of blackberries later in the year.

Magnificent Moth.

Privet Hawk Moth.   Click to enlarge.  Photo. John Elliott.

In the moth trap last night a Privet Hawk Moth,  Sphinx ligustri. There are half a dozen egg boxes in the bottom of the moth trap, and most of the moths attracted by the ultra violet light settle under the boxes and can be identified and counted next morning, but the larger moths, like the Privet Hawk Moth, have to settle on the outside like this one.

Damselflies

My small garden pond is still producing numerous Azure Damselflies. which appear on warmer days.

Azure Damselfly.  Click to enlarge.   Photo. John Elliott.

Very similar to the other species of blue damselflies, the Azure is distinguished by the much narrower blue stripes on the thorax, just behind the head, and by the black markings on the last segment of the tail. The females are mostly black with only a few blue markings.
A walk down the Weymouth road this afternoon, the first for several weeks, revealed only a single Beautiful Demoiselle damselfly which didn't linger long enough for a photo. Walkng back along the permissive path a Little Egret appeared making its way down the valley, occasionally dipping down into the stream, and a thin scattering of butterflies included Comma,  Large Skipper. Marbled White, Meadow Brown, Small Heath and Ringlet. All were very active in the warm sunshine, so no photos.

First Dragonfly.

The first dragonfly of the year, a Broad Bodied Chaser, has turned up in the garden. This may or may not have emerged from my garden pond, as this species is known to wander. The larvae can take between one and three years to emerge. Their food consists of insects, small fish and tadpoles. Is that where all my tadpoles went? There isn't one to be seen now.

Broad Bodied Chaser. Click to enlarge. Photo. John Elliott  

 

 

My family are keeping me well supplied with wildlife photos to lighten the darkness of lockdown. From Hampshire comes a most unusual photo of a Hawfinch visiting my daughter's garden. These birds usually inhabit the tops of woodland trees and I wonder if its usual food supplies are scarce, so making it visit village gardens.

Hawfinch Click to enlarge.  Photo. Ryan Bundy.