Crofton Heath, April.

A burnt patch at the west edge of the wood.  7 April 2012.

Another outing with the Orpington Field Club, and once again it was overcast with the likelihood of rain. In fact there were a few spots, but no serious wetness. Given that we are in a drought and there are hosepipe bans, I would have hoped for some better weather for these trips.

Crofton Heath connects several differently named woods, including Sparrow Wood, which I walked through part of in March last year.   The top photo shows a patch at the edge of the wood which had burnt sometime in the last few days. There was no serious damage, but if it spread this far it shows that the wood might be vulnerable to a larger fire, especially if there is a hot dry spell.

These woods are right next to suburbia, with gardens backing onto them in several places, and garden refuse has clearly been dumped around the edges. This plant is one result.

Variegated Yellow Archangel, Lameastrum galeobdolon ssp. argentatum.  7 April 2012.

It's a variegated subspecies of a very pretty dead-nettle that is found in ancient woodlands, the Yellow Archangel, but this garden variety is very vigorous and invasive and not really welcome in the woods. There were some genuine indicators of ancient woodland scattered around, though; lots of Wood Anemones and English bluebells, and some large patches of Wood Sorrel.

Wood Sorrel, Oxalis axetosella.  7 April 2012.

It was interesting to see some small shrubs of Midland Hawthorn in flower.

Midland Hawthorn, Crataegus laevigata.  7 April 2012.

Unlike the common Hawthorn, there are two or sometimes three seeds in each berry on this shrub, and although the camera has not captured much detail in the flowers you can just about see two distinct styles in this one.  Each style will produce a seed.  The leaf shape is also different, but the two styles are the best diagnostic feature in the absence of an actual berry.

It was still early spring, and only a few flowers could be seen. It was cool, so few insects were about, though I did see a couple of queen bumblebees, Bombus lucorum, and a moth flitted past at one point too fast to be identified. There were some odd pieces of old brick and concrete work in places, near a site which was once an isolation hospital, and near the entrance to the woods was this sign, in Victorian metalwork:

A metal sign saying "Isleworth Blue School Governors", on the edge of Gumping Common.  7 April 2012.

This is surprising An Isleworth Blue School does exist, but it is on the far side of London and the connection isn't obvious.  Perhaps they had some long-lost investment in these woods.

The last photo for today is a closeup of some fungus found on the underside of a fallen branch.

Split Porecrust, Schizopora paradoxa.  7 April 2012.

This photo was taken by incident light, falling at an angle, and the structure of the pores shows up much better than my ring flash would have done, though for most of these pics I longed for my SLR, but given the weather forecast I didn't take it with me.  It would have brought out much better detail in the white flowers.  The first four photos were taken with my iPhone, and the last two with my Ixus 100.

Mining Bees

Yellow-legged Mining Bee, Andrena flavipes.  Male by an occupied hole.  Keston Common, 29 March 2012.

I went back to the spot where I saw a Cuckoo-bee two days earlier. Near the stand of Gorse where I saw that bee is some hard, flat, sandy ground, well walked upon, which is ideal home territory for mining bees. Movement low down caught my eye, and I was pleased to see several bees flying low to the ground. Then I looked around and pleasure became wonder as I saw that there were several hundred individuals, all in the same small area.

They seemed to be males, and I was pretty sure that they were Andrena flavipes, confirmed later when I saw a female with the distinctive tuft of hair on the back leg, used for collecting pollen.

This I.D. ties in with the Cuckoo-bee I had seen nearby, which was of a species that parasitises this particular bee. I caught glimpses of two more Cuckoo-bees flying among these mining bees, but was unable to get a photo as some passers-by were asking me about the bees at the time!

Yellow-legged Mining Bee, Andrena flavipes.  Three males and a female in a rather busy mating attempt.

When I did see a female, a male arrived almost immediately and tried to mate. Very quickly, more males arrived. In this photo, there are two on the female and a third is flying up.

Yellow-legged Mining Bee, Andrena flavipes.  A bundle of males and one female.

At this point I don't think the mating is going very well. But at least you can clearly see the tuft of yellow hair on the female's back leg.

Cuckoo Bee

Cuckoo Bee, Nomada fucata, on Gorse.  Keston Ponds, 27 March 2012.

I was sure this was a wasp when I photographed it, but it is actually a bee.  Bees of this Nomada genus are known as Cuckoo Bees. They lay an egg in the brood cell of another species of bee, in this case a solitary bee called Andrena flavipes, the Yellow-legged Mining Bee. When the egg hatches the Nomada larva kills the host larva and eats the food stored by the host bee. This sort of behaviour is not rare in insects, and a quick early death is far from the most unpleasant fate that could befall the victims.

Species that steal the food stored by their victims are called cleptoparasites.

Oak Tree In Mist

Oak tree in mist on Hayes Common, 15 March 2012.

No reason for this except it's one of my favourite trees and one of my favourite subjects. I'd like to get some more of that fence into the shot, but I would have to stand on top of a parked car.

Jay

Jay, Garrulus glandarius, perched on a garden fence in Hayes.  28 March 2012.

I'm not a bird person, but this Jay sat on a garden fence where I could see it from my armchair through the open back door. I watched it for a while, but it seemed to be staying put, so I had to do something or it would have felt like a missed opportunity.  I fetched my binoculars and watched it close up for a while more.  Then I went for my camera and a long lens, sat down again and took some shots. I have never seen a Jay sit still for so long.  Usually I see them working their way along the gardens in the morning, sitting like this for a few seconds on each fence until they have analysed the feeding potential of the garden, then moving on.

Improvements in Butterfly Photography

A Brimstone butterfly, Hayes Common, 1 April 2011.

Brimstone, Gonepteryx rhamni.  Butterfly.  Hayes Common, 26 March 2012.

A Cryptic Bumblebee

Bombus cryptarum queen.  Bumblebee.  Hayes Common, 23 March 2012.

A cryptic species is one which can't be told apart from another species by casual examination. Upon discovery, what was thought to be one species is then split by various tricksy criteria into two or more. That happened to the bumblebee "species" Bombus lucorum, which is common in the UK.

It is now thought by some to be actually perhaps three species, which mostly can't be separated by sight.  But queens of this one, Bombus cryptarum, can supposedly be identified visually in this way: a small black mark extending up into their yellow collar from the base of the wing. This is all still quite contentious, and you will note the caution of my language, but the experts would tentatively put this specimen down as B. cryptarum pending evidence to the contrary.

It wasn't me who spotted this one, but a bumblebee expert on the iSpot site.  I had thought it was B. lucorum.  I photographed it because I thought it was looking for a nesting site, but actually it seems to be feeding on something from the ground.  This is serendipity.

For comparison, here's a similar queen without the mark, so it's the original Bombus lucorum (we hope!) You can also see that it has a couple of passengers, ticks buried in its shoulder fur.  They are hitching a lift to the nest, where they eat debris.

Bombus lucorum queen on gorse.  Bumblebee.  Hayes Common, 23 March 2012.