High Elms Trees, part 1

Driveway at High Elms Country Park, 5 August 2013.

I recently took some photos that are intended for a forthcoming leaflet for a tree trail at High Elms Country Park.   The trees in question are mostly not native, but there are some excellent specimens around and near to the old driveway to what used to be the Holwood estate.  This top photo was a possible cover shot.

I took most of these early in the morning before the sun hit the trees.  That gave even illumination, but the sky is not very lively.  Sunshine and blue skies would be ideal, but very few of these trees are ever evenly lit by the sunshine and the patchy illumination gives a very poor result.

So, I will show some of the trees over a few posts.  I tried a few sunny shots a few days later and I will use those where possible.

 Turkey Oak, Quercus cerris.   High Elms Country Park, 23 August 2013.

This is a European oak, and is the favoured home of the Oak Processionary Moth, so it needs watching.  A great specimen!  Here are the leaves and an acorn.

 Turkey Oak leaves.   High Elms Country Park, 8 August 2013.

A developing acorn on Turkey Oak.   High Elms Country Park, 8 August 2013.

One problem with this photo set is that I could not get ideal illustrative shots of the specimens because they are at a specific stage of development; so, no young leaf buds, and in this case, no mature acorns.  And this oak has a lot of black fungus on its leaves. 

Cedar of Lebanon, Cedrus libani.  High Elms Country Park, 5 August 2013.

A tree that has many connections for historians and classicists.  This Mediterranean tree was used by the Phoenicians to build the ships in which they traded around the known world.  It was an important resource.  The Egyptians used the resin for mummification; and today it is the centrepiece of the Lebanese flag.

Cedar of Lebanon, Cedrus libani.  Foliage.  High Elms Country Park, 5 August 2013.

I couldn't find any cones to photograph on this tree.

Blue Atlas Cedar, Cedrus atlantica glauca.  High Elms Country Park, 5 August 2013.

This tree is sometimes considered to be a subspecies of the Lebanon Cedar.  It is similar in overall habit.  As you can see, this form has a conspicuous glaucous cast to the foliage.  And I found plenty of cones.

Foliage and a young cone of Blue Atlas Cedar.   High Elms Country Park, 5 August 2013

More next time ...

More Shoreham

Hoverfly, Episyrphus balteatus.  Shoreham, on 3 August 2013.

At Shoreham we saw some of my favourite hoverfly.  It's probably our commonest species, and you can see it all through the summer.   It makes a really good photo against the yellow flowers it seems to favour.

I also caught a good shot of another hoverfly:

Hoverfly, Scaeva pyrastri.  Shoreham, 3 August 2013.

Pity it was on a tatty flower!  And there were quite a few grasshoppers and crickets chirping away in the grass.  This one is a Speckled Bush-cricket.

Speckled Bush-cricket, Leptophyes punctatissima.  Female.  Shoreham, 3 August 2013.

It's a female, and that sickle-shaped projection at the back is its ovipositor.  The eggs are laid in plant stems or under tree bark, so it needs something fairly powerful to get in there.  I saw a Speckled Bush-cricket laying under oak bark last September, and that's tough stuff.

Thyme Plume, Merrifieldia leucodactyla.  Pterophoridae.  Shoreham, 3 August 2013.

This was a tiny, delicate plume moth.  They are so called because when they are at rest, their wings look almost like feathers.  When the insect perches, it rolls its wings up.  Some species have tightly-rolled wings and look like a letter T; in others, like this Thyme Plume, you can see a forking towards the tips where the fore and hind wings diverge.

Shoreham Blues

The hillside above Shoreham on 3 August 2013.

Wow, doesn't the iPhone pimp up its photographs?  But it did look good.  This was another Orpington Field Club trip, this time to a hillside above Shoreham that is known for Chalkhill Blue butterflies.  While they aren't rare, you don't see them just anywhere.

This is the same Darent Valley I showed in a post about a walk from Otford back in February.  You can see the war memorial, a white cross cut into the hillside. 

These were the butterflies we came for.

Chalkhill Blue, Lysandra coridon, on Small Scabious, Scabiosa columbaria.  3 August 2013.

At first there were a few, as well as other butterflies, insects and plants.  Then the sun went behind a cloud.  As it emerged and lit up the hillside, suddenly butterflies rose from all over the grass and started flitting about.  It was like a scene from the past, when we are assured that butterflies travelled in flocks.  There were mating pairs, too.

Chalkhill Blue, Lysandra coridon.  Mating pair.  3 August 2013.

The other butterflies included this Silver-washed Fritillary, a little tattered, that we couldn't get very close to.

Silver-washed Fritillary, Argynnis paphia.   Female.  Shoreham, 3 August 2013.

And this Large White.

Large White, Pieris brassicae, on Common Knapweed, Centaurea nigra.  Shoreham, 3 August 2013.

This is what we used to call a Cabbage White when I was young, but as there are other white butterflies that lay eggs on cabbages, Large White turns out to be a more useful name, however bland it may seem. 

Of course, there were moths too ...

Six-spot Burnet, Zygaena filipendula stephensi.  Zygaenidae.  Shoreham, 3 August 2013.

This Six-spot Burnet is a lot like a butterfly.  It flies by day, feeds the same way, and doesn't have feathery antennae.  It's very reflective.  The wings and antennae are black in the sunlight and it's only the flash that makes them look silvery or blue. 

St Paul's Cray Common

St. Paul's Cray Common, 7 August 2013.

I have had a busy few days, so I will post this current scene and then catch up with a couple from the last week or two.

This was an Orpington Field Club trip to St. Paul's Cray Common to look for insects.  The common has this area of heath, consisting of some natural heath which has been restored by pulling out the bracken, and some newly planted areas. 

The heather is mostly Ling with a few specimens of Bell Heather here and there. 

We found bees, hoverflies, butterflies, moths, wasps and other creatures.  I managed a few photos.  I do seem to have moths on the mind at the moment, but I will show a couple of creatures that aren't ...

Three hoverflies: Myathropa florea, Sphaerophoria species, Helophilus pendulus.  St Paul's Cray Common, 7 August 2013.

 Hoverflies always look good, roaming around the flowers and perching on them with wings outstretched.  These are all females.  The small one in the middle looks like a little fairy creature in the sunlight, with tiny flickering wings. 

Common Toad, Bufo bufo.  St Paul's Cray Common, 7 August 2013.

It's true that this isn't an insect, but we still liked it.  This shows up the difficulty of trying to photograph something with one hand while it attempts to escape from the other.  I like the feel of a toad in my hand; like a little cool, dry sack of liquid.  Certainly not slimy, as some people imagine.  This one really wanted to get back to its resting place under dry leaves at the base of the heather.

Argyresthia goedartella.   Argyresthiidae.   Resting on Common Nettle in Petts Wood, 7 August 2013.

And I couldn't resist this little beauty, which I saw on the way through the woods.  It's only about 6mm long, but is quite visible even so, with those gleaming golden wing scales.

Finally ...

Emperor Dragonfly, Anax imperator.  St Paul's Cray Common, 7 August 2013.

This gorgeous dragonfly was spotted roaming around the heath, and I was able to creep up to it when it came to rest and get this shot. 

The top photo is on my iPhone (so that I could email it to friends); the others were taken with my EOS 6D and 100mm macro lens with ring flash.

Mothing on Hayes Common

Hayes Common SSSI, 9:15 pm on 26 July 2013, showing the position of a moth trap.

I have been going out occasionally with a friend to set moth traps in places near our homes.  At first I didn't have a portable trap, but this year I do, so we set up two traps powered by batteries and see what we can catch.

This site is the Site of Special Scientific Interest on Hayes Common.  It looks like the middle of nowhere, but actually there's a road just on the other side of those trees, and a car park nearby. 

It's a patch of dry heath enclosed by mixed deciduous woodland, with oaks predominating.  In World War II there was an anti-aircraft battery here, and to build it, the soil - already poor - was scraped away and concrete laid.  It was removed later, but it has left a dry and slightly alkaline area. 

I was hoping for a Beautiful Yellow Underwing, whose caterpillars eat heather, but we didn't see that one.  At first we saw nothing but dozens of Caddisflies, but then the moths started to arrive, and over three hours we caught 58 different species.  Here are a few of the prettier ones ...

Black Arches, Lymantria monacha.  Hayes Common, 26 July 2013.

Maiden's Blush, Cyclophora punctaria.  Hayes Common, 26 July 2013.

Clouded Border, Lomaspilis marginata.  Hayes Common, 26 July 2013.

Scarce Silver-lines, Bena bicolorana.  Hayes Common, 26 July 2013.

Ruby Tiger, Phragmatobia fuliginosa fuliginosa.  Hayes Common, 26 July 2013.

We'll be back for more.