White Flowers in Spring Park in Spring

Wild Radish, Raphanus raphanistrum.  Spring Park, 28 April 2014.

This goes back to April, when I led a walk in Spring Park.  It was already well into the flowering season in the local woods.  Many woodland flowers come out early on, before the tree canopy can shade them out.

But this one was in the meadow below the woods.  Flowers of the Wild Radish can be yellow or white.  But if you dig them up, you won't find any tasty salad vegetables whatever their flower colour.

White-flowered English Bluebell, Hyacinthoides non-scripta.  Spring Park, 28 April 2014.

Spring Park is a lovely bluebell wood in season.  A few white-flowered plants always occur, standing out in the mass of blue.  This is a true wild English bluebell, not to be confused with the hybrid variety, often grown as a garden plant, which can also be seen in the wild as a garden escape.  You will see white and pink forms much more often among the hybrids.

Pignut, Conopodium majus.  Spring Park, 28 April 2014.

Much less common in the woods is Pignut, looking rather like a feeble Cow-parsley but with much more finely divided leaves.  It has an edible nut-like tuberous root.  I refrain from digging it up because there is so little of it here.

Three-cornered Leek or Three-cornered Garlic, Allium triquetrum.  Spring Park, 28 April 2014.

This is quite another story.  It's an invasive plant which is against the law to spread.  This small stand is at the top of the wood and I took half of it home to eat.  It has a mild garlicky flavour and the whole plant is edible.  You just need to be careful and wash any wild-gathered plants thoroughly, because of dog walkers and the like.

Ramsons, Allium ursinum.  Spring Park, 4 May 2014.

Coincidentally, these Ramsons are also garlic-flavoured edible plants, but these are natural inhabitants of our ancient woods and should not be picked. 

Narrow-Leaved Water-plantain, Alisma lanceolatum.  Spring Park, 4 May 2014.

Narrow-leaved Water Plantains grow in a pond at the bottom of the wood.  It is a construct, made a decade ago where it is thought there used to be a pond long ago.  It is fed by one of the springs that give the wood its name.

Three-nerved Sandwort, Moehringia trinervia.  Spring Park, 4 May 2014.

The Three-nerved Sandwort looks very much like the common Chickweed that grows everywhere in suburbia.  It has five leaf veins seen from above, but from below, specially on the new leaves, three veins are prominent.

There are other white-flowered plants than these, but this is all for now!

Queendown Warren, May

Adonis Blue, Lysandra bellargus.  Queendown Warren with the Orpington Field Club, 24 May 2014.

I am well behind posting about various trips and photos, so here are some, not necessarily in date order.  These photos are from Queendown Warren, a nature reserve on the chalk grassland that is so productive in Kent.  The walk was organised by Irene Palmer and led by the local warden, Selwyn Dennis.

These butterflies, Adonis Blues, have males that are just a bit more sky-blue than our other blue species.  They are not at all common.  The caterpillar feeds only on Horseshoe Vetch.  Specialised feeding requirements lead to rarity all too often.  In other ways they are very like Common Blues:

Common Blue pair mating.  Polyommatus icarus.  Queendown Warren with the Orpington Field Club, 24 May 2014.

With very similar underwing patterning. 

The reserve, a fairly plain hillside in a panoramic view, was full of colourful sights closer up.

Leaf Beetle, Cryptocephalus aureolus.  Queendown Warren with the Orpington Field Club, 24 May 2014.

Yellow Bulbous Buttercups with iridescent green Cryptocephalus leaf beetles.  One of the fields on the opposite hillside was covered with these buttercups.

Meadow Clary, Salvia pratensis, with bumblebee, Bombus pascuorum.
Queendown Warren with the Orpington Field Club, 24 May 2014.

A purplish-blue wild Salvia, another scarce species, being investigated by a bumblebee, Bombus pascuorum.

Scoparia pyralella.  Queendown Warren with the Orpington Field Club, 24 May 2014.

Several small colourful moths in the hedgerows.  This one is a bit over 1 cm long.

You can see more photos from this trip in Irene Palmer's write-up of the visit on the Orpington Field Club website, here: Orpington Field Club Visit to Queendown Warren.

Hound's-tongue, Cynglossum officinale.  Queendown Warren with the Orpington Field Club, 24 May 2014.

Another Wood

Stream in the woods behind Queen Victoria Hospital, near East Grinstead.  21 May 2014.

I took a friend for a minor surgery at a hospital near East Grinstead.  While it was being carried out, I walked around some woods that I had scoped out on the map, not far from the hospital.  At first I was clearly in a suburban wood, near houses and often finding the borders.  But then I moved further out and found a less civilised area.  This dark stream was well inside the wood.

Bridge in the woods behind Queen Victoria Hospital, near East Grinstead.  21 May 2014.

I followed the stream along to find this bridge.  I had to climb over some fencing to get to the path, which suggests that I had entered private land somewhere earlier on.  Probably when I departed from this same path to explore off to one side.

Viaduct in the woods behind Queen Victoria Hospital, near East Grinstead.  21 May 2014.

Soon afterwards, the path passed under this massive Victorian viaduct.  I had crossed over this railway on a narrow road bridge half an hour earlier.  This is quite an imposing structure, and not something I would normally find deep in a wood!

Road sign near Holtye Road, near East Grinstead. 21 May 2014.

Out of the wood, I walked along the roads to get back to the hospital.  This sign marked the return to a built-up area.  To me, this sign means "Thanks for having driven carefully for a while, you can stop now."  I have to think to work out that it is probably meant to suggest that I should now start to drive carefully.  Or possibly, continue to do so.  As I was on foot, it missed its mark either way.

Some less ordinary Hayes moths

Peach Blossom, Thyatira batis.  Thyatiridae.  In my garden light trap in Hayes on 7 June 2014.

Now it's getting more towards Summer, more interesting moths are turning up in my trap.  This Peach Blossom has, when it's fresh, a peach blush in the white spots towards the end of its wings.  This is a nice fresh specimen.  This is always a cheerful sight, with its subtle yet definite colour and furry shoulders.

Bird's Wing, Dypterygia scabriuscula.  Noctuidae.  In my garden light trap in Hayes on 12 June 2014.  Side view.

This is a much more sombre moth, but its patterning is startling.  Viewed from the side like this, you can see the crests on its thorax.

Bird's Wing, Dypterygia scabriuscula.  Noctuidae.  In my garden light trap in Hayes on 12 June 2014.  Top view.

From above, you can see where the English name comes from.  I only had one worn specimen of this last year, so it was good to see this fresh one.

Buff-tip, Phalera bucephala, Notodontidae,  with two Flames, Axylia putris, Noctuidae.
In my garden balcony light trap in Hayes on 15 June 2014.

Two moths from different families that have the same type of camouflage, resembling broken twigs.  The Buff-tip, the larger one, is especially good at this and looks just like a piece of a Silver Birch.

I have half a dozen different pieces of bark that I place moths on for photos, and these are posed by me, not natural stances.  In fact I also moved the left-hand Flame closer in using Photoshop.  But the moths themselves are just as they came, untouched by electronic magic.

More Creatures from High Elms

Scorpion Fly, Panorpa species.  Male.  High Elms Country Park, 26 May 2014.

Some more creatures from the grass and hedges at High Elms.  This Scorpion Fly gets its common name from the male reproductive organ, which is curved forward over its back rather like a scorpion's sting; but it can't sting and is completely harmless.

Scorpion Fly, Panorpa species.  Female.  High Elms Country Park, 25 May 2014.

 Here's a female, and you can see that the tail is very different.  They don't bite people with those long mouthparts either, though they will scavenge weak or dead insects.  They can be spotted flitting among the leaves of brambles and nettles in hedgerows.

Leafhopper.  Elymana species.  High Elms Country Park, 26 May 2014.

It's hard to make out the features of these leafhoppers until you get very close.  They are bugs - insects with specialised sucking mouthparts, which they use to extract the sap from the plants they feed on. 

Oedemera nobilis.  Male.  High Elms Country Park, 25 May 2014.

This bright green beetle feeds on pollen.  It's ignoring the dead fly right next to it.  It's sometimes called the large-thighed beetle, or variants, for obvious reasons.  Only the male has those swellings, but it's not hard to identify the females.  Nothing else looks quite like this, with that shiny exoskeleton and the wing cases that don't quite cover the wings.

High Elms, May 2014

Dingy Skipper, Erynnis tages.  High Elms Country Park, 15 May 2014.

A few more photos from High Elms in May.  (The Friends of High Elms are putting some of my photos on their web site.)  This one is a Dingy Skipper which I had to get right down on the ground to take.  It was basking, and quite happy not to fly off as I got close.  I don't know why, but they are much more nervous when they are skipping between the greenery and feeding.

Cantharis Rustica, mating pair.  High Elms Country Park, 15 May 2014.

That dark blotch on the orange pronotum of these Cantharids looks like a heart from above, and that view might make a good valentine card if people liked beetles at all.  But generally they don't!

This is also another illustration of something I've said before, that many shiny beetles are actually quite hairy close to.

Green Hairstreak, Callophrys rubi, on Crosswort, Cruciata laevipes.  High Elms Country Park, 15 May 2014.

Our greenest butterfly.  Those wing scales are very reflective, and it will not open its wings when resting.  The top surface of them is actually brown.  Its other annoying habit is that it turns to face anyone who gets near.  It makes it easy to get this sort of mug shot, hard to get any other sort of photo!

Finally ...

Jumping Spider, Salticidae.  High Elms Country Park, 15 May 2014.

Jumping spiders are very alert little creatures.  They have excellent eyesight and they move in quick little jerks.  It can be quite disturbing to see one suddenly whip round and stare right back at you.  It makes your interaction seem a lot more personal.

As well as the forward-facing eyes you see here, they have two on the outer side edges of their cephalothorax, so they can easily see movement to their sides and above.