The Natural Stuff Diary

I visited a site where I had previously seen a huge black female adder (vipera berus)two years ago. I only saw her once but did not manage to get a photo. It was not the first black specimen that I have seen but she was the largest adder that I had ever seen. I had returned many times but had not seen her.Today I saw another smaller black female, half the size but with a blue tint to her.I had once seen blue common lizards in a small colony in mid Dorset but had not seen melanistic snakes with blue in them before. She had not shed her skin recently as she would have been brighter, but the colour was lovely. Black adders are common and the further north one goes, the greater the chance, as they can absorb more heat thus survive better in cooler climates. Melanism occurs rarely in grass snakes and even rarer in smooth snakes.

A typical male adder has bold zigzag markings on a light background, often white but occasionally brown. Black adders are usually females; this helps when she is thermo regulating and incubating her embryos, and adders as with most viper species do not lay eggs but are viviparous.In northern latitudes, depositing eggs is risky as guaranteed warmth is  patchy;it makes better sense to go to the warmth oneself and then development of young is much faster. Here is a male for comparison.

The grass snake(Natrix narix) are so different from adders.Here is a young male on the scent of a female. He is late mating or maybe did not get a chance to do so. sometimes grass snakes mate late resulting in a late clutch of eggs being layed. They often fail to hatch. They are deposited in warm vegetation such as decomposing matter such as compost heaps and manure.The third native British snake species the smooth snake (coronella austrica) also give live birth.

Here is another smaller specimen playing dead;a survival tactic.

So much rain poured through small stream systems and marshlands as the water from the surrounding hills gushed down enlarging small shallow warm pools where many species of heathland animals thrive. The ten spined stickleback(Pungitius pungitius) can live in brackish waters and although this specimen lived in fresh water.Many were flushed out and were trapped in puddles on a footpath along with three spines sticklebacks (gasterosteus aculeatus) .One specimen leaped out of the puddle in a desperate bid to escape a heron that was waiting but I found it and returned it to the main water which was just two meters away.

Also in the same puddle were several water spiders (Argyroneta aquatica). They were all females swept from their air filled bells underwater.This is the only known species of spider that lives its entire life under water.They collect surface air under their bodies and relocate it in their diving bell and stay there. they lash out at small passing animals.they also show parental care with their spiderlings.

These spiders are not to be confused with the raft spiders Dolomedes fimbriatus)Which can submerge themselves to hide from danger and partially submerge to catch other animals. They are good at running across the surface.This specimen was in the same puddle.

A  Male sand lizard basks nearby in a dryer mossy area of heath,

and a sika deer hind is concerned for the safety of her new born calf hidden amongst the gorse.

On the beach the high tide had shifted up lots of interesting shells and bits of small animals and weeds including many small hermit crabs (Pagurus bernhardus)in whelk shells.

The pretty shell of the Thin Tellin , (Tellina tenuis) lies amongst many tube worms cases.(Lanicea)or (Polymnia)

There are a number of conspicuous beetles that appear during April and May. In natural grassland ,especially short grazed chalk or neutral grassland ,beetles such as the bloody nosed beetle (Tamarcha tenebricosa) trundle around. They eat bedstraws especially goose grass. The larvae are squat and dark green with a slight metallic lustre.They are becoming increasinly scarce in many areas as natural grasslands disappear.

Below it and to the left are a pair of lesser bloody nosed beetle(Timarcha goettingensis), which live in similar habitats but prefer shorter sward and they are far less common.Their is an obvious size difference between the species and the smaller type has pitted shell rather than smooth, and the male is often more shiny than the female.

Another rare species is Chrysolina oricalcia) is also found in the same habitats and may be confused with the later species but on close observation one can see the difference. Here is a specimen with a small bloody nosed beetle on the right.

Oil beetles (Meloe brevicollis) can also be seen in the same habitats but prefer areas of longer grass with flowers, especially yellow composites. the large egg laden female lays under a plant and the larva on hatching climbs the flower stem, into the flower and waits for a female solitary bee, to hitch a lift with back to its nest and then eat its offspring and  pollen store.

There are many emperor moths(Pavonia pavonia) emerging from their overwintering cocoons of silk on our heathlands.They  are one of the silk moth species, of the saturnid group. Male and females look slightly different. Here they feed on  heathers. The female is the larger greyer looking individual.

They are rather small in comparison to many of their larger relatives throughout the rest of the world,but certainly add to the amazing variety to be found on southern heathlands.

Here are a few close ups of two lizard species to be found on the Bournemouth cliffs, the green lizard(Lacerta bilieata) and the wall lizard(Podarcis muralis). Both species will bite when handled and in the case of the green, may hold on for several minutes before releasing its vice like grip. Does it hurt ?ask Darren Naish ..it is his hand !With open mouth displaying pink, the green and yellow is contrastingly great. it’s a pity this male  did not have a blue head.Many males do have varying amounts of blue on the head sometimes the whole head is blue.Sometimes the females also have blue on them. (See another category in pictures)

The wall lizard for comparison

This male is dull as he is about to shed his skin.

The Puss moth(Cerura vinula) is a pretty whitish grey moth, very furry looking but its larvae must be one of the most bazaar and well known of moth larvae. As it grows it has an amazing defense mechanism. It pulls its head in to reveal little eye like spots and raises its hind end, revealing whip like tendrils that shoot our purple threads like a snakes tongue. the pic below shows the eggs layed by the adult moth.

And here are several hatched larvae. Some are several days old and some hatched yesterday hence the size difference.They eat sallow(Salix caprea) pussy willow.

In a week or two they will moult for the second time and become green with a purple saddle.I will then show another picture of them.

The slime mould Reticularia lycoperdon seems to be everywhere all of a sudden .All it needs is damp and mild air to fruit.

As it oosed out of the wood, it brought along with it a shed spiders skin.

The jay looks for insects and spiders on the greenhouse roof. The jay is a charismatic bird, a member of the crow family. It rarely spends more than a few seconds in any one place before sailing off to another.The bird sits making strange noises , piping, meowing and whistling little notes as well as the renown squawking.

Birds breed at different times and although birds within the northern climates tend to breed within the summer time, they vary and birds that grow slowly often breed early.Early breeders are Grey herons, Ravens, Mistle thrushes and Mallards.Many smaller birds tend to time the hatching of the eggs with the emergence of food items such as caterpillars which appear when certain tree leaves spring to life. Ravens build their nests or add to existing nests in late winter and are incubating eggs by early march. When they finish feeding the nestlings, hobbies take over the nest at the end of April,or May.Hobbies arrived very early this year with an individual seen during the first week of March and another was seen during the third week. more are on their way. Today I saw my first Red footed falcon , whizzing along Bournemouth sea cliffs as they do every spring. I saw a marsh harrier two days ago, and a red kite two weeks ago. Other migrant raptors will be following behind with black kites and ospreys . The best way to observe raptors is to listen out for the exited cries of Herring gulls. Below, a raven does a display flight at dusk.

A Great crested grebe awaits its mate on its nest.They seem to spend hours doing nothing but drifting about on the water keeping guard.

Sparrows chirp and chatter and are busy . As they are communal nesters they tend to have a hierarchy and are always fighting.here a cock and a hen check each other out.

Dunnocks are often called hedge sparrows but are not related. The cock sings from a prominent perch while his hen has just started to incubate the eggs

A dog fox hunts during the day, for voles and insects and also ground nesting birds.

The pine pollen is erupting ! watch out hay fever sufferers. The  Scots and maritime pines have copious amounts of it, and the flowers are opening.

Solitary wasps are also busy and Ammophila sabulosa has just dug a tunnel to put a paralyzed caterpillar in; she will lay one egg on it then block the hole entrance with little stones.There was a colony with hundreds of females nest building.They nest in warm sand banks.

Here are three pics of western green lizards (Lacerta biliniata). They too have had an early start.This is a male just maturing into his adult form.He already has a blue head.This species varies enormously and care must be taken when sexing the animals as females can also have blue heads and males can be finely spotted like many females.

Below is a plain green female.She looks like most males.

And here is a mottled female.It is basically a juvenile colour form that is retained by a third of the females present in this particular colony.

The wall lizard(Podarcis muralis)does not hibernate like most other reptiles that inhabit the temperate regions of the world, they can be active in cooler weather but try to use any amount of sunlight they can get.In Britain this species is not native, at least not within the near past, as we are too cold even in winter for them, but lately the animals have been thriving in various parts of the UK especially the south. the climate on the south coast is similar to northern Europe and at times is warmer as we benefit from westerly influenced weather pasterns bringing warm damp air. The race of wall lizards we have though are related to Mediterranean animals. the lizards at Bournemouth seem to do OK and are thriving in the Mediterranean like climate we have here. The brown variety of northern Europe is also present along the south coast and at different locations in Dorset. they are not colourful like this male specimen. The sand lizard (Lacerta agilis)is also active and does always hibernate.It had an early start along with the early warmer than usual weather, allowing their green colours of the male to develop much earlier than usual. In the late afternoon ,several males were basking down the setting sun.

At this time of year, the little bee (Anthophora plumipes)can be seen darting about and hovering perfectly in front of flowers .There is great sexual dimorphism among this species as there is with many species of hymenoptera, the female is very different from the male.This is a female, the male is brown and looks very different.