Strensall Common with Hull Nats

A warm and humid day with welcome, scattered clouds. We start our walk from the railway line crossing car park. There are several clumps of creeping thistle buzzing with insects, including a diverse cast of butterflies. The common is very dry, we walk on two board walks over a parched landscape, which was probably wet in the winter. An area shows the signs of fire, black ground, birches and pines with the purple moorgrass sprouting, two paths appear to have acted as firebreakers. I stand on the path and point the bat detector to the burnt area: silence. I turn round and point at the chugging calls of the Bog Bush crickets on the other non burnt side.

Small Skipper.

Meadow Brown.

Large White.

Large Skipper.

Comma.

There is a ditch with tussocks of Purple Moorgrass by the car park. I have a look before we all assemble and quickly find a Long-winged Conehead nymph and a Bog Bush Cricket. There are also Common Green and Meadow Brown Grasshoppers. My bat detector allows me to hear the reeling of a Roesel's and chugging of Bog Bush-crickets.

Long-winged Conehead nymph.

Bog Bush-cricket.

Meadow Grasshopper.

Female Bog Bush-cricket.

Sandy coloured Bog Bush cricket female.

We are lucky enough to witness a female Bog Bush-cricket nymph moulting. The whole process is quite fast. The next three photos illustrate it.

Moulting Bog Bush-cricket.

We are moving very slowly indeed and we reach the following car park after an hour and a half. There the heath is under open woodland and there seems to be more nymphs than adults, in large numbers. I stop trying to record each Bog Bush-cricket I see. This one got its antennae entangled and was trying to sort them out.

Female nymph Bog Bush-cricket.

Lesser Spearwort.

Round-leaved Sundew.

Eyed Ladybird, netted by Bill Dolling.

We move onto Worlds End Wood, where we go to a large pond. An Emperor lands on a birch during a cloudy spell. 

Four spotted chaser.

Labyrinth Spider.

Brown Hawker ovipositing.

Ruddy Darter.

Emerald Damselfly.

Large Red Damselfly.

A Bog Bush-cricket male by the pond. I found they were singing even from bracken areas with Molinia underneath.

Mottled Grasshopper.

An unfortunate Common Green Grasshopper fallen prey to a Labyrinth spider.

Common Green Grasshopper is plentiful around the common, here on a sandy path.

It was very quiet on the bird front. Of note were some fledgling Stonechats on the large bracken patch and a Reed Bunting.

Stonechat juvenile.

Reed Bunting.

East Park and Rockford Fields LNR in October

 

A warm and sunny mid October day, my initial plan today was to get the bus to Asda and walk to Noddle Hill to survey bush-crickets, but the bus strike put an end to that, and I decided to walk to East Park instead. A Black Swan had been in residence since Thursday, and I had never had one in Hull, so that was the excuse, and also, who needs an excuse to go to East Park, there is always something interesting going on.

The pair of Great Crested Grebes are still about.

Two Shovelers by the central island.

There were two Mute Swans looking ill, this one swam with eyes closed and neck feathers raised. A juvenile didn't look well either. I wonder if bird flu?

Ill juvenile Mute Swan.

Black Swan close up.

The Black Swan, which looked like a juvenile was interested on the Mute Swans.

The long resident drake Gadwall was easy to find today as it was very vocal. It was calling next to a female mallard, who was keeping a close eye on a passing buzzard.

Gadwall and mallard.

The fly-over buzzard with a very full crop.

I was surprised to see a Goosander, looking like it was still moulting, maybe a juvenile?

The only ringed gull I saw today was a Black-headed Gull from a Danish ringing scheme, previously seen by Wes Payne at East Park 'ZKC - ringed in 2009 as 3y+, making it at least 17! It looks like a true urban bird with all 38 previous sightings in Copenhagen during spring/summer.'

Three Migrant Hawkers were active by the boardwalk.

Red Admiral on Ivy blossom.

I checked for terrapins in the usual places, but it was only at 13:25 when I was on my way back that I spotted a male Cooter on an old Coot's nest by the central island.

As I headed back it was balmy, had to take my coat off. I peeked behind the tree trunk at Rockford Fields and counted 12 Long-winged coneheads, most of them females, basking, also a few Lesser Marsh Grasshoppers and Roesel's calling, although I failed to see any.

Long-winged conehead.

Lesser Marsh Grasshopper.

Long-winged Conehead inspecting her ovipositor.

Long-winged Coneheads.

Two Pied Wagtails by Wilmington Bridge.