Peter Jones Wildlife blog

A maxi-beast today! The Beluga, first seen on the Thames on Tuesday, fortunately stayed until the weekend when I could take a look, and showed well on Saturday morning. Seemed at home in the estuary, albeit hundreds of miles south of their normal range. Managed a short clip of it surfacing, which was extremely difficult. The fast current and infrequent surfacing made it tough. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-EWKCXrIvM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-EWKCXrIvM

Spent a couple of days in East Anglia. Willow Emerald Damselfly, and Water Shrew the targets. The weather took a turn for the worse before I left, which almost caused me to cancel, but I took the gamble. Saturday at Titchwell was very bleak, and it was starting to look like the Damselfly, known to have colonised part of the reserve, would not show. Luckily, late morning, the sun broke through, and after half an hour or so, the sun finally emerged into a patch of blue sky, and dragonflies suddenly appeared everywhere. A Willow Emerald soon followed, and I watched it land. Good views were had, not so good photos obtained, and it stayed on this branch all day, giving others the chance to see it. Very lucky! Sunday at RSPB Fowlmere failed to turn up a Water Shrew, but I did find Brown Trout and Signal Crayfish in the small river, and a Weasel near the car park.

A good week continues, with a nice Otter sighting locally, followed by Many Daubenten's Bats on my annual Waterways Bat survey. Daubenten's are quite distinctive in their flight style, skimming over calm waters just a few centimetres above the surface.

News of Water Shrews showing well at RSPB Fowlmere had me heading there for Bank Holiday Monday. I managed to miss them first thing before I arrived, and spent most day fruitlessly waiting for them to reappear. Plenty of Dragonflies though with several Migrant Hawkers, and a Brown Hawker, plus Sparrowhawk and Hobby. Highlight of the day was a Stoat running wild outside the hide for a couple of minutes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8v7Crp_hss&feature=share

A week spent camping at Val de Bonnal in Eastern France. Lots of lakes and a river meant plenty of Dradgonflies, 14 or 15 species seen in the week, the best being Green-eyed Pincertail, and Goblet-marked Damselfly, both new for me, plus Scarlet Darter. Queen of Spain Fritillary and Heath Fritillary were seen well, plus a few Grasshoppers and Bush-Crickets which I think I have identified correctly. Common Wall Lizards allowed close up photos, one actually ran under the camera when it sensed danger! https://photos.app.goo.gl/GwYjkbfKt8r97gfWA

No photos today, but started the day at the Most pond, Thursley Common. A renowned spot for Brilliant Emerald. Sure enough, saw three or four, high over the trees. Look like a dazzling insect, so hopefully better views one day. Also Downy Emeralds in the sky.. Slightly smaller, duller, and the elevated abdomen giving them a totally different appearance. Quite bizarre to be confidently identifying such similar species, at such long range. An Emerald was showing around the bank of the lake, but this was a Downy.

Some very smart Green-veined Whites at Ladle Hill this week.

Plenty of Butterflies out in the New Forest. Silver Studded Blue, in good numbers on the heaths. Photo shows the "silver studs", i.e. tiny blue dots inside the black circles on the hindwing. A test of how good your eyesight is for sure. I'm also seeing Sundew, in the boggy areas, an insectivorous plant, so counts as a mini-beast!

Spent a hot Sunday afternoon on a Nature reserve near Alton, which was packed with Orchids. Common Spotted and Pyramidal were most numerous, plus a small number of Fragrant Orchids. New species for me were Common Twayblade, which were in decent numbers, a Fly OPrchid which was sadly just past it's best, plus the tiny Musk Orchid, which is about 2 inches high, and the similarly diminutive Frog Orchid. Two other Orchid watchers kindly showed me the Fly and the Frog. I'd have never found them on my own! https://photos.app.goo.gl/zRZ6SVWNtNuY3GCi9

Ventured into Devon through the week to hopefully catch up with three new Butterfly species for me. All so rare, that realistically you have to travel to known colonies to see them. Heddon Valley, is managed for High Brown Fritillary, and I eventually saw a handful. Difficult at first to nail the key features, but managed to get photos verifying the extra row of underwing spots, and the off-centre dot on the upperwing. Very smart Butterflies. I also saw a Small Pearl Bordered Fritillary, Smal Copper, and Green Hairstreak. On to Haddon Hill, where the Heath Fritillaries were quite abundant, managed 1 cracking photo of a pretty smart individual, which was lucky, as they weren't the easiest to photrograph. Finished off at Collard Hill. Plenty of Large Blues at this introduction site, and also Common Blue (Beware!), Painted Lady, and Small Tortoiseshell. Not often you get a 100% success rate when "twitching"! https://photos.app.goo.gl/GoGwrJfWcm1CJC957

A failed attempt for Common Clubtail Dragonfly on the River Thames, but I was treated to nice views of a Little Owl hunting. Don't see many in the Test Valley, they are about, but not often as blatant as this one.

A Narrow-bordered five-spot Burnet Moth, in Brittany

The most memorable New Forest Reptile survey I have done so far, this morning. An Adder on top of one of the survey refuge sheets gave me good photos, while I decided how I'm supposed to look underneath the sheet! Fortunately, the snake moved on. Also, my first Smooth Snake, a young one only about 15 cm long, and a first for the survey area, which was a big surprise. 3 Grass Snake, Common Lizard and Slow Worm too, so 5 out of the 6 native Reptile species seen in one morning. Also Dartford Warblers and Nightjar.

A nice surprise in the garden yesterday as a female Demoiselle landed briefly in our small apple tree, before flying up into Wysteria where I got the photo. Unlike the males, female Demoiselles are pretty difficult to identify. I'm pretty sure, with the brown wings, that this is a Female Beautiful Demoiselle. Nearest population of this species, that I know of is about a mile down the stream which runs past the house. They would be more than welcome to colonise the stream outside our house! Also, two Large Red Damselflies were in the garden yesterday.

Water Vole in a small stream in Campsite, Brittany https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WL9vcv0A_Ek&feature=share

Have just returned from a family holiday in Carantec, Brittany. Spent some time searching for wildlife around the campsite, which was fairly intensely farmed, with a couple of small lakes, streams, and seashore. The weather was also pretty changeable which made things difficult, but I found a small selection of birds and insects throughout the week. Actually, the best of the wildlife was seen on the round trip to and from France.. a Nightjar over the car park at Newhaven just after dusk was a super start to the week, and Bottlenose Dolphins on the return ferry (out of St. Malo were also pretty good) Best of the birds in Brittany were Serin, Turtle Dove, Med Gulls, and Cetti's Warbler. Butterflies were fairly thin on the ground with Red Admiral, Painted Lady and Speckled Wood the most numerous. A stream running thru the fairly large campsite had a family of Water Voles. I think we were the only people who saw them out of the dozens of other tourists! The nearby lake had both Marsh F...

Another Reptile survey in the New Forest, my license runs for the 1st half of the month, so I get a break now until June. Today's survey was quiet sadly, with just a fleeting glimpse of a Common Lizard. Hot days perhaps not the best for surveys. I did, however, find a couple of nice insects: a Pine Ladybird, which is a fairly small species, with comma shaped red marks; and also a Dor Beetle.

Another moth trap session last night, but with fairly limited results. 1 Brimstone , a couple of worn looking pugs. Smartest moth was a Small Phoenix, photo below, and a Micro moth which I initially struggled to identify. However, shining a torch on the moth brought out all the colour, and I was able to identify it as an Esperia Sulphurella!

Mild weather recently, so I have run the moth trap in the garden a few nights. Haven't ran the trap so early in the year before, so I got a few new ones. A selection of pics below.. Satellite, Lunar Marbled Brown, Brindled Beauty, Frosted Green, Lesser Swallow Prominent, and Muslin.

A pretty good reptile survey in the New Forest this morning. My allocated survey is 3x1 km with 40 artificial refugia to look under, so it takes awhile. The weather today was furiously hot! so not ideal, and I was conscious of this when I started out. With hindsight, I started a little too early, and also spent too much time surveying into the sun. But these are little mistakes I can iron out through the season. Best of the sightings under Refugia were an Adder inches away from a Toad! and several Slow Worms. A fast moving stream had a Palmate Newt, and what I presume was an Eel!, and a nearby pond was packed with Palmate Newts. Nice to watch them under the surface. There is something relaxing about Newts! Elsewhere, a Common Heath Moth was a first for me, and plenty of birds including Dartford Warbler, Curlew, Snipe, Lapwing, Hobby, Tree Pipit and Willow Warbler.