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A Suffolk Lane

~ A diary of my life in rural north Suffolk.

A Suffolk Lane

Tag Archives: common darter

Home from Abroad

27 Wed Jul 2016

Posted by Clare Pooley in family, Insects, music, plants, Rural Diary, trees, wild flowers

≈ 57 Comments

Tags

agrimony, butterflies, clouds, common darter, common knapweed, Diary, dragonflies, Field Beans, gatekeeper, Great Willowherb, hedge bindweed, lane, Lords and Ladies, Marsh Woundwort, Meadowsweet, ponds, ringlet, ruddy darter, scarlet pimpernel, spear thistle, Suffolk, Sweet Chestnut, thunderstorm, wild flowers, yarrow

We arrived back home last Wednesday after spending eight days in the Schwarzwald (Black Forest).  It was probably the hottest day of the year so far and we spent it travelling by train up from Triberg, Germany to Ebbsfleet in Kent (England) where we had left our car.  We set off from the hotel at 6.30 am European time and got home just after 7.00 pm British time (one hour behind Europe).  The car thermometer said it was 32C (89.5F) when we set off from Kent and it peaked at 34C (93F) near the tunnel at the Dartford Crossing (under the Thames).  As we drove home up through Essex and Suffolk we watched large black clouds to the west edging ever nearer and we hoped we’d be able to get home before the storm got to us.  We did.  It was still 32C as we unpacked the car, opened all the windows and doors in the house and wandered round the garden for a while looking at the long grass and the drooping plants.  While I put the kettle on and made a cup of tea Richard telephoned the Chinese restaurant in Halesworth and ordered a take-away meal.  He was just about to set off when the storm broke.  It was the most violent one I’ve seen for many years with continuous thunder and bolts of lightening coming down vertically and travelling horizontally across the sky.  The rain was very heavy indeed.  Elinor and I sat on the stairs together as she gets quite frightened during thunderstorms and Richard went off to collect our evening meal.  The storm gradually abated and the sky cleared but still Richard hadn’t come back and I began to worry about him.  I found his phone which he had left behind so I couldn’t get in touch to find out where he was.  I was considering getting in the car and going to look for him when I was relieved to see him driving up to the house.  He had had a hair-raising journey and when he had got to Halesworth he found that the Chinese restaurant had a power-cut and couldn’t give us a meal.  They had tried to phone him on his mobile to let him know, but of course he had left it at home.  The town’s Thoroughfare was flooded with a foot of water and people were out trying to sweep the water away from the shop doors.  Water was coming up through the drains and the town river was in full spate.  Richard didn’t lose his head and knew he had a mission to accomplish so went to the other Chinese restaurant at the top of the town which hadn’t lost it’s power and ordered our meal from them instead.

When the rain stopped I went outside to enjoy the fresh, cooler air and took some photographs of the strange clouds.

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The following day I resumed my dutiful-daughter job and took Mum out to do her shopping.  We had bought double her usual amount of shopping just before we’d gone away and we had made sure she had enough of her medication to last as well.  While we were on our holiday she had been taken to church by my brother on the Sunday and he had cooked lunch for her at his house, so she had plenty to tell me.

When I got home again I got on with the washing and started to tidy the garden.  Richard and I called in to see our next-door-neighbours who had been kind enough to water the plants in the greenhouse and to put our rubbish bins out for collection while we were away.  We are very fortunate to have such thoughtful and generous neighbours.

The next day I continued with house and garden work.

P1000897Scarlet Pimpernel

Scarlet Pimpernel (Anagallis arvensis ssp.arvensis) found behind the greenhouse

P1000899Marsh Woundwort

Marsh Woundwort (Stachys palustris) found growing on the bank of the big pond.

P1000900Common Darter

I think this may be a male Common Darter (Sympetrum striolatum) though it could be a male Ruddy Darter (Sympetrum sanguineum)

P1000902Spear Thistle

A Spear Thistle (Cirsium vulgare) in flower near the big pond

P1000905Ringlet

A rather old and tired Ringlet butterfly (Aphantopus hyperantus)

P1000908Hedge Bindweed

Hedge Bindweed (Calystegia sepium) in flower in the area between our garden and the field at the back of the house.

P1000910Common Darter

I believe this may be a female Common Darter (Sympetrum striolatum)

P1000914Sweet Chestnut

Our Variegated Sweet Chestnut (Castanea sativa variegatum) in flower

P1000915Sweet Chestnut

Sweet Chestnut flowers

I walked down the lane with Elinor to post birthday cards to my niece Natalie (my brother’s daughter) who had her 31st birthday on the 23rd of July and cards to Alice my elder daughter who had her 31st birthday on the 24th of July.  Natalie is exactly 23 hours older than Alice.

P1000916Darter

This is a teneral, or newly emerged dragonfly as you can see by the pale colouring and very shiny wings. I don’t know which dragonfly it is, unfortunately. It is perched on a Great Willowherb (Epilobium hirsutum) growing in the ditch at the side of the lane.

P1000917Pond

The new pond at the side of the lane which was dug during the winter.

Richard spoke to the man who lives on the opposite side of the lane to the pond and who was responsible for digging it.  Apparently, many years ago there was a pond there which was wide enough and deep enough to enable the horses to be led to drink while still attached to their carts.  It was filled in when horses were no longer needed on the farm but it has now been re-instated and I am very pleased.  The pond is already full of interesting plants and insects which have found their way there on their own.

P1000921Lane

Our lane. I am standing next to the pond (on my left) and looking back in the direction from which we had come.

P1000922Perhaps wall of demolished St N church

Looking over the hedge into the garden of Church Farm I noticed this piece of wall covered in ivy. I wonder if it is part of the old church of St Nicholas demolished many hundreds of years ago.

P1000923Lords and Ladies

Lots of unripe Lords and Ladies berries (Arum maculatum)

P1000924Field beans

A field full of Field or Broad Beans.

P1000925Pond

Another pond at the side of the lane. This one has become rather overgrown. It has fish in it and I once saw a couple sitting at the side of the road with rods trying to catch fish.

P1000926View

View across the fields towards All Saints church which can just be seen to the right of centre on the horizon. It is slightly obscured by a thistle flower!

P1000928Common Knapweed

Common Knapweed (Centaurea nigra)

P1000932Yarrow

Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)

P1000930Wild flowers-001

Wild flowers at the side of the lane.

P1000931Agrimony-001

Agrimony (Agrimonia eupatoria)

P1000934Meadowsweet

Meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria)

P1000935Meadowsweet

Meadowsweet has a beautiful almond-blossom-like fragrance.

P1000939Gatekeeper

A poor photo of a male Gatekeeper butterfly (Pyronia tithonus)

These were all the things I saw at the side of the lane on a short 20 minute walk to post cards.

Here now is my musical choice – the Petite Symphonie in B flat for nine wind instruments by Charles Gounod, composed in 1888.  It lasts about 20 minutes and is of four movements.  I love the lyricism of French 19th century music and I like this recording of the piece very much.  It is a piece of music I used to play and it brings back such good memories to me when I hear it.

Thanks for visiting!

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A Suffolk Garden in July – Insects Part 2

17 Sun Aug 2014

Posted by Clare Pooley in Insects, Rural Diary

≈ 22 Comments

Tags

Black-tailed Skimmer, Broad-bodied Chaser, comma, common blue damselfly, common darter, emperor dragonfly, Four-spotted Chaser, gatekeeper, greenbottle, House Spider, insects, Large Skipper, large white butterfly, leopard slug, meadow brown, micro moth, red admiral, robber fly, Roesel's bush-cricket, ruddy darter, small white butterfly, Suffolk

At last, I am now ready to finish showing you all the insects I saw last month.  As with Part 1 of this post, all the insects shown here were photographed in my garden unless otherwise stated.

For most of the month the garden was full of these dragonflies –

047Ruddy Darter (640x427)

Ruddy Darter

003Ruddy darter (640x427)

Ruddy Darter

Female Meadow Brown butterflies are brighter than the males which often have no orange on them at all.  There were plenty of Meadow Brown butterflies but I never managed to get a clear photo of one with its wings open.  This photo will have to do.

048Meadow Brown (640x427)

Meadow Brown

With its wings closed, the Gatekeeper butterfly can be confused with the Meadow Brown.

056Gatekeeper on scabious (640x427)

Male Gatekeeper on Scabious flower

The main difference between the two butterflies is the Gatekeeper has two white spots in the eye on the fore-wing but the Meadow Brown has only one.  The underside of the Gatekeeper’s hind-wing is slightly more patterned.

057Gatekeeper on scabious (640x427)

Gatekeeper on Scabious flower

The Gatekeeper is more orange than the Meadow Brown.  The male Gatekeeper has a central patch of dark scent scales that is lacking in the female.  Gatekeepers are very territorial and patrol their home patch, a gateway or stretch of hedgerow, seeing off any rivals.

006Gatekeeper (640x427)

Male Gatekeeper on Common Nettle

A Red Admiral butterfly is, like the Meadow Brown, difficult to photograph with its wings open.

014Red Admiral (640x427)

Red Admiral on Buddleia

021Red Admiral (640x427)

Red Admiral on Buddleia

018Red admiral (640x427)

Red Admiral on Buddleia

At this time of year the garden is always full of Small and Large White butterflies.   Fortunately for us, we don’t often grow brassicas and my lovely blue Chicory, which the caterpillars of both white butterflies found tasty, died a while ago.

008MSmall White (640x427)

I think this is a Male Small White butterfly

008White butterfly on buddleja (640x427)

I think this is a male Large White butterfly

I often have difficulty telling the difference between the two whites.  The black patch on the Large White extends from the wing-tip to at least halfway along the outer edge of the wing but on the Small White it is less dense and doesn’t extend as far.  The female Large White has two black spots on the upper and underside of the forewing.  The male Large White has two black spots on the underside of the forewing only and none on the upperside.  The female Small White has two black spots on the upperside only of the forewing but the male only has one spot which is often faint or even missing.  This is what confuses me!  I’m glad that they  aren’t confused.

There were still plenty of Skipper butterflies during the second half of the month.

038f Large Skipper (640x427)

Large Skipper on Buddleia

I think this may be a photo of a female as I don’t think I can see any scent glands.

037Comma (640x427)

A Comma butterfly

These are so named because of a white comma-shaped mark on the underside of its wing.

Dragonflies continued to fly around the garden.

032Broad-bodied chaser (640x427)

Broad-bodied Chaser

036Possibly immature m. Black-tailed skimmer (640x427)

This may be an immature male Black-tailed Skimmer

003Damselfly (640x434)

A female Common Blue Damselfly

Not a very good photo, but I haven’t been able to get any other pictures of females.

007Four spotted chaser (640x440)

A Four-spotted Chaser

011Male emperor dragonfly (640x426)

A male Emperor Dragonfly

As you can see from the poor photo, I had great difficulty in getting a picture of this dragonfly.  The male is very large and powerful and this was the only time I saw it at rest.  I had to lean far out over the edge of the pond and I was frightened I would over-balance and fall in the water.  It hardly ever left the pond unlike other dragonflies that search for prey along the hedge and up into the trees.

014Female emperor dragonfly (640x445)

Female Emperor Dragonfly laying eggs

015Female emperor dragonfly (640x460)

Female Emperor Dragonfly laying eggs

016Female emperor dragonfly (640x498)

Female Emperor Dragonfly laying eggs

The female is larger than the male and is mainly green and brown.  The male has a glorious bright blue abdomen.

017Common darter (640x462)

A male Common Darter

These dragonflies are a paler red than the Ruddy Darter and the abdomen isn’t as constricted near the front.  The females are a yellowish brown.  In both sexes the legs are brown or black with a yellow stripe down the outside.

I have not been able to take many photos of moths this year.

003Micro moth (640x480)

Unidentified micro moth

006Robber Fly with victim (640x411)

A Robber Fly (not sure which one) with a victim in its grasp

009Greenbottle on unripe blackberry (640x431)

Greenbottle on unripe blackberry

030Cricket (640x480)

A female Roesel’s Bush-Cricket

I saw this climbing up the side of the conservatory.

And I saw this inside the garage one evening….

010Spider (640x480)

This House Spider was as big as my hand

The last creature in this post, like the spider, isn’t an insect and isn’t at all attractive.  In fact it looks quite horrific but, before you rush off for your gun or other means of disposing of nasty things, stop!!  This isn’t a garden foe it is a friend.  Here it is –

002Leopard slug (640x480)

A Leopard Slug

These slugs when fully grown are about 7″ long.  They don’t damage healthy living plants but eat fungi, rotting plants and other slugs, especially those ones that do so much damage.   They have to stay damp to breathe so live in dark, damp places especially piles of rotting logs.  They can live for several years.  Like other slugs and snails they are hermaphrodites but need to mate with another individual.  To mate they climb a tree or other structure and then hang entwined from a branch on a thick strand of mucus.  Both slugs then lay eggs in damp places.  A dark horse among slugs, then.  Who would have thought it!

 

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I talk about what it's like living in a quiet part of Suffolk. I am a wife, mother and daughter, a practising Christian and love the natural world that surrounds me. I enjoy my life - most of the time!

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