Guttation

The grapevine leaves in our garden, yesterday morning, had droplets of water around their margins, yet were perfectly dry in the middle.  I'm pretty sure this is an example of 'Guttation'. 

  Over night, most plants close their stomata (pores) which prevents transpiration; so, when there is high humidity or a lot of moisture in the soil, we get 'root pressure'.  Water is then forced out through 'hydathodes' (a secretory structure - either glandular hairs or water pores) which are usually found at vein endings.

  Sometimes the water droplets contain calcium salts, which leave a white crust behind (not evident here).  This is not to be confused with 'dew'.  Dew is moisture condensed from the atmosphere onto the plant surface - in guttation, the water comes from within the plant. 

Sunday in the Meadows

The metallic blue/green of this Common Malachite - Malachius bipustulatus - caught my eye yesterday, as we walked through the local meadows.  I read here at 'Bugs and Weeds', that the small buff projections at the base of it's antennae indicate a male.

We crossed the river over a little wooden bridge, and stumbled into a damselfly wonderland.  This female Azure looked like it was about to tuck into dinner.

While a male Azure warmed in the sun.  Apparently there are 5 common types of blue damselfly and it's hard to tell them apart.  A lot depends on the marking on segment 2 (in the male Azure it is a U shape) and how much blue is on segment 8 and 9.

Many thanks, again, to the folks at WAB.

Small and Spotty

I photographed this tiny ladybird in a field of buttercups, last week.  It's a 16 Spot; only 3mm long, and distinguishable from the similar 14 Spot not only by the 2 extra spots, but also by the fact that it's spots are rounder and some of them are merged.

 The following morning, as I sipped my coffee in the back garden, this little fella crawled out of a brick beside my chair.  Again, only about 3mm long, and to my unpracticed eye it looked a very interesting ladybird.

 However, Klaas, from WAB, kindly informed me that it is not a ladybird, but a Dermestidae - Attagenus pellio, more commonly known as a Two-spotted Carpet Beetle.

These seem rather scarce on the NBN Gateway map; whether that's because they are considered pests, are so small, or because they really are uncommon, I don't know.  I do know, however, that it's wings looked amazing in the morning sunshine.

Holly Blue

I've always enjoyed seeing the Holly Blues this time of year, but have never been lucky enough to catch one on camera.  This one, however, hung around long enough for me to faff about and still get a picture.

I was wondering how to tell if I was looking at a male or female, when she gave the game away by curling her abdomen and laying some eggs.

Most definitely one of my favourite butterflies.  My next challenge is to get a shot of the upperside.  Might be a while!

No Flies On Me

So, I was sitting on my heels, focused on the bell flower of a Comfrey, determined to get a good bee photo (bees love comfrey), when this beautiful Large Red Damselfly flew by.  Bee forgotten, I kept my eager eye on the flash of red, careful not to move suddenly and corkscrewing myself in the process.  She settled obligingly a few feet behind me, so I slowly unwound and took a shot.  

 I'm pretty confident that this is a young female.  The antehumeral stripes on the thorax are yellow in immatures (red in matures), and the abdomen differs between sexes; with the female having thicker black bands and a narrow yellow ring between each segment and a thin black line down the back.

Later in the day this hoverfly crossed my path, and I was delighted to get a shot for my hoverfly collection (of 2 now!)  

 Thanks to Geoff F at WAB who identified it as Xanthogramma  pedissequum.  According to Wikipedia, this is an 'uncommon European species', which has made me a bit smug, although looking at NBN Gateway's grid map, you can see it's not that uncommon in the south.

Marmalade Fly

One of our most common hoverflies; the Marmalade Fly.  I've just read that a male hoverfly has holoptic eyes.  This means that it's eyes meet at the top of it's head.  So, this one that I photographed in our garden, must be a male; and he can probably tell that I'm right behind him.

Nothing to worry about though, because despite looking a lot like a wasp, a hoverfly is completely harmless.  In fact, hoverflies are a good thing to have in your garden, as their larva like to eat aphids.

Ladybirds

First trip to the meadows since starting this blog.  I had hoped for some bird pics, and after what seemed an age of standing and staring and getting nothing, I enrolled my son, Tom to help me.  However, after a few, 'Mum...bird...missed it!'s  I turned my attention and camera to something a bit closer and slower.  The Seven-Spot Ladybird.

This one tried to outsmart me by hiding...

...birds hiding in trees 2 fields away - I'm finding tricky, but a ladybird hiding like a chubby toddler behind a lamp post, I can do.  This time, anyway.

Once home, I found a UK Ladybird Survey website, and submitted details of the 3 we spotted.  The Grab a Grid Reference site was useful in determining the, um, grid reference, obviously.

Bluebells

According to the Natural History Museum website, the bluebells in my garden are not native.  One way to tell is to look at the pollen; it's only native if the pollen is creamy white, and you can see here that the pollen on my bluebells is blue.

Still, they are pretty.  Next year, however, I must get into the local woods with my camera and capture the great sweeps of native blue that transform our woodlands in April and May.

Goldfinch

Behind our back garden is an old boat building shed.  I like it.  The old rusty roof is coloured every shade of red and orange and if you shield your eyes to block out the surrounding houses, it's easy to imagine you are in the country, next to an old farm.  The birds like it too, especially the old chimney, which is a popular perch.

I'm hazarding a guess that this Goldfinch is a male.  The red on the face extends further in males, though not a lot and so identification is hard.  Let me know what you think, in the comments.  Here's a rear view.

Greater Stitchwort

I love these little flowers, and luckily, a corner of our garden is bursting with them.  At first glance they appear to have ten petals in pairs, but a closer look shows that, in fact there are only five, each one split down the centre.

I read that these delicate beauties have fine hairs on only one side of the stem.  And, apparently, you can eat the flowers, so I might try one on my salad at lunchtime; although, it seems a shame to eat something so pretty.

Male House Sparrow

At first I thought this was a juvenile, due to the downy look to his chest feathers, and I fancied that he was working up courage to fly back to his nest in our roof.  However, I learned that juveniles are pale, like the females, and do not have the black bib you can see here.  So, maybe this is the daddy?  Perhaps keeping his eye on the babies while he stretches his legs.

Interesting fact:  The oldest known wild House Sparrow lived for 19 years and 9 months.

[source: http://www.euring.org/data_and_codes/longevity-voous.htm]