At this time of year, the park’s many oak trees have shed not only their acorns but a variety of galls.
Continue reading “Oak galls”Oak galls
A real mouthful of a name:
Xanthogramma pedissequum, the superb ant-hill hoverfly, a rarity spotted by Ian early on a spring morning in 2021 and added to our species list.
Continue readingBloody nosed beetle
A bloody nosed beetle (Timarcha tenebricosa) found in the short grass where the rabbits graze at the end of Sleepers Field.
Continue reading “Bloody nosed beetle”
Wednesday’s work party
This week’s work party began with an official heat warning from the Countryside Team:
Continue readingThrushes
We have both song thrushes (Turdus philomelos) and mistle thrushes (Turdus viscivorus) in the reserve. Here is a video from the British Trust for Ornithology that will help you tell the two species apart.
Header image: Song thrush by Cheryl Cronnie (SCPLNR 06/2023)
Two new species
Ian’s on a roll: two more insects for our invertebrates list, a marsh damsel bug (Nabis limbatus) and a dock bug (Coreus marginatus).
[1] marsh damsel bug [2] dock bug [header image] marsh damsel bug on fleabane by Ian Bushell
Dumbledore!
by Ian Bushell
This is a Dor Beetle and I am almost certain it is a Common Dumbledore Beetle – Geotrupes spiniger. This is the first time it has been identified in the reserve and I have added it to our lists.
Continue reading “Dumbledore!”
Migration changes
Analysis of records kept since 1964 has found that some species of European migratory birds are spending up to 60 days less each year in their sub-Saharan wintering grounds. Over the most recent 27-year period, migratory birds, including the whitethroats commonly seen in our reserve, were found to have increased their time in Europe by an average of 16 days. It has even been suggested that some species may stop flying south for the winter altogether.
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Batman hoverfly
From the willows by Village Green’s pond, Ian has sent us this image of another new species for the reserve’s lists: Myathropa florea, the Batman hoverfly.
Continue readingEuropean Hornets
There are always European hornets working somewhere in the reserve and we know of at least one nest high in a tree. Here is an astonishing video of hornets at an invertebrate water hole.
Video by nature photographer, Lothar Lenz, published by Caters Clips.
What good are wasps…?
Somebody asks this every year in August, as they wave wasps away from their picnic or soothe a painful sting with a vinegar poultice.
Continue reading “What good are wasps…?”Earthworms
Charles Darwin calculated that there would be 53,000 earthworms in an acre of soil. That number has been adjusted upwards over the years and at the moment stands anywhere between 500,000 and a million. The reserve covers about 140 acres so, even at the lowest of modern estimates, there are 70 million earthworms in the park.
Continue reading “Earthworms”
Late summer butterflies
by Simon Knight
I have recently enjoyed a couple of early mornings in the reserve with my macro lens, and as I have said before, I really enjoy macro photography and hunting for the smaller in habitants of the reserve, especially on dewy, bright mornings.
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Kingfisher
This is the time of year when the summer’s brood of fledgling kingfishers are driven away from the home territory by their parents, and set off to look for good fishing grounds of their own.
Continue readingDeath’s head hawkmoth
Message from Emma Kilroy-Grant to FoSCP 22/08/2023:
Walking in Southwick Country Park nature reserve this morning, I came across this mammoth caterpillar on the path. I re-located it into the hedge and Googled it to find it is an African Death’s Head Hawkmoth!!
Honey bees
There are at least two feral honey bee colonies in the reserve, nesting high in our mature trees. Unlike common wasps, honey bees don’t die at the end of the summer; the colony stores enough food for the queen and the workers to survive through the winter.
Continue reading “Honey bees”
Aeshna cyanea
A southern hawker (not the one in these images) visited the Wednesday Work Party in the picnic area at the reserve last week: such a beautiful creature.
Southern hawker (Aeshna cyanea)
Crane Flies
There are hundreds of species of crane fly in this country and almost all of them go by the name of daddy-long-legs. The differences between species can be microscopically small but we think this specimen photographed in Sheep Field is either a common European crane fly (Tipula paludosa) or a marsh crane fly (T. oleracea). At this time of year they hatch in the reserve’s field in their thousands, if not millions.
Continue readingTen facts
ONE: Pipistrellus pipistrellus, the common pipistrelle.
Continue reading “Ten facts”
Thick legged flower beetle
An iridescent green, female Oedemera nobilis, known as the thick legged flower beetle or swollen thighed beetle, photographed in the reserve last year. It is the male (see below) that has the strangely shaped hind legs for which the species is named
[1] by Gail Hampshire (CC BY 2.0) flickr.com; [2] © Hans Hillewaert (CC BY-SA 4.0) wikimedia.org
Robin’s pincushion
This strange growth is called a robin’s pincushion.
Continue reading “Robin’s pincushion”Hottest July
While here in the UK, July 2023 was slightly cooler (and a lot wetter) than usual, worldwide it was the hottest July on record.
Continue reading “Hottest July”Our swifts are leaving already.
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A walk in the park
by Ian Bushell
Just some thoughts and pictures on a pleasant Sunday afternoon walk in the reserve.
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Southwick Country Park Nature Reserve 