Snakes and Tigers

I've had a brilliant long day out in the sunshine at Ketton Quarry over in the east of Rutland. I'm sure I've mentioned many times before how much I love this reserve, and despite it being early in the season I still managed to find a few bits.

Part of the appeal is that there are diverse habitats within the reserve. It is a long worked-out area of limestone extraction, but is now made up of compartments of hills and holes that have been colonised by calcareous grassland plants and scrub. There is also some open mixed woodland, a deep cutting and a dense dark beech woodland planted in the 1920s. Usually there are one or two like-minded souls knocking about but generally you can mooch about between the areas in complete solitude and peace. The exception is the main geology trail area near the entrance where people generally come and go looking for butterflies and reptiles. The reserve runs on the boundary of the working quarry that seems to be getting bigger and now has 1000s of solar panels in situ.

I go there early-ish and spent a good hour looking for snakes with no joy, after pottering about for another hour or so I nipped off for a quick bite in Stamford. When I got back early afternoon I bumped into Andy Neilson who pointed me towards a pair of Adders that he'd seen. I could just about see a female with a bright male in attendance, but as I grabbed my camera I was aware of another duller male heading straight towards the scene. The two males then chased each other around for a bit before the female sloped off into a densely covered mound of rocks. Not the most open views I ever had of Adders, but the interaction and activity was great to watch for an hour.

Female with partially hidden brighter male

Slightly duller male

The duller male heading off

The brighter male giving chase ....

... and coming back towards me

I've not seen Adders here for a while, and by all accounts the population has dwindled a bit in recent years. It was great to catch up with them, just a shame the views were not better for photos. No Grass Snakes seen today, and no Common Lizards seen but I heard plenty skitting off into the undergrowth as I walked around.

I found a few bits that I will post another day, but one I wasn't expecting to see so early in the year was along the boundary track bewteen the reserve and the working quarry ....

Note a few solar panels on left, and a distant view of the quarry processing plant

I saw at least 15 Green Tiger Beetles along here, not that they were easy to get close too.

Busy Weekend

After a fairly quiet week off, with largely shite weather, this weekend has been busy and I've made the most of the improved conditions. Most of yesterday was taken up by a football tournament that Josh was playing in. We left home just before 9am and got back home at around 4pm. Whilst Josh was at the football, Alex was doing his usual karate lesson followed by a grading in the afternoon (now orange belt). We got them both showered and sorted for going out camping overnight with the Scouts. By the time we'd dropped them off and got back home, it was a really nice mild and still early evening. I watched the second half of the Netherlands v Denmark game and then headed out to have a walk along one of the local disused railway lines with net and pots at the ready. Time flew by whlist I swished at anything flying and vegetation, and by the time I got home it was just in time for the second half of the Germany v Portugal game.

I put the garden moth trap out though I didn't expect much as the good late afternoon/early evening conditions lead to clear skies and dropping temps. The forecast for today was also looking good so I opted to get up very early, empty the trap (predictably poor, just 10 of 9sp.) and head over to Ketton Quarry for a few hours before having to head home and pick up the boys from the camp at lunch time.

Suffice to say I've ended up with lots of stuff in pots, lots of photos and plenty of stuff to enter in MapMate. I'm not going to pile it all in one post so I'll have to drip feed over the week. For now here's a few varied shots, and I'm starting with a moth tick from Ketton Quarry ...

Adela croesella - smart!

Here's shot of the railway line in Whetstone - great habitat for various inverts ...

A few damselflies noted on both outings ....

Common Blue Damselfly - immature

Common Blue Damselfly - mature male

Large Red Damselfly

Very surprised to see a Grizzled Skipper still on the wing at Ketton, though it was a bit knackered. I also found a small Adder which was very dull with cloudy eyes ready to slough off the skin.

Grizzled Skipper

Adder

Snake, Charming

With another glorious sunny day forecast, I resolved to get up early and make the now annual pilgrimage to Ketton Quarry in search of snakes. I managed to persuade both the boys and Nichola to come along without too much force - we all like a good walk around KQ. Only Isabelle passed - far too busy being a surly teenager and cyber-socialising for going out in the morning sunshine. We arrived just about on time - I intended to be there for 9am as from previous experience any earlier is pointless, but we had to top up with fuel on the way.

Superb close views of a male shortly after arriving - not a snake, but the Drunk-snaker (with Leigh and Matthew) actually out in the field rather than spouting bollocks on facebook ....

After the salutations and mutual disbelief at being out, we eventually got superb views of a male Adder, and then eventually two males and a female. I then headed over to the other paddocks where we found another female out in the open in the area where the Knapweed Broomrape will be later in the year. Nothing under or around the tin-sheets in the donkey paddock, and by the time we got back to the main area John had gone. Sadly, as I then had by far the most prolonged and superb views I've ever had of Adders, with three males and a female on show. Whilst watching them and grabbing a bit of vid, I became aware of another noise and just about managed to grab a couple of shots of a Grass Snake as it slid in and shot out of view. Along with a few brief and skittish Common Lizards, it was a superb morning. Here's a few shots and a vid clip - I urge you to see my Flickr pages via the link on the right to see some more.

The Drunk Snaker surveying the most reliable reptile amphitheatre in VC55

Loads of these poking through - Field Horse-tail

The other notable thing at Ketton was Common Heath moths on the wing - even earlier than last year.

After some obligatory minor DIY for Nichola's elderly aunt on the way home, we dropped into Watermead CP South following grapevine news earlier in the day. Seems everyone else was in the same area which was cram packed with bread-weilding morons, ice-cream toting toddlers, spliff-puffing youfs, picknic-ing Poles and dog-walking arseholes who think letting the dogs chase everything is funny. All interspersed with the odd birder, like Beast and Chris Lythall (odd as in not many, not odd as in fecking mental, clearly). The prize was just about evident on the far side of the island - four pairs of Garganey that all turned up overnight. Superb views through optics after walking around a bit, but always either too distant or too backlit for anything resembling a photo. A pair of Red-crested Pochards were much easier to see than yesterday.

I got home in time to win some money on the National (a modest EW bet on Ballabriggs earning me £19.50). I headed out to the garden and checked on the rearing boxes. Excellent, four female Emperors have emerged today. The timing couldn't be better with the current sunny weather, out for some assembling tomorrow.

Cor!

Herald, Adder, 'pillars n plants

Ran the garden traps last night despite the entirely unsuitable conditions - total catch was 14 of 8sp. (125W MV 10 of 6, 80W actinic 4 of 3). I starting to think that the 2 x 40W actinic tubes need replacing - this trap usually fares as well or better than the MV in the garden but lately it's been pants. Whilst the catch was meagre, there were two garden firsts for the year.

0663 Diurnea fagella 1
1524 Emmelina monodactyla 3
1862 Double-striped Pug (Gymnoscelis rufifasciata) 1
2179 Pine Beauty (Panolis flammea) 1 [first for year]
2187 Common Quaker (Orthosia cerasi) 3
2190 Hebrew Character (Orthosia gothica) 3
2243 Early Grey (Xylocampa areola) 1
2469 Herald (Scoliopteryx libatrix) 1 [first for year]

Herald ..... nice.

After emptying the traps and stuff, I headed back out to Ketton Quarry for another go at the reptiles. Josh came along, but Alex decided not to bother after last weeks try. We arrived at 09:00 in glorious sunshine that was bathing the main search area.

As we got out of the car, I immediately picked up Blackcap, Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler in full song and Budgerigar calling. Eh? WTF is a Budgie doing calling from that Horse Chestnut I thought. I grabbed the bins and eventually picked up a pale blue-grey bird that looked decidedly pissed off at the general lack of mirrors and cuttlefish. To be honest, despite the insistent calling it was damned hard to pick up in the tree - nothing like the Ring-necked Parakeets down south.

After the diversion, we set about the main business of finding snakes and lizards. No one else was around, which was good in that there was less disturbance but it's also good to have a few pairs of eyes out. As it happened, I quickly found a superb Adder outstretched in the grass. It was one of the lovely sort of grey-green coloured males.

After this quick success, things were a bit like last week with an enormous female Grass Snake briefly seen and a few small Common Lizards not hanging about.

The best bit of snake habitat at Ketton Quarry

Over in the other main compound, I was really surprised to find good numbers of Common Heath on the wing - a good couple of weeks earlier than I've seen them before. They were too active and impossible to photograph in the sun today so I netted a male for a controlled attempt.

Common Heath - not at all common in VC55

Lots of bees and hoverflies on the wing, but surprisingly few butterflies.

We then headed home to face the gardening chores. I mentioned last week that our garden usually needs extra time before mowing, long after everyone else has had a couple of goes. Nichola disagrees and insisted on mowing and gardening today. My annual first-mow ritual is not quite conventional though. Our crappy mower, in conjunction with our even more crappy lawn, has a rear roller which after the last mow of the year sticks with a wad of muddy compacted grass stuck behind it. Every year for a while now, when I prise off the roller to clear it I find a few Common Swift caterpillars. I guess either the eggs or very early instar larvae are caught up to spend the winter in my mower in the shed - quite how they survive and grow in such circumstances I have no idea.

Common Swift

I've stuck a few in a box outside with a fresh wad of turf with roots to try and rear through - the rest were released back onto the lawn after mowing.

Whilst on the larval front, we found a few caterpillars in the garden yesterday. One is a tortrix munching away in a spinning on buddleia shoots (probably Light Brown Apple Moth - retained to rear). I also found loads of miniscule just-hatched geometrids on our Lilac - could well be a repeat of last year's Feathered Thorn. Also two noctuid larvae munching on weeds.

Lesser Yellow Underwing?

Gothic?

Both retained to rear through.

As for the weeds, temporarily growing alongside the Lesser Celandine were Common Dog Violet and Dandelion - Nichola pulled them all up ......

Common Dog Violet - I think

Dandelion

The onlt other highlight whilst in the garden was a surprise garden tick on the bird list when a Meadow Pipit flew over calling heading towards the lane.

Ketton Quarry 03/05/2009

I'd promised the boys that we'd go to look for snakes, and so with the day looking to be partly cloudy with sunny spells we all headed off this morning to Ketton Quarry, all except Isabelle who is far to teenage to bother going out for family walks these days! After a brief search around the geological survey area, we found a Common Lizard - I honestly can't remember if I've seem one before but certainly not at Ketton. No sign of any snakes so we walked down through the donkey paddock to check the tin sheets where a Grass Snake was hiding - before it shot off at high speed. After milling around looking at a few Common Heaths, Green Hairstreaks, Grizzled Skippers and plenty of commoner butterflies, we headed back to the geological survey area and found quite a few more Common Lizards (I reckon at least 15 different individuals). I got talking to Graham Munton (one of the growing Melton Crew) whilst there and he put me onto a reliable spot for Adder - after a brief glimpse I waited a while and was then able to show the boys what I think must have been two males and a larger female. Bloody hard to get a shot of though as too close! I need a macro lens for the DSLR - had to make do with the family compact to get a shot of them before they sloped off into the undergrowth. A contrasty male and the partially hidden duller female Green Hairstreak Speckled Wood