Butterwort

Butterworts, so called because they are alleged to coagulate milk, are investivorous perennials with solitary flowers and a basal rosette of leaves covered in slime. The common butterwort is one of three native butterwort species in the British Isles and has purple flowers and yellow-green leaves resembling a starfish. The common butterwort the leaf margins curl over insects and glands on the leaf secrete enzymes which digest the soft parts of their prey.

We have found hundreds of these plants on wet seepages on the near the seashore above Edern. I am not sure which of the two species we found, Common Butterwort (Pinguicula vulgaris) or the slightly smaller P. lusitanica which is said to occur in the west of the UK. I suspect they are the latter species as we did see these as small leaved "rosettes" all through the winter which is belive is the differance between vulgaris (no leaves showing in winter) and lusitanica.

The photos show the plant in flower, a patch of the plants growing in a wet seepage and a close up of the leaves showing the small insects trapped by the plants sticky leaves.

Elephant Hawkmoth

We found this Elephant Hawk-moth (Deilephila elpenor) caterpillar crossing a road as we drove past last autumn. The caterpillar was obviously looking for a pupation site as it was in its last instar and we rescued it to prevent in being squashed by passing cars. The caterpillar duly pupated and finally last night emerged as the beautiful adult moth shown. This will be released into a thick patch of Honeysuckle behind the garden later this evening to complete its life cycle in more natural surroundings.

Broad-Bodied Chaser

We have been seeing this species around on a local lane now for the last month of so. The photo shows the female of the species, the male is a stunning pale blue colour. I quite often find that one sees more Dragonflies away from water than actually at a pond. This species in particular I most often seen on local lanes and minor roads but rarely at ponds except when breeding.

Mystery Caterpillars

Some cats that had me totally baffled for a couple of days until Reg Fry put me out of my misery. Sue and I spotted a large number of these cats feeding on Meadowsweet ( Filipendula ulmaria)on the coast a week or so back. The large ones were around 1cm in length and the slightly different looking earlier instars were about .5cm in length. My first though was footman spp, no go as they all feed on lichens or dried plant material. I looked through every book I had, did searches for cats on Meadowsweet, even went through evey cat in Porter book and zilch. I posted the photos on Regs website and he came back with early instar Emperor Moth !!! I would never in a million years have got this despite rearing many found on Moor Tops through in the last instar and from pupa in my native Yorkshire I have never seen the early instars and to find them on Meadowsweet no more than 20 feet from the sea at low altitude was a complete shock.

Large Red Damselfly

We put a half barrel mini pond on the patio in the garden here in Edern in the hopes that it would be colonised by Odonata as is a similar pond back in Yorkshire in our garden. I spotted this pair of Large Red Damselflies(Pyrrhsoma nymphula) in tandem today as the female oviposited in the pond. Also spotted locally in the last few days were:

Broad Bodied Chaser
Common Blue Damselfly
Four Spotted Chaser
Golden Ringed Dragonfly
Emperor (male) a first for me
Banded Demoiselle

Sun Loving Blackbird

One of the young Blackbirds that feed in the garden feeding station here in Edern is definately a sun lover. It spends hours basking on a shed roof just behind the feeders as soon as the sun is out it flies up onto the roof and gets comfy for a sunbath session

Bumblebees & Badgers

I spotted the ravaged nest site of a bumblebee, which was either a Bombus terrestris or a Bombus lucorum nest, its impossible to tell the worker bees apart without dissection. The nest was in the Clawdd (hedge/bank) of a local lane near the coast that I walk at least once a day all year. I have seen plenty of signs of badger activity on the lane in the past with latrine pits and various diggings where I assume badgers have dug out mouse nests etc. This is the first bee nest I have seen dug out this year by badgers . You can see in this short video clip the remains of the nest site, some surviving worker bees and a few of the cells from the nest.

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