Lockdown Walks, a Retrospective. 21st-25th May.

 21st May 2020

Feeling a touch of sunstroke from my long walk in the heat the previous day, something like the mother of all hangovers, I remained at home today, and enjoyed seeing a Cinnabar Moth in the back garden, a smart, day flying red and black creature. Their larvae, black and yellow striped creatures, feed on Ragwort, and can be seen through the summer months. A Large White butterfly had laid some eggs on my Brussels Sprouts, and I will aim to be the best custodian of them I can be. 

1430-1530

Natty and I visited her bee transects up at the National Stone Centre, a patch of greenery cut by examples of the dry stone waller's craft, surrounding Britain's only museum dedicated to building stone. The sun was hot and high and the Comfrey was in bloom. 

There were some butterflies on the wing including some lycaenids, Common Blues, and a bright orange Small Copper, on a patch of grass beside the Stone Centre car park, my first of the year. A larger Satyrid butterfly which flew by may have been a Wall.

Small Copper Butterfly. 

Bees: Early Bumblebee (worker) Garden Bumblebee (Worker, queen) Buff/White tailed bumblebee (workers) Common Carder Bee (workers) Honeybee (workers) 

Butterflies: Orange Tip (2) Common Blue (2) Small Copper (1)

Birds: Swift, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Chiffchaff, Blackcap, Whitethroat, Blackbird, Goldfinch. 

Gang Mine. 

The mountain Pansies, and tiny white flowers were in bloom on the lead spoil. There were surprisingly few bees, but a beautiful pheasant was standing on the path, confidingly, and hirundines darted about. 

Birds: Pheasant, Black Headed Gull, Woodpigeon, Kestrel, Magpie, Carrion Crow, Blue Tit, Sand Martin, Swallow, Long-Tailed Tit, Chiffchaff, Whitethroat, Blackbird, Mistle Thrush, Robin, House Sparrow, Dunnock, Pied Wagtail.

Sheildbug at Gang Mine

Small Heath Butterfly at Gang Mine. 

Butterflies: Small Heath (5) Orange Tip (1) Dingy Skipper (1) Green Veined White (1) Small Copper (1) 

Mammals: Rabbit, Grey Squirrel. 

24th May 2020

Bolehill Envrions

Natalie, Lizzie and I took a wader down to Cromford Canal from Wirksworth, taking the steep ascent to Bolehill. There were plenty of hirundines as swifts cavorting in the blue blazing sky. We took the farm track by the toad pond, so alive a few weeks ago but now near bone dry, and avoided four noisy dogs on the footpath, which yapped in a mildly confrontational manner. 
The Gorses in the cattle field were unusually quiet, but there was a fledgeling Meadow Pipit, my first fledgeling of this species this year. A flock of Goldfinch was busy on the farm track but included no juveniles; I would be interested to know if this collective feeding behaviour is common in the breeding season, or whether these birds were all failed or late breeders. When we reached the canal we found visitor numbers slightly up, but the only canal birds we saw were a single drake Mallard and a flyover Grey Wagtail. 
The climb up the Cromford incline was shallow but seemed unending. The precipitous gritstone cliffs were beautifully bathed in shimmering sunshine. In a small pond some Goldfish seemed to have been dumped, but alongside them some tadpoles persisted and Smooth Newts displayed courtship behaviour, the females gently pursued by the crested and amorous males.  Blue Tits nested in a hole in a concrete gatepost. 
I parted company with Natty and Lizzie, who took the quickest route home, and and headed up Black Rocks. The heat had brought out crowds, and some large groups were gathered up there, though they all seemed thoroughly civilised and there was no litter. There were a gorgeous family of Treecreepers, with little dumpy fledgelings, clinging to trunks above Black Rocks. 
A Cuckoo sang on the descent from the trig point, distinctive, distant, though it would not reveal itself. I stared urgently at a passing Sparrowhawk and at a Stock Dove. . A pair of Jays made food runs to nestlings of their own over my head as I waited in hope, but the Cuckoo remained unseen. I made my way back down to Wirksworth, as mother and foal Shetland Pony played in the evening sun.

Micropigs.

Birds: Mallard, Pheasant, Sparrowhawk, Black Headed Gull, Stock Dove, Woodpigeon, Cuckoo (Heard only) Swift, Kestrel, Jay (feeding), Magpie, Jackdaw, Blue Tit (nesting), Great Tit (nesting), Swallow, Chiffchaff, Wren, Treecreeper (+fl) Blackbird, Robin, Dunnock, Grey Wagtail, Pied Wagtail, Meadow Pipit (fl) Chaffinch, Goldfinch. 

25th May 2020

Stoney Wood

On a glorious sunny afternoon, \I went for my occasional Stoney Wood Bimble, where I counted the butterflies. The Stardisc, a sculpture which sits at the top of Stoney Wood, an illuminated, round star map, was receiving a little TLC from its creator, who was cleaning and respraying the stars. 

The continuing heatwave seemed to be keeping the birds down, but Blue Tits and Robins were busy feeding fledgelings. 

Birds Seen: Woodpigeon, Swift, Jackdaw, Blue Tit, Swallow, Willow Warbler, Whitethroat, Blackbird, Robin, Goldfinch.

Butterflies: Orange Tip (1) Dingy Skipper (5) Large White (1) Common Blue (6) Green Veined White (2) Small Heath (2)

Common Blue ovipositing on Lotus corniculatus at Stoney Wood.

Cromford Moor

In the afternoon I returned to Cromford Moor, which was surprisingly busy with people, in the hope of reconnecting with the singing Cuckoo, of which there was not sight nor sound. A rabbit afflicted by Myxomatosis was a sad sight, blind and stumbling. At such a point I wished I were not so squeamish and knew how to euthanise a rabbit, but I do not, and for fear of adding to its suffering I continued on my way. 
A beautiful Green Tiger Beetle was a welcome diversion from lapine tragedy, amd scuttled rapidly across the sand on the clearfell area. A splendid little predator, bright metallic green and orange iridescences in the evening sun.

Green Tiger Beetle at Cromford Moor. 

Birds Seen: Buzzard, Woodpigeon, Collared Dove, Swift, Kestrel, Jay, Magpie, Jackdaw, Great Tit, Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff, Blackbird, Dunnock, Chaffinch, Bullfinch, Goldfinch.