Buglife are using my image in their postcard campaign to publicise a glow worm survey in Scotland this summer:
Scottish Glow Worm Survey postcard
Glow worms are widely distributed in the UK, with records from the south of England up to the north of Scotland, but there have been very few Scottish records in recent years.
A selection of my images illustrates an article about predatory animals and plants in the May edition of Dorset Life magazine, out this month.
Dorset Life: Dorset Hunters. Double spread I
Dorset Life: Dorset Hunters. Double spread II
Featured flora and fauna include: the kestrel, adder, red fox, otter, sundew, kingfisher and hornet robberfly. Words by Joël Lacey.
Available now at all good newsagents and supermarkets in the Dorset area!
Complete sloughed skin of adder (Vipera berus)
Periodically snakes and other animals shed their entire skins, in a process known as ecdysis (or sloughing, or moulting).
Moulting takes up to 14 days to complete. The inner surface of the old skin liquefies, which causes it to separate from the new skin beneath it. By rubbing its skin on hard objects the end nearest the head begins to peel back on itself, until the snake is able to crawl out of its skin, turning it inside-out like a sock.
Head end of moulted adder skin
The ocular scale, or ‘brille’, is discarded along with the rest of the skin. This is essential for maintaining the snake’s quality of vision.
Adder skin showing ocular scale detail
The visually striking process of renewal exhibited by these animals is one reason why serpents have historically been symbolic of healing and medicine in our culture.
Adder skin with side illumination
Snake skin is formed from the remarkably adaptable substance keratin. Some of its properties are best appreciated in close-up:
Backlit adder skin detail
Underside of adder skin showing transparent keratin scales
This particular skin was found on heathland, woven in amongst some dried grasses. We later stumbled across a stunning, newly sloughed, caramel-coloured female sunning herself nearby.
Butterfly Conservation: Moth Report 2013
Butterfly Conservation used my image of a nocturnal moth trapping event to illustrate their latest report:
Unsurprisingly the report concludes that UK moth numbers are in decline, documenting a 40% drop in total abundance in the south of England over the last 40 years.
On the bright side many more moth species have colonised Britain in recent decades than have become extinct.
This photograph was taken at a recent moth trapping event on Chatley Heath organised by Surrey Wildlife Trust. The original image below:
Skinner Trap on Surrey heathland at night
The ancient Crouch Oak in Addlestone, Surrey, UK
The Crouch Oak once marked the perimeter of Windsor Great Park and is thought to date from the 11th Century, making it in excess of 900 years old.
This ancient tree now looks a little incongruous as a modern residential estate has grown up around it.
The Crouch Oak at night with passing traffic
It’s interesting to compare depictions of this tree from the 19th Century and in 1904 as wooden fences are replaced with metal railings and a dusty track becomes a surfaced road. The oak also enjoyed an additional limb in those days.
In more recent times the Crouch Oak survived an arson attempt in 2007 and is now fitted with metal grilles across its hollow openings to prevent a repeat.
Metal grille stops burning objects being thrown inside
To see the Crouch Oak for yourself follow the map below to the bend in Crouch Oak Lane:
Dartford warbler (Sylvia undata) foraging on snow covered heathland
In the severe winter of 1962/63 the Dartford warbler (Sylvia undata) was almost wiped out in Britain. The national population dropped to just 10 pairs.
But in good breeding seasons, and with suitable habitat, its numbers are capable of bouncing back, thanks to repeated nesting and high survival rates among its offspring.
On the Surrey lowland heaths Dartfords have been doing well, re-colonising Thursley Common last year for the first time since a devastating fire in 2006.
During the recent freezing winter weather I photographed this Dartford warbler foraging in the snow on Chobham Common:
The University of Uppsala in Sweden chose to use my image of a glow worm (Lampyris noctiluca) to promote their upcoming academic conference on bioluminescence and chemiluminescence to be held in 2014:
The original image below:
Glow Worm Rays
My image of a nursery web of raft spiderlings (Dolomedes fimbriatus) was shortlisted in the ‘Behaviour: Cold-blooded Animals’ category of the Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2012 competition, run by London’s Natural History Museum, but failed to make it through to the final rounds.
It was fascinating to observe these tiny hatchlings at the edge of a boggy pond as they reacted in unison to potential threats, expanding and contracting in their protective ball.
It would have been interesting to understand a little more about the judging process involved in such a major competition, but feedback was sadly lacking.
Congratulations to The Winners.
Related links:
The RSPB’s reserve at Arne in Dorset recently requested the use of my wetland wildlife photos for their new seasonal interpretation panels. They also commissioned a stitched panoramic landscape image to highlight landmarks visible from their stunning observation point overlooking Poole Harbour.
Featured above are the Southern Hawker dragonfly, Osprey, Wasp Spider, Raft Spider and Marsh Harrier, all of which can be found on the Arne reserve at different times of the year. Well worth a visit!
Raft spider on pond surface
You’d think that arachnids and water was an unhappy combination, but one species of European spider has made boggy ponds their home.
The raft spider (Dolomedes fimbriatus) is the UK’s largest native spider – its body growing up to 2cm long.
It uses the water’s surface like other spiders use their webs – feeling for the vibrations of potential prey with front legs extended. Using this technique it hunts tadpoles, insects and occasionally small fish:
Raft spider eating damselfly
When alarmed, the water repellent hairs on the raft spider’s legs enable it to dive beneath the water, trapping a bubble of air to keep it alive until the coast is clear and it cautiously re-emerges:
The wetland pools favoured by raft spiders are increasingly rare in this country. On the RSPB’s Arne reserve in Dorset their habitat is lovingly preserved, and offers wildlife watchers easy access from the nearby heathland trail:
Boggy pond habitat
On a good day dozens of raft spiders at various stages in their life cycle can be witnessed at the pond’s edge.
The female raft spider is often considerably larger than the male and mating is a dangerous business. He approaches her cautiously, waving his front legs tentatively to judge her receptiveness:
Male raft spider approaches female at her den
She may rush out to scare him off on numerous occasions, after which she retreats and the process begins again, the male edging closer all the while. It’s a nerve jangling thing to watch, let alone participate in.
The female spins a silk bag to contain the fertilised eggs, which she carries about beneath her body, keeping it just warm and moist enough to ensure their survival:
Raft spider carrying egg sac
Then, when the baby spiders are ready to hatch, she lashes the egg sac to vegetation at the edge of the pond and the tiny hatchlings emerge:
Baby raft spiders in nursery web
Mum typically lies in wait nearby to ensure that her young ones don’t come to any harm:
Raft spider guards her hatchlings
This phenomenon of hundreds of spiderlings crowded together for their own mutual safety is only really appreciated up close:
Raft spider hatchlings closeup
But soon the young raft spiders are large enough to fend for themselves and disperse around the pond.
Raft spiders are not fussy eaters. When times are tough and food is scarce, or when too many raft spiders compete for the same local resources, they may even turn to cannibalism:
Not such a pretty sight!
Dom Greves Digital / Blog 