Late Summer
Viv looks back at some of the other wildlife highlights during her butterfly and bird surveys this year .
Early September and already we can feel an autumn chill in the air. The skies are overcast more often and, with the woods bathed in shadow, we will struggle to do many more butterfly surveys this year. It was a really difficult spring weather-wise for wildlife and our butterfly surveys are certainly reflecting this. It is sad to see our butterfly numbers so low and we are just grateful that nearly all regular species have been spotted at least once. We can only hope for better weather and numbers next year.
So to bring some cheer to my blog I thought it would be fun to list the alternative highlights of our butterfly surveys this year so here they are:
The Six-spot Burnet moth. 
What an absolute beauty and so cheering to see so many in the meadows above the gorge. As we scurry around looking for elusive butterflies these wonderful day flying moths buzz around us bringing colour and life. Their favourite flowers are scabious, thistles and knapweed – which we just happen to have in good numbers!
The Common Wall Lizard.
Which actually isn’t that common at all in the U.K. and has fascinated us with its unexpected appearance at the top of Badgers Wood near the quarry.
Studying their size and tail length we believe we have identified several and hope they are part of a thriving family. We look out for them whenever we survey and never fail to be delighted by their speed and agility.
An Adder. 
Our trusty butterfly photographer just managed to avoid putting his foot down on this small one. As the UK’s only venomous snake it’s best to avoid treading on them – although their venom is generally not dangerous to a healthy adult. Instead we enjoyed seeing the incredible markings close up – so distinctive from the Grass Snake which we also have in the woods and see rather more often. Having reached an impasse with neither snake nor photographer moving, I gently carefully tickled its underside with a long grass and it slithered away quietly.
The Southern Hawker dragonfly.
Our first year of officially monitoring dragonflies and damselflies on the reserve and I for one have much to learn. Once they stop for long enough to be photographed I get a chance to enjoy their amazing colours. I have also come to realise how territorial dragonflies are. Whilst the damselflies are busy doing their own thing and tend to ignore our presence the dragonflies often make a point of making themselves known and asserting their ownership of a particular area we might be passing through. Dragonfly dive bombing is definitely a thing and when we have impeded their flight path we have had plenty of experience of this over the summer!
Cinnabar moth caterpillar. 
These lovely brightly coloured caterpillars are absolutely dependant on munching our Ragwort for their diet and we have been very fortunate to have had a really good crop of Ragwort in the woods this year. The caterpillar colours denote a warning as all their Ragwort munching can lead to them being toxic for predators. Once the caterpillars have consumed as much as they need they dig themselves into the ground and spend 12 months underground as a pupae before emerging as a beautiful black and red moth not totally dissimilar to the 6 spot burnet. Fingers crossed we see many of these beautiful moths next summer.
And finally The Stinkhorn – which is exactly as it says. If you stroll around, particularly in Badgers Wood, you may occasionally encounter an unpleasant pungent smell. It is most likely to be the Stinkhorn fungus. Far easier to smell then to see the Stinkhorn usually emerges for just a day or two as a phallic, white stem-like structure with a brown bell-shaped head. The strong odour attracts flies which then scatter the spores. Whilst not being keen on the smell we do enjoy trying to hunt these down – dogs may also be attracted but, whilst not considered poisonous, they can certainly cause gastric problems so best avoided.
And so as autumn begins to show its colours it’s a joy to hear the tentative sounds of the dawn chorus starting up again. I can’t wait to begin surveying the woods for birds and seeing what turns up during the rest of this year.