Category Archives: Natural History

Natural History

Jet Contrails over Chiswick at Dawn

Four jets criss-cross the dawn sky over Chiswick in the West of London, adding their contrails to at least six others. At the right, a plane coming in to land, making no contrail, rumbles off towards Heathrow Airport. This month, Heathrow is consulting on how best to add yet more flight paths over the city to accommodate the planned third runway, which will be directly in line with Chiswick High Road.
Natural History

Greater and Lesser Stag Beetles Over-Wintering at Gunnersbury Triangle

Tara with two species of Stag Beetle
The (Greater) Stag Beetle is a much bigger beast than the Lesser Stag Beetle
Enormous Stag Beetle larvae found deep underground on roots of dead Pear tree. The body of the larva is soft and white except for the hard brown head and legs, and extremely hard sclerotised black mouthparts, adapted for chewing wood. The plump larvae are a tasty meal for foxes, which can easily sniff out and dig for them in soft earth or rotten wood, so their only protection is to be deep down in a large block of wood. This is part of the value of leaving standing dead wood in the nature reserve; and it explains why we bury logs with several feet of their length below ground!
Natural History

January: Cold. Grey. Gloomy? Not Now!

January. Cold. Grey. Gloomy.

Well, not always. On a clear early morning, Venus gleamed brightly in a deep blue sky, and the waning Moon shone over the city, giving it a wintry beauty.

Venus as Morning Star, and Moon over Chiswick

On the common later that morning, the harsh blowing-over-a-comb buzz of a Mistle Thrush alerted me to a flock of winter thrushes flying up into the trees. As they moved along, the chack-chack calls, medium size, and occasional flashes of handsomely contrasting brown and grey backs showed that most of them were Fieldfares, down here from the snowy wastes of Scandinavia or Russia to enjoy the relatively balmy warmth and accessible food of Chiswick in January.

In the Gunnersbury Triangle nature reserve, as I rounded a corner a male Sparrowhawk finished his drink in a hurry and flew up from the gravelly ditch, an intimate moment.

Conservation, Natural History, Nature Reserves

Expedition to Fray’s Farm … to collect logs

Unloading wheelbarrows from roof of Land-Rover at Fray’s Farm, one of London Wildlife Trust’s numerous reserves on the western edge of London. All we needed to do was to find the logs!

We fanned out across the reserve looking for log-piles. On the way, I found this beautiful Oak in full autumnal splendour, as well as a buzzard, a red kite, and a common darter dragonfly (not bad for mid-November), and a brief glimpse of a roe deer. Jules found a handsome Carabid ground beetle.

Anna and Netty loading the spoils. The logs were covered in lichens and the ones which had lain a year or two with elegant curtain crust fungi as well.

Natural History, Nature Reserves

Willow Emerald Damselfly Eggs in Willow Twig

Willow Emerald Damselfly Eggs in Willow Twig. The female cuts a slit in the bark for each egg. The cuts have healed up (by now, November) leaving a bump around each egg.

Willow Emerald Damselfly (photographed earlier this year). The species is very new to Britain, having arrived last year or not long before that; and this year is the first time we’ve seen them at Gunnersbury Triangle, so it’s very exciting to see the unique egg-laying traces!

Netty with glorious autumnal Aspen twig. The colours are exactly as photographed.