Stephen Dunstan offers something slightly different this month, as there isn’t a set route for this nature walk. Instead the invitation is to take a short walk around an open space near you looking more closely at smaller creatures which are on the wing as we enter the summer period.
The starting point for this walk is to choose your own park or open space. You could even get productive results in your own garden, but we will assume a public park. If there is somewhere with a variety of plants that will be helpful, taller trees will add to the variety and natural and artificial pools of water are a bonus.
Some possibilities are Stanley Park (obviously), Devonshire Rock Gardens (main photo), Gynn Gardens, Watson Road Park, Highfield Park, Boundary Park and
Kincraig Lake.
Butterflies
Many readers will be familiar with several species of butterfly that occur in our local area – the Large and Small whites and the group of larger colourful vanessids including Peacock, Red Admiral and Small Tortoiseshell. There are others on the wing in late May and early June that are relatively easy to identify that can occur in even small parks and gardens.
Two small blue butterflies are possible. Higher flying ones with bright blue undersides will be Holly Blues (above), ones with more camouflaged undersides flying low over grassy areas will be male Common Blues (females are usually brown and less easy to identify). Orange Tips flit through gardens; the females look similar to other white species but the males as the name suggests have orange edges to the front of each forewing and are very distinctive. Speckled Wood have become more common as our summers have got warmer, they are medium sized chocolate brown butterflies with golden spotting. Speckled Woods are generally found around trees.
If you’ve seen a butterfly and identified it you can submit it here.
Moths
A number of moths that fly during the day are identifiable. One of the most striking is the scarlet and emerald Cinnabar moth (above). Personally I have seen these this month at Boundary Park and on grass verges in South Shore. Readers of a certain age will remember when there black and yellow striped caterpillars were a familiar site on ragwort plants.
Dragonflies and damselflies
Parks and gardens with standing or running water are more likely to attract these stunning insects, but they can wander to other areas to feed. You won’t be able to see them well sometimes, as they whizz past, but some are still quite distinctive.
The most common damselfly at this time of the year is the Azure Dragonfly, which has a blue and black body. It can be seen even on fairly small pools and ponds. At the other end of the spectrum Britain’s largest dragonfly the Emperor (above) is also on the wing at this time of year, the males are largely blue and the females emerald green.
Other mini-beasts
Bees and hoverflies are an increasingly popular area of nature study, bees because of their importance as pollinators and hoverflies because lots of species can be seen without travelling large distances. Any park locally will hold examples of each on a sunny day, separating them can be difficult because hoverflies have developed bee and wasp like colours to deter predators. The Marmalade hoverfly (above) is a common and locally widespread hoverfly you can easily locate which shows this adaptation.
Many of us these days have good cameras with micro-photography capabilities. More to the point many of us carry cameras with high-spec camera functions. If you get good pictures of bees and hoverflies in your local park you can use platforms like iRecord and ObsIdentify to get experts to identify them for you. This can be a good way to learn more about the nature around you, even in the heart of Blackpool.
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