2023 Highlights

 

Cistus Forester moth - Tucking Mill 27-05-2023

2023 Highlights

2023 was generally a good year for butterflies. The weather was significantly wetter than the exceptionally hot and sunny year of 2022 and I was interested to see whether this has had an impact on butterfly populations locally. 

Butterfly wise, there were few surprises and no new species to add to the list. However, the year has thrown up some interesting non-butterfly sightings.

Mason bee (Osmia bicolor) - Tucking Mill 07-05-2023

On the May 7th I spotted a bee methodically building a stack of grass stems. This turn out to be a Red-tailed Mason bee (Osmia bicolor). They are species of bee that nests in empty snail shells and then covers the shell with grass. It is classified as a "Nationally Notable" species and certainly one I have not seen before.

Cistus Forester moth - Tucking Mill 27-05-2023

Another surprise came on the 27th May. Amongst the Dingy and Grizzled skipper butterflies I saw a small metallic green moth flying low over the grass. I recognised it as one of several species of Forester Moth. I had not seen a Forester Moth in the Bath area for decades. I tentatively recorded it as a Cistus Forester, given the habitat and abundance of Rock Rose, its larval foodplant.

Grizzled Skippers - Tucking Mill 27-05-2023

I have recorded Grizzled Skipper butterflies in the valley in each of the last five years. Total counts each season have risen from five in 2019 to twenty-five in 2023. This year has been exceptional for the species in this location, but I wonder if this will be a high point population wise. 

Embankment Work Party 

During the early spring of 2023, I was one of a small number of Sustrans volunteers who helped maintain a short stretch of embankment just south of the Tucking Mill viaduct. 

The purpose of the work was to maintain the strip of grassland at the top of the embankment to prevent it being overwhelmed with scrub, and encroaching on the fields beyond. We removed or reduced the brambles and small shrubs and raked and removed as much of the dead grass as possible. 

Embankment - Tucking Mill, March 2023

The work appears to have had some benefit, as by August 2023 the area was ablaze with the colour of wild flowers. Earlier in the year it was host to the Red-tailed Mason bee (Osmia bicolor) mentioned above. A full account of the work and the impact it had can be found here.

Embankment - Tucking Mill 11-08-2023

Reptiles

Common Lizard - Tucking Mill 07-05-2023

For me, 2023 was also a good year for spotting reptiles in the valley. Up to the start of this year I had only seen the occasional Slow worm and just one glimpse of a Common Lizard. That changed in 2023 as I saw at least four Common Lizards, two Grass Snakes and numerous Slow-worms.

Grass snake - Tucking Mill 17-10-2023

Slow worms - Tucking Mill 07-05-2023

Other highlights

Painted Lady butterfly on Devil's-bit Scabious - Tucking Mill Sept 2023

Towards the end of the year, when most of the wild flowers had been and gone, several of the grassy areas in the valley came alive with blooms of Devil's-bit Scabious. I don't remember the flowers being so numerous in previous years.

Spotted Flycatcher - Tucking Mill 02-09-2023

I don't talk a lot about the birds I see in the valley. This is not because I am disinterested in them, It's because I am probably to absorbed in the insects! On the 2nd September I was finally distracted by a loud twittering in a hedge that bordered one of the fields. It was a Spotted Flycatcher that had clearly spotted me.