Spot the (Sutton Hoo) Dragon

We returned to NT Sutton Hoo this afternoon and looked in the wood to see how the bluebells are coming along. You can see the green shoots behind Spot the Dragon. Some years we have seen these wonderful flowers attracting Orange-tip butterflies, showing off nature's complementary colours in the best of ways; though I cannot help wondering why there should be such contrast when (surely) camouflage, i.e. a flower and butterfly of the same shade, would afford more protection from predators. 

And by the way, we have at last seen our first butterfly of 2023; a Small Tortoiseshell on 21 March. This seems very late for back in 2004 when we were still living in Swansea, two butterflies alighted on our rockery on a snowy Valentine's Day. I wrote a Haiku to mark the event:

St Valentine’s Day –
butterflies hug the heather,
snow kisses the lawn

Looking across the River Deben to Woodbridge

 

Spot the Dragon and the Sutton Hoo Bluebells

 

I love bluebells, partly because blue is my favourite colour and there are not many flowers that have such an intensity of blue colouring, and partly because they remind me of nursery school visits to Kippington Meadow where we formed a circle and danced, singing 'In and out the dusty bluebells'. I wonder if any of you played this 'song-game' when you were also very young.  

We saw the bluebells in this post yesterday in the woods that form part of the Sutton Hoo estate. There was also plenty of Hawthorn blossom.

 

 

Sutton Hoo overlooks the river Deben and the town on Woodbridge. The tide was going out at speed. 

 

Here be dragons in the wood ...

 

 

... but what I didn't know until yesterday was that this dragon's name appears to be 'Spot'.   ;-)

 

There were one or two winged insects flitting about on the gorse. I wonder what the white sphere is at the top of the red arrow. I am guessing it may be an egg or perhaps pupa of some kind.  

 

Who knows if this impressive den, created with last year's bracken, was meant to resemble an ancient dwelling? 

 

I had wondered if the tiny pink flower below was a type of Storksbill. Perhaps I need to post it on iSpot. 

 * * *

Meanwhile, back in our Suffolk garden the Bee-flies have been making the most of our Dandelions and Honeybees have been busy gathering amber-gold pollen.

 

First Butterfly Sighting and Other Insects in the Garden

 

At long last, the day finally arrived! I saw my first butterfly of the year, a smart male Brimstone, gracing our garden yesterday. 

But there were other sights to catch my attention as I took a careful look around this morning. One of these was the bee you see in the photo above and in the photo below. 

 

I watched as the bee squeezed herself in and out of the curled leaf. I know little about bees, but I am guessing she was a queen bumblebee, and that she had passed the winter hibernating in the patch of leaf litter. I spent several minutes watching her.

Something else 'bee-like' stopped me in my tracks. It was what I think may be a Red-mason bee, though, as ever, please correct me by leaving a comment. 

As you can see in the photo above, this little bee was soon joined by a much more ferocious-looking insect (is it a wasp or a wasp-mimic?). I waited to see what would happen next, and after just a few short seconds, the bee took off.

It seems to have been a good day for bees here. Look at the golden pollen in this Honeybee's 'saddlebags'! 

I have not been able to identify the fly in the  photo above yet, but wonder if it is a Soldier Fly. Update: it's hard to see what lies under the wings, but I'm wondering if this is more likely to be Meliscaeva auricollis.

Let's have a brief 'insect interlude' to make way for the cheering sight of this blossom. I love seeing the colourful flowers once again.

But, of course, it's not just the plants that bring colour. The photos below show the distinctive reds and oranges of our 7-spot Ladybirds. The one in the next photo has an unusual mark on its elytra. There are certainly two, and probably three, 7-spots in the second picture, along with a Pine Ladybird. 

I was delighted to discover more Violets in the garden this morning. And finally, what a joy it was to see the Brimstone, even if I was unable to take its photograph. I saw the one below in 2019. 

I see I have almost completed a year of the Butterfly Conservation Garden Butterfly Survey. Having failed to spot any butterflies in January and February a year ago, I began to log my sightings at end of March 2020.

Ten minutes in the garden

I usually like to know or discover the identity of what is out and about in the garden, but this morning it seemed more important to catch the warmth of the sunshine and to photograph the insects (and a few other things).

The world may seem a strange place at present, but it was heartening to look around my home patch and find that spring was definitely in the air. Ladybirds, in particular, were out in force and one pair appeared to be mating. I even caught a fleeting glimpse of what appeared to be a large wasp-like creature, almost the size of a hornet. 

Bees and hoverflies were on the wing and on the bushes

Cherry blossom is just beginning to appear

Flowering Currant

Dandelion

Two tiny ladybirds...

... I think they are Pine Ladybirds

Another tiny ladybird with rimmed elytra, perhaps 0.2-3cm

Look at those legs!

What a joy to see those pollen sacs!

I may not have known the names of all the insects and other creatures I encountered in a limited space and a short time, but it was exciting to see so many small things moving about after the long winter months. And having posted these photos, I am now keen to add some of my sightings, and especially my 'mysteries', to iSpot...

P.S. In case you miss this comment, I shall repost it here, with grateful thanks to Conehead54:

Conehead54 said...

All the small ladybirds are indeed Pine Ladybirds. The top hoverfly is one of the dronefly group. Eristalis pertinax + the small bees are some sort of Andrena.

Grey Skies over Sutton Hoo

Saturday was a very grey day, but we were keen to get some fresh air and decided that NT Sutton Hoo was our best option. There seem to be a lot of changes happening over the site at present, not least the construction of this 17 metre high viewing tower.

The Anglo-Saxon Sutton Hoo ship was 27 metres long, and was dragged up to the site in the photo above.

Sadly there is no lift so the tower will not be accessible to all, but for those who can climb, it will provide views not only of the Royal Burial Ground (you can see a couple of the mounds in my photo), but also of the river Deben, which lies in the valley behind. 

The sudden flicker of sunlight was a welcome sight on a grey afternoon.

The photo above was taken on Saturday, showing the work in progress at the base of the tower...

...and I took the photo above last summer when the area was being excavated. 

It is always a joy to see the Herdwick sheep on the site. Apparently, and not surprisingly with the 'wick' ending, the name comes from the Old Norse word, herdvyck, meaning sheep pasture. 

 I took the photo above on a grey day last June, but have reposted it to give a little more impression of the site.

The photos above and below show a metal installation (i.e. model/reconstruction) of the ship by the visitors' centre.

I looked so hard for some wild spring flowers, but without much success. There were some lovely daffodils, ...

...a few late snowdrops,

...and some beautiful blossom. I think it may be Blackthorn as there did not appear to be any leaves in evidence.

We noticed the raised beds and assumed they were part of a sensory garden, but it turned out to be a 'dye garden'. 



I look forward to seeing it again once the plants have grown a bit. 

The names alone conjured up aspects of Anglo-Saxon life in my imagination, but the Woad plant actually originates from the area that is now south-east Russia (K.G. Gilbert, in Encyclopedia of Applied Plant Sciences, 2003).

These Woad plants seemed to be thriving. 

We visit Sutton Hoo several times a year. I wonder what we will see next time. The site is usually a good habitat for Skylarks and Small Copper butterflies. We noticed that a number of bramble and gorse bushes had been removed. I just hope the construction work will not disturb the wildlife habitats too much.