Grayling and other Insects on Sutton Heath (near Sutton Hoo)

Grayling, Sutton Heath, this afternoon

We have been exploring what for us is a new corner of Suffolk this weekend. We know the Sutton Hoo site pretty well, but had never discovered the lie of the land at nearby Sutton Heath ... until yesterday. We liked what we found so much that we returned this afternoon and were treated to a remarkable aerial display by Grayling butterflies. 

The Grayling is not a butterfly we see very often at all; and in this year of C-19, I had begun to think that, along with other wild things such as bluebells, tadpoles and demoiselles, it was going to be just one more species that would have to wait for a future year. How wrong I was. But I had almost forgotten just how camouflaged these Graylings can be when they are not on the wing against a blue sky.

When you visit a new place, I always find it helpful when there is a ready made guide. This information board may have been a bit faded, but it told us about Nightjars, Adders and about the different kinds of heather that one might encounter on this site in the Suffolk Sandlings.

We followed the marked-out trail and were soon heading into the forest, where we saw conifers, rowan, oak trees, chestnut, silver birch and holly.

After a short time we found ourselves in dappled sunlight, and began to wonder if the forest was about to give way.

Having seen an Elephant Hawk-moth caterpillar near our home on Friday, we checked the Rosebay Willowherb carefully, but failed to see this distinctive larva on the heath.

We came across a Buddleia, presumably a self-seeded one, in a clearing with benches, and there beside it was this Red Admiral.

This grasshopper was spotted in the same place, hopping about on these dead oak leaves.

The butterfly in the photo below is a Small Heath, a species we see not infrequently in this part of the world. It is very small.

I mentioned above that Rowan was one of the species of tree we noticed.

The view below gives an impression of this mixed habitat, with heather giving way to bracken, which in turn gives way to more heather and bracken before you reach a stand of silver birch. There is also a large conifer, and what looks like an oak in the foreground.

These may not be the Scottish moors, but we can't really complain, can we?

We were keeping a sharp eye out for more Grayling butterflies when we noticed this sand wasp, possibly the Red-banded Sand Wasp. We see these from time to time, but had not seen one for ages.

I'm not quite sure what it was doing on this bit of dead vegetation...

I particularly like the way in which the Grayling in the photo below barely shows up beside the pine cone. In a recent post I featured the Spider Wasp, with its unmissable yellow stripes. How strange that that particular insect should protect itself by mimicking a very visible wasp while this butterfly should use camouflage. 

Look for the legs in the photo below...

The undergrowth here on the sandy heath is made up of dead bracken, old acorns, bits of bark and old stalks.

In total contrast, this tiny caterpillar could hardly be missed! Is it a species of (?pine) sawfly?

We noticed two snails (or shells) in close proximity to one another.

It was a joy to watch the butterflies in a little glade. We had not seen Small Coppers (below) for some weeks.

This is certainly a place we are glad to have found. And it feels good to add the Grayling to my list of butterflies seen in this strange year. 

Suffolk Wildlife Trust's Knettishall Heath Reserve

Having left Thetford behind us (please see previous post), we headed for the wild expanse of Knettishall Heath, which is in the care of Suffolk Wildlife Trust. It is the Trust's largest reserve, and even on a dry Bank Holiday afternoon, we saw very few other people once we left the main car park. We decided to start out on the red rabbit trail...

We passed areas of deciduous trees...

... and areas where there were mainly conifers.

On a cloudy afternoon, a few patches of blue sky were particularly welcome.

There were corrugated iron sheets for reptiles. I wonder who was lurking under this one. Adders are occasionally seen, and there are Grass Snakes, Common Lizards and Slow Worms in the area. We shall have to return on a sunnier day...

This Breckland heath is an ancient landscape: the photos above and below show the bowl barrow tumulus at Hut Hill.

It was too cool for most insects, but there were occasional sheltered spots in dappled sunshine...

... and we noticed this Green-veined White butterfly in just such a spot.

When I was scanning the leaves for ladybirds through my zoom lens, I noticed the creature above (and below). I think it may well be a day-flying Fairy Moth (aka a Green Longhorn).

And yes...

... there was a single ladybird. I am not sure whether it is a Cream-spot or an Orange. The three spots on the wing shown on the right (straddling the top of the elytra) in the photo below could suggest the former, but I have a hunch there is more to it than that! I have yet to log the sighting on the UK Ladybird Survey via iRecord, so watch this space. The ladybird flew up in the air then came back and perched on the leaf.

There is plenty more for us to explore on Knettishall Heath on a future occasion, but by 4 o'clock we felt in need of a cup of tea so we drove to the garden centre at Bressingham. There was plenty of steam in the adjacent gardens.

Sand Wasps, Digger Wasps, the Ant-lion and the Bee-wolf

Suffolk boasts a number of sandy heathland and sand dune habitats. The photos below were taken at NT Sutton Hoo, above the river Deben near Woodbridge and at RSPB Minsmere on the Suffolk coast. The mounds at Sutton Hoo rise prominently above the skyline, but there are also a number of tiny mounds in the area that you could easily miss. These belong to a variety of burrowing insects including digger wasps.

The sandy soil around Minsmere and the adjoining heath above Dunwich is home to the Ant-lion and the Bee-wolf. Adult Ant-lions are not exactly spectacular: they look a bit like dull grey damselflies and are not often seen during the best hours of daylight, preferring the evening for their excursions on the wing. The larvae are the ones responsible for the name since they have soft bodies covered in bristles: they also have huge appetites for ants. They live in sandy pits, which they create and in which they sometimes play host to parasitic insects.

The Bee-wolf, on the other hand, is actually a solitary digger wasp. This insect preys on the worker Honey bee, but since the Bee-wolf needs a very particular habitat, I wonder how much of a threat it poses to the Honey bee population. It looks like a large wasp, but with rather short thick antennae.

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My first photo (immediately below) was taken at Sutton Hoo in sandy soil. I do not have an exact ID for the insect to date, but I am pretty certain that it is a species of Digger Wasp ...

... for here it is doing what Digger Wasps do best.

The photo below shows ... a head in a hole. No prizes for guessing that!

The next photo was taken on the reserve at RSPB Minsmere along the sandy edge of the path that leads towards the sea from the Visitors' Centre.

Here we are back at NT Sutton Hoo again, where the brown insect - a weevil perhaps, possibly a larva of some sort - is climbing up the sandy wall of a large Digger Wasp/Sand Wasp hole. I am wondering if there is another insect slightly above it to the right in the hole within the hole. There was a lot of insect activity in the area.

 The following picture is of the same hole, and shows a wasp peering out of a crevice.

 

The hole below was about a couple of metres away from the large one above. This time you can see a different kind of insect, looking more like an ant; and yet it is in fact a solitary Red-banded Sand Wasp of the Ammophila family.

... and here it is ...

... digging away.

The photos that I took at Sutton Hoo were taken during a walk around the mounds. The photo below shows just how brown the long grass has become, despite the heavy rains in June. I find it sad to think that we are already about a month on from the longest day.

And finally, here is a photo of three friends who were quite happy to stand in our path until their pictures had been taken!