Birdwatcher’s Diary No.120

Published on: 2 Oct, 2016
Updated on: 2 Oct, 2016

By Malcolm Fincham

As September drew to a close and the autumn equinox passed by, a few more local sighting of wheatears came my way.

Once again it was at a farm in Blackheath, on the outskirts of Guildford, where I had seen one just a week or so previously.

Wheatear at Blackheath. Click on all pictures to enlarge in a new window.

Wheatear (right) and Whinchat together.

This time there were two present. I also picked out a slightly smaller bird close by as it repeatedly dipped down into a horse paddock then returned back to a fence post.

Whinchat.

”The habits of a stonechat ?” was my first thought, as it returned to the same post it had just left. However, on closer inspection, I noticed it had a white supercilium. I realised it was in fact a whinchat.

A continued spell of mainly dry and mild weather gave me the opportunity to photograph some of our late-summer butterflies, still out on the wing.

Red admiral feeding on the pollen of flowering ivy.

These included numerous red admirals competing with bees for pollen as they settled on flowering ivy.

Small copper.

Several small coppers could also still be seen, one giving a view of its under-wing.

Speckled wood.

As well as plenty of speckled wood butterflies, often seen spiralling into the air to chase each other and defend their territories.

Common darter.

Various colourful dragonflies were also still displaying.

I think this is a southern migrant hawker.

Getting pictures of what I believe to be common darter and southern migrant hawker.

Sunset at Papercourt watermeadows.

I also received a request from a small posse of pals to revisit Papercourt watermeadows on what turned out to be a successful mission to see the barn owl I photographed there a few weeks ago.

Barn owl at Papercourt.

I even managed to ‘snatch’ a few more shots of it as it hunted over the long grass.

The Sheppy Crossing. It is the only road access to the island aloingside the older Kingsferry Bridge.

As daylight hours drew shorter, I was invited on a trip to the Isle of Sheppey. Always interested in a new venture and once again thanks to the inspirations of Dougal, with his passion of seeing critters to add to his own list of new sightings.

Sheppey, as mentioned in a few of my early reports, is the place I visit annually to view the variety of birds of prey that winter there. This time it was in the hope of getting photos of a few creatures of a non-indigenous kind.

The marsh frog was first introduced to Walland Marsh, Kent in 1935. It is said, by the wife of E.P. Smith, MP for Ashford, who wanted to surprise him with some edible French frogs to put in the garden. Unfortunately French frogs were unavailable so she bought some large Hungarian frogs instead. These promptly escaped from their garden in Stone-in-Oxney and spread across the ditches of the marsh with great success: colonising the entire Romney Marsh area by the 1960s.

Marsh frog.

This frog is now found in several areas of Kent and East Sussex. It is by far the most successful introduction, thought to occupy an ecological niche; they choose breeding sites such as dykes and ditches not generally chosen by our native amphibians.

However, the marsh frog is a voracious predator and further spread of this species in the UK is inadvisable due to unknown impact on native herpetofauna, and illegal under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. Other introductions are known to exist, including colonies in south-west and west London. It is possible to determine the main source of origin of marsh frogs as there is a subtle difference in the frequency of their calls as longitude changes from east to west.

The main reason for our visit there was to try to get a sighting of a critter that had stowed away on cargo ships, in the crevices of rocks.

Looking for yellow-tailed scorpions at Sheerness Docks.

Yellow-tailed scorpions have, over the years, set up colonies around the walls of the dockyard in Sheerness. This population was the first recorded in the UK way back in the 1860s.

Can you spot the scorpion?

It is believed the Sheerness scorpions arrived in cargoes of Italian masonry. The majority are thought to have arrived during the Georgian era and settled at the port’s dockyard. In recent years they have multiplied vigorously. There are now reckoned to be between 10,000 and 15,000 ‘yellow-tails’ living in crevices in the dockyard walls.

During the day these scorpions can be almost impossible to find as they hide in the smallest of gaps in brickwork.

During the day these scorpions can be almost impossible to find as they hide themselves away in the smallest of gaps They have occasionally been found at several coastal towns across the south of England over the years, but the best known and most successful site is on the Isle of Sheppey at the dock-land town walls of Sheerness.

The yellow-tailed scorpion has large pincers for its size and a small stinging tail. This tail can only deliver a very mild sting to a human. The yellow-tailed scorpion is usually very reluctant to use its sting and the effect is said to be comparable to that of a mild bee sting at worse and usually poses no threat to healthy adults, although I had no desire to test these claims. There are no records of anyone that has experienced any signs of aggressive or defensive behaviour from any of them.

Yellow-tailed scorpion.

As you can see from the pictures I took, these guys are really quite cute! The yellow-tailed scorpion grows to a couple of inches in length and is dark chocolate brown with a yellow-tipped tail.

Scorpion viewed under ultra-violet light.

In fact, for most of their lives, they do absolutely nothing. They live in crevices without moving until a woodlouse or spider ambles by. They then pounce, and devour the pitiable passer-by. Thanks to an incredibly low metabolic rate, yellow-tails can live on only four or five such catches a year. Essentially, they are active for about 10 minutes every 12 months.

Occasionally, a few scorpions manage to travel to other sites and set up independent colonies, but none seem to survive for long periods. Only the Sheerness scorpions have thrived.

The two-inch long arachnids can sting – but rarely do!

This scorpion colony is still the most famous one in the country, having tolerated our UK climate there for over 150 years, but there are now said to be populations of European yellow-tailed scorpions in and around the London area as well as north Devon that have continued to survive.

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