RAm Report – Iberian Grass Snake – Natrix astreptophora (Seoane, 1884)

February 14, 2016October 24, 2017 bartvanhoofLeave a comment

Introduction
RAm Report will be about reptiles and amphibians. A category just a touch different from the ones up to now on the bog … flowers, pretty insects etc. … reptiles and amphibians are not most people’s cup of tea, with a fear of snakes and finding those slimy toads gross. I don’t have a fear, but I have a respect of snakes and you won’t see me try to handle one even if I know it to be harmless. In the venomous department, there are two snakes out there I can come across here, one is quite common. For the rest it is mainly amphibians and lizards.

Here’s a story that shows some of the poor knowledge about these animals.
I recently was at someone’s house and we were in the garden, I was talking about wildlife etc. and they told me they had a snake in their garden. I was excited and asked where it lived … the husband said that he killed it and had thrown the body on the compost heap. I wasn’t too keen on it being dead, but I wanted to see it none-the-less, so I went to have a look. I was expecting some massive beast from the story I’d just heard … what I saw was a dead Slow Worm (Angius fragilis) … sigh … and yes, it really was a big one, but still …

~~European~~ Iberian Grass Snake
EDIT (24.x.17): This post was written prior to the taxonomic split. I’ve edited the text below a touch to reflect that.
Natirx natrix is found across Europe and all the way across to eastern Asia. There are multiple subspecies. In Spain a seperate species of grass snake exists, Natirxastreptophora, and it is found throughout the Iberian peninsula. In the north, where conditions are more humid and thus more favourable, it is apparently fairly common.
The habitat is almost anywhere really, as long as it is a bit humid/damp. These snakes also like water and are good swimmers. Therefore, can be found in damp fields, along rivers, near small lakes etc. They can also be found up to 2400m in the south.

I have to state this clearly … the Grass Snake is NOT poisonous and NOT dangerous to human beings. The chances that it will strike are low and then it most probably will not strike with an open mouth. Furthermore, they often play dead if bothered too much. It can secrete some smells and blood etc. but this is also NOT dangerous.
That said, I’m sure that if one comes across an adult at full size, it might freak you out. They can grow to quite a decent length, normally around 120cm and even up to 200cm! That may be good enough to get the adrenaline flowing in most people.
Grass Snakes are reasonably variable in appearance, but they usually have a ring of white just behind the head.

Grass Snakes feed on amphibians (frogs, toads), slugs, very small mammals and baby birds.

Well, all that makes the area where I live perfect for these snakes! The fields are damp, there

Grass Snake in Cantabria, Spain. 21.04.15 - hatchling. — Grass Snake in Cantabria, Spain. 21.04.15 – hatchling.

are plenty of amphibians around and there are little streams, creeks etc. everywhere, even a medium speed flowing river.
The little one I saw was just a baby, maybe 15-20cm in length. Hatchlings are independent the minute they hatch, so this one was maybe a day old or so (hatchings are between 14-22cm). It was attempting to climb up into a water trough along the road (where cows stop to drink) … in the water trough was food, an plenty of it … I saw maybe 50+ tadpoles and around 20+ newts (Palmate Newt – Lissotriton helveticus). Anyway, these fall smack in the diet of hatchling Grass Snakes!

As far as I can remember, this is the first time I’ve ever seen a snake in the wild so I was a bit taken back when I saw it wiggling and moving around. I was able to watch it for a good 30 seconds before it slipped into the undergrowth. Due to my excitement the resulting photos were not stellar.
The result has also been that now I’m always slightly cautious when “diving” (you’ll have noticed I use that word a lot when pursuing butterflies) into fields with tall grasses and lots of bushes … heh, don’t want to step on its mother!

Further Reading
– A PDF by the Spanish government on the species. Covers distribution, red list status etc.. In Spanish and can be difficult to understand for non-Spanish speakers.
– A list of my sightings of this snake on Observation.org.
– I use the Collins Fieldguide to help me ID, by Nicholas Arnold and Denys Ovenden.

Proyecto Lepides – Recorrido A, 30TVN09, Casar de Periedo – 13.02.16

February 13, 2016 bartvanhoof30TVN09, Aglais io, butterflies, Cantabria, Casar de Periedo, Colias croceus, Gonepteryx cleopatra, Gonepteryx rhamni, Lasiommata megera, Pararge aegeria, Pieris rapae, Proyecto Lepides, Recorrido A, Spain, Vanessa atalantaLeave a comment

Introduction
When I woke up, at around 7am, it was still fairly dark out but I could see if would be a nice morning. By 10am I was ready to go and knew that I’d still have a window of sunshine before the rain would come back. Since the start of the month it has been raining almost non-stop.

Recorrido A – 13.02.16 – 30TVN09, Casar de Periedo
The weather was quite good to start with, I didn’t need to wear a sweater. It was sunny with no clouds in sight and no wind at all, at 10am it was 14C. About halfway it was probably up to 17C or so, but towards the end of the route, the wind picked up a bit (not too much) and there was a lot of cloud cover all of a sudden, was back down to 16C when I got home around 12 noon. A little while later the rain was out (in good amounts too!).

I wasn’t expecting much … the rain had been almost constant over the previous days and the ground was really soggy everywhere in the fields. I stopped to look at some birds, when I spotted something dark flittering through this strange soggy/grassy area … I quickly aimed my binoculars in the distance and as I was focusing in saw flashes of white on the wing-tips

Red Admiral in Cantabria, Spain. 13.02.16

… I instantly recognised this from the previous year … Vanessa atalanta (Red Admiral) … the butterfly dipped behind a large tussock of grass and so I dived into the soggy field to get confirmation (mostly for myself, as I really like to be sure about an ID, especially so early in the year). With some difficulty I was able to get a couple of bad photographs in (that thankfully do show the required characteristics) for a positive ID.

After a short while there were three in fairly quick succession along the route (I took a 15 min. detour to see if I could buy something for my son at the gas-station) and those were the regular patrons along the transect; Gonepteryx rhamni (Brimstone), Pieris rapae (Small White) and Pararge aegeria (Speckled Wood). At one point I’d seen so many Speckled Wood that I stopped counting, I also didn’t take pictures anymore, they were just everywhere. Although, I did take one funny snapshot of a copula and a male sitting on the two, waiting.

Speckled Wood in Cantabria, Spain. 13.02.16 - copula + male — Speckled Wood in Cantabria, Spain. 13.02.16 – copula + male

It was at my favourite spot along the transect that I spotted something odd … I thought it was a Speckled Wood by the general colouring, but I found it strange that the butterfly was so small (max. 2/3 of what I’d normally expect) and it was behaving in a strange manner. It hugged along a vertical embankment along the road, stopping here and there, usually under grass, twigs etc. What was this? I took many pictures, hoping to get an underside picture, but that proved very difficult (though in the end I managed it). I had an idea what it might be, but I’d only seen this butterfly once before and it had been exceptionally difficult to photograph too. Later when I got home I conformed my suspicion … Lasiommata megera (Wall Brown) … and I also saw that she was placing eggs (or so it seems!). I cursed that I hadn’t picked up that detail in the field.

Wall Brown in Cantabria, Spain. 13.02.16

Wall Brown in Cantabria, Spain. 13.02.16 - underside. — Wall Brown in Cantabria, Spain. 13.02.16 – underside.

I continued on, within a minute both a Colias croceus (Clouded Yellow) and Aglais io (Peacock) flew by at great speeds. Luckily those are fairly easy to ID in flight, especially as the Clouded Yellow was a male. A week earlier, on a walk nearby I’d been surprised to see a Clouded Yellow … I’d been pushing the stroller, looking at the ground and spotted a strange yellow leaf, strange as everything else was brown in mud, fallen leaves etc. I was able to get really close to it (was practically next to me anyway when I walked past it) and got some good pictures.

On I went, looking at butterflies through my binoculars, checking out the Buteo buteo (Common Buzzards) circling overhead … and then, as I was looking at a Brimstone (or so I thought) zip by I noticed flashes of orange … wait a minute … Brimstone don’t have orange, but Cleopatra do! I jogged along after it till it settled down (luckily not far off) and took some pictures. I also made sure to take one just as it set of for its next short journey, the flash of orange was clear on the picture, Gonepteryx cleopatra (Cleopatra), my first confirmed ID of this species by photo.

Picking up the pace a bit I headed home, the wind was picking up and it was starting to feel a bit chilly (had left my jacket at home), but was happy that I’d spotted a new species (the Cleopatra) for the UTM square I am monitoring.

Summary
– Vanessa atalanta — 1 (first of the year).
– Gonepteryx rhamni — around 10 in total.
– Pieris rapae — 3.
– Pararge aegeria — I stopped counting after 20 … maybe 30 in total?
– Lasiommata megera — 1 (first of the year).
– Colias croceus — 1 (I’d seen one a week earlier but not along this transect).
– Aglais io — between 10 and 15 in total.
– Gonepteryx cleopatra — 1 certain, probably 2 (first of the year).

Species year total — 9 (2015 – 45).

Further Reading
– My sightings for the day on Observation.org.

Butterfly Bulletin – Dryad – Minois dryas (Scopoli, 1763)

February 11, 2016February 14, 2016 bartvanhoofbutterflies, Cantabria, minois dryas, Proyecto Lepides, SpainLeave a comment

Introduction
As I stated in a previous post, butterflies are one of the drivers behind this blog. So, I thought I’d start my Butterfly Bulletin posts off with one of the most spectacular species I managed to see in 2015 … and that I hope to see many more times.

Mid-August I was out with my oldest son, we had gone for a walk (him in the stroller) around his siesta time so that he could have a bit of a rest, the new addition to the family (at that time around 1 month old) was tiring us all out a bit (i.e. lack of sleep) … so I decided to walk Recorrido A of my volunteer walks for Proyecto Lepides.

With my son snoring away we’d reached the back part of the route, with a south facing hill covered with trees on one side of the road and fields on the other. I was just rounding onto that stretch of paved road when out of the corner of my eye I noticed something dark and big flopping around in the field to my right. I pushed the stroller to the bank-side (son facing the field in case he woke up), put on the brakes and dived into the field, camera at the ready …

Dryad
A few quick shots of the camera and I knew I was onto something interesting … while going through my Tolman/Lewington guide (Collins, 2009) during the previous winter months, Minois dryas had been one of the species that I’d marked as hoping to see. I had no idea that this was a fairly rare species (not that clear in the field guide) in this part of its range. In general, the Dryad can be found across a band stretching across the central area of Europe and further on to Japan even. There is a slight sliver of its range that hugs the northern coast of Spain from País Vasco to Asturias (the Cantabrian Mountains). The Dryad can be found between 100-1600m in grassy and bushy margins of mixed deciduous woodland, often in damp places … the field I found her in (turned out to be a female) was thus the perfect habitat, all be it slightly below the altitude range (by about 10m).

When I spotted the butterfly, it was flying just above the grass, not in any determined fashion, but more floppily. As I entered the field it settled down in the grass (my first photos were from a side angle, see below), I slowly circled around a bit so that I could get a picture of the fully open wings. She just sat there, relaxed. I was able to creep a bit closer, but I almost always remain at a distance so no to disturb the butterfly, I did so here too. When I was satisfied I’d taken enough photos I headed back to the stroller. As I walked off I glanced back several times and she remained where she was.

Minois dryas has big oceli on the fore and hind wings that have a beautiful tings of blue to them. The one I saw was a bit “beaten up” with arts of her wings missing etc. and so the blue was not as vibrant anymore, still a great sighting and one that will stay with me for quite a while. The female is larger than the male and also has colours that are not as vibrant in general.
It was only when I was uploading the photos and data at home that I realised how special the sighting had been in a general sense.

A few months later, I went to a small exhibition, in a nearby village, on butterfly photography. The museum in which it was held also has some cabinets filled with pinned butterflies. These have been donated by a local lepidopterist. There are many tropical species but also regional species. There were around 4-5 examples of Dryad pinned, each with a tag noting year and region … they were all from the early 2000s (maybe a couple from the 1990s or earlier, cannot remember exactly). The location for all was Novales, a village/area on the other side of the large hill (extended hilly area) to the north …
Will I see this species again in the future? There’s a reasonable chance … maybe she laid eggs somewhere nearby … but, I probably won’t be as lucky as this anymore and will have to put in a lot more effort …

Oh, this butterfly is not on any red list in Spain, but it should be, as it seems to be fast disappearing due to changes in agricultural techniques.

Further Reading
– A PDF with specific distributions of various Satyrinae in Spain, Minois dryas is in that family. In Spanish but easy to understand for non-Spanish speakers.
– A list of my sightings of this butterfly on Observation.org.
– All butterfly sightings in Spain as recorded through Proyecto Lepides.

Book Club – A Buzz in the Meadow by Dave Goulson

February 1, 2016May 5, 2023 bartvanhoofbooks, butterflies, Dave Goulson, Insects, land management, PlantsLeave a comment

Introduction
This is actually the second book I’ve read by Dave Goulson, however, it is the one I’ve finished most recently and hence will cover the other book (A Sting in the Tail) at a future date.

As for other books to come through the review, over the past couple of months I purchased some field guides and natural history books, and am currently reading John Fowles’ The Collector, which is maybe not directly a “nature” book but is pretty good and about a butterfly collector, sort of …

Comments
As I stated above, this is the second book I’ve read by Mr Goulson. It is also his second book and follows up nicely from the first with many links between the two.

In 2003, Mr Goulson purchased a farm in France that came with 13 hectares (130,000 m2) of land. Since then he’s been working on the buildings and slowly letting the land get back to a more natural state of flowery meadows … although he has created a little brook and pond to attract wildlife that needs water (e.g. dragonflies). The main thing is that he’s letting the land recuperate after being fertilised and treated with pesticides etc. throughout the time that it was “productive” land for the farmstead.

The book is divided into 3 sections. The first (and longest) consists of 9 chapters covering the animal (mainly insect) life to be found around the farm. This includes bees, butterflies, dragonflies, beetles, newts etc. Birds aren’t really covered. The second section (3 chapters) is about plant life and the last section (also three chapters) is how the natural world is interlinked and what man’s effect has been on that natural world.

Each chapter starts on one topic, but often it meanders from there on, going from one related subject to the other. It is like listening to someone extremely knowledgeable on a multitude of topics and that person is excited to tell you something and then he or she just continues talking and you have the feeling they can go on for ever.
Mr Goulson has a pleasant manner of writing, which explains everything quite clearly and thus it becomes quite fun to read the book. So much so that at times I had to stop myself from reading, as there is an overload of information and it becomes impossible to remember all that is told. In other words, I’ll probably re-read chapters on specific topics in the future to remember what was said.

I enjoyed this book and it inspired me, but hey, I was probably going to enjoy the book anyway considering my interests … It was a fluid read, even though some subjects can be quite scientific, but it is never boring. The only thing is that I sometimes longed for more, but I think this is inherent with nature, in that it will take many more years before the farm gets to full potential and Mr Goulson discovers all the interesting things happening in the fields, as everything needs time to adapt, change and grow. For example, he’s doing an experiment over various plots (to do with growth of plants), but it a will take many seasons before the results are finally known and a bit more conclusive. I can easily see a “part two” in 10 years time to give us an update on how the farm’s changed.

The Edition
Title: A Buzz in the Meadow: The Natural History of a French Farm
Author: Dave Goulson
Publisher: Picador
Year: 2014
Edition: Hard cover, first US edition (2015), 1st printing, 265 pages
Additional Info: Includes index.

Further Reading
– Dave Goulson’s Twitter page.
– Mr Goulson’s page at the university where he works.

Searching for Cullum's Bee

Biodiversity of Cantabria

Month: February 2016

RAm Report – Iberian Grass Snake – Natrix astreptophora (Seoane, 1884)

Proyecto Lepides – Recorrido A, 30TVN09, Casar de Periedo – 13.02.16

Butterfly Bulletin – Dryad – Minois dryas (Scopoli, 1763)

Book Club – A Buzz in the Meadow by Dave Goulson