British discoveries of wildlife, but no cicadas

This video from Britain is called How a smartphone could become an endangered cicada detector.

From Wildlife Extra:

Search for Britain’s only cicada finds rare wildlife, but no cicada

Close, but no Cicada

June 2013. Rare species of moth, bat and plant were discovered in the New Forest National Park during a 24-hour census of wildlife. Enthusiasts young and old were joined by a host of experts over the weekend in this year’s BioBlitz, organised by the New Forest National Park Authority.

500 species recorded

There were more than 1,200 finds with about 500 different species surveyed including the rare and aptly named moth Scarce Merveille du Jour, and the Daubenton’s bat which was recorded for the first time at Roydon Woods Nature Reserve near Brockenhurst.

No Cicada

But there were no sign of the elusive New Forest cicada despite help from a new smartphone app developed by scientists at the University of Southampton. The rare singing insect is the UK’s only native cicada and hasn’t been seen since 1993, although some evidence of its presence was found in 2000. The ‘Cicada Hunt’ app was launched at the BioBlitz and can pick up the insect’s distinctive mating calls which it sings from May to July. More than 200 people have already downloaded the free software since it was released on 3 June, but so far its songs haven’t been heard.

Next month is the best time to search

Dr Alex Rogers, from the University’s Faculty of Physical Sciences and Engineering, said: ‘The next month or so is the ideal time to search for the New Forest cicada. It likes warm, still, sunny weather, and is most likely to be found in sunny clearings, where it will sing for a few hours either side of midday.’

The cicada app is available now for both iPhone and Android smartphones on the iTunes and Google Play app stores. Search for ‘Cicada Hunt’. To find out more about the New Forest Cicada Project go to www.newforestcicada.info.

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Rare dragonfly back in Cambridgeshire, England

This video says about itself:

The Norfolk Hawker – its life, laying eggs and getting killed by a hairy dragonfly.

From Wildlife Extra:

Rare dragonfly returns to Cambridgeshire after 120 years

Rare Norfolk Hawker moves to Cambridgeshire!

June 2013. The British Dragonfly Society has confirmed that a new breeding population of rare Norfolk Hawker dragonflies has been found at Paxton Pits Nature Reserve, Little Paxton, Cambridgeshire, a reserve managed by Huntingdonshire District Council Countryside Services. This is the first breeding site to be discovered outside of the species’ Norfolk and Suffolk stronghold since Norfolk Hawkers were lost from the Cambridgeshire fens 120 years ago!

Endangered

Dr Pam Taylor, President of the British Dragonfly Society, said: “The Norfolk Hawker is an endangered dragonfly protected by law, so the discovery of a totally new population is very exciting indeed. The main threats to the species in its Norfolk Broads and coastal Suffolk habitats are sea level rise and saline intrusion into freshwater dykes and ditches. The discovery of a new inland site, well protected from these threats, could help to preserve the future of Norfolk Hawkers in the UK.”

Kirstien Drew, Paxton Pits Ranger, said: “Paxton Pits Nature Reserve is home to many different species of dragonfly, but to find that the Norfolk Hawker is breeding in our lakes is a major discovery and something we will be monitoring very closely.”

Sightings

The first recent sighting of Norfolk Hawker in Cambridgeshire came two years ago when a male was seen holding territory over water soldier plants in Hayling Lake at Paxton Pits Nature Reserve. Last year a female Norfolk Hawker was observed on the neighbouring Rudd Lake. This season the first reported sighting came from Potton Wood, just over the border in Bedfordshire. This prompted a search for the possible source of this dragonfly and a number of exuviae (shed larval cases) were found at Paxton Pits Nature Reserve. Further searches by boat a few days later revealed no fewer than 26 Norfolk Hawkers have already emerged from Hayling Lake. If they return to breed successfully again later this month, the future of Norfolk Hawker dragonflies in Cambridgeshire could be secure.

Norfolk Hawker is a large gingery-brown dragonfly with conspicuous apple-green eyes. It has largely clear wings, two yellow stripes on each side of the thorax and a yellow triangle near the top of the abdomen. After living as aquatic larvae for two years, adults usually emerge from late May onwards. In most years the species can still be seen flying until early August. Norfolk Hawker was listed as a Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) species in 2007. The localised distribution of this species in low-lying areas of the broads and coastal marshes make it vulnerable to extinction from climate change and sea-level rise. A local BAP document outlining actions to record and protect the species was published in March 2010. Norfolk Hawker dragonfly is fully protected under Schedule 5 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 (as amended). It is also listed in section 41 of the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006 and is described as Endangered in the Odonata Red Data List Norfolk Hawker Aeshna isosceles.

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Florida butterfly species extinct

From Wildlife Extra:

Two butterflies declared extinct in USA

Zestos skipper butterfly & Rockland grass skipper butterfly declared extinct

June 2013. Officials from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) have declared two species of butterfly as officially extinct. Both butterflies were previously found in South Florida, but have not been seen for 9 and 13 years respectively, despite extensive searches.

Zestos skipper butterfly – Not seen since 2004

The Zestos skipper butterfly has not been seen since 2004. The Zestos skipper was last recorded in the Florida Keys in 2004, but hadn’t been seen for several years before that on the mainland. The Zestos skipper wasn’t thought to be Endangered as it was widespread throughout the Bahamas. However it was recently discovered that the Zestos skipper in Florida was a distinct subspecies; sadly it was probably already extinct when that discovery was made.

The Zestos skipper occurs commonly throughout the Bahamas and eastern Antilles. Based on this information, the Zestos skipper was not considered imperiled, globally, and therefore the butterfly was never considered for listing as endangered in the United States. It was only recently discovered that the Zestos skipper in Florida was in fact a distinct subspecies, found nowhere else. Before conservation agencies could move to protect it, it was gone. Similarly, the rockland grass skipper was thought to be extinct in the 1980s. However, it was briefly rediscovered on Big Pine Key in 1999, but disappeared again before recovery actions could be implemented.

Rockland grass skipper butterfly – Not seen since 2000

The Rockland grass skipper was last seen in the Everglades National Park in 2000.

Causes of decline

US Wildlife Service scientists believe the main cause of decline and disappearance of butterflies in southern Florida is loss, modification and fragmentation, and in some instances inconsistent management, of the natural habitats that butterflies and their larval hostplants depend on. Other possible factors include: exotic predatory ants, small population size, poaching, use of pesticides for mosquito control and the influence of climate change.

This is called Video Essay: Saving the Miami Blue Butterfly.

Miami Blue butterfly going the same way?

Scientists also believe the pattern of the disappearance in the Zestos skipper is similar to that of the now critically endangered Miami Blue butterfly. Climate change is an acute threat to the Miami blue, as all sites within Key West National Wildlife Refuge known to currently support Miami blues appear to be losing habitat and hostplants due to the effects of sea level rise. The Service has funded surveys and research of Miami blue populations within Key West National Wildlife Refuge. In the near future, the Service, along with IBWG members will develop a recovery plan for the Miami blue.

Britain: butterflies are extremely sensitive to changes in temperature and new research has revealed that when summer weather turns bad the Silver-spotted skipper battles for survival: here.
See also here.

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Svalbard Jurassic giant reptiles, other fossils

This video about Svalbard says about itself:

National Geographic Live! – Jørn Hurum: Sea Monster Island

Jan 2, 2012

Far north of the Arctic Circle, emerging explorer Jørn Hurum coaxes the secrets of evolution from a rocky polar desert with a treasure trove of fossils, including sea monsters of the Jurassic era.

Don’t worry, the reports and photos about Svalbard birds and other wildlife in June 2013 will return.

Meanwhile, about other Svalbard wildlife, from much longer ago.

From the Natural History Museum in Oslo, Norway:

Jurassic Plesiosaurs and Ichthyosaurs of Svalbard

Plesiosaurs and ichthyosaurs are two groups of marine reptiles that inhabited the Earth’s oceans in the Mesozoic – the plesiosaurs being most diverse in the Jurassic and Early Cretaceous, while the ichthyosaurs dominated the Triassic and diminished throughout the Jurassic and Cretaceous. Like today’s whales and seals, plesiosaurs and ichthyosaurs descended from land-living animals that adapted to a life in water. The evolutionary path to this life is reflected in the anatomy of the body. Both groups had four flippers of which, in plesiosaurs, all four were used for locomotion, whereas in the dolphin-like ichthyosaurs the hind flippers were reduced and a fish-like tail propelled the animal forward, while the fore flippers were used for steering.

On Svalbard the first remains of these animals are of Triassic ichthyosaurs found over a century ago. The first Jurassic fossil – a plesiosaur – was found in 1913 on Spitsbergen near the mountain Janusfjellet. In 1931 the postcranial remains of another plesiosaur was found by an American group of medical doctors studying the spread of the common cold in Longyearbyen. This material was later described and named Tricleidus svalbardensis.

With the exception of one isolated plesiosaur limb, no new material from Jurassic rocks were recorded until 2001 when an excursion of Norwegian scientists and students came across the remains of a marine reptile weathering out of the black shale in the Slottsmøya Member of the Agardhfjellet Formation (Tithonian, Upper Jurassic). The find was reported to Dr. Jørn Harald Hurum at the Natural History Museum in Oslo, who in 2004 led a team into the field to collect the specimen, which turned out to be a partial plesiosaur skeleton. While in the field, Dr. Hurum’s team found an astounding nine additional occurrences including a large complete ichthyosaur skull (which was also collected and is being prepared).

Based on the exceptional number and quality of specimens collected in 2004, Dr. Hurum and Dr. Hans Arne Nakrem, planned a larger expedition for the summer of 2006. The purpose of this return trip to Spitsbergen was to locate and map other marine vertebrate skeletons occurring in the Slottsmøya Member. During this 11-day expedition parts of additional 28 specimens were discovered, including six ichthyosaurs, 20 long-necked plesiosaurs, and two remarkable short-necked plesiosaurs (commonly known as pliosaurs). One of these pliosaurs along with one long-necked plesiosaur and one ichthyosaur were collected during a 3 week expedition led by Dr. Hurum the following year. Back in Oslo the material was prepared and is now part of the Ph.D. study of Espen M. Knutsen at the Natural History Museum, University of Oslo.

In the summer of 2008 the same team led by Dr. Hurum collected the last pliosaur and two more long-necked plesiosaurs.

According to a Spitsbergen Jurassic Research Group leaflet, six plesiosaur species and at least two ichthyosaur species, new to science, were discovered recently on Svalbard.

Also fossils of ammonites, belemnites, and other marine invertebrates from the age of dinosaurs, plesiosaurs and ichthyosaurs have been found on Svalbard.

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Young black-headed gulls learn to fly

16 June 2013.

To the Starrevaart bird reserve.

We cross the Vliet canal.

In the Vliet canal, a barnacle goose swims. Egyptian and grey lag geese on the bank.

In a reed bed along the Kniplaan, a reed warbler sings.

In the Meeslouwerplas, two tufted ducks swim. Behind them, a great cormorant sits.

One spoonbill, and many swifts, flying.

In shallow water, scores of black-tailed godwits, an avocet and a redshank standing.

A male and a female shoveler duck on a sandbank are in love with each other, their heads going up and down.

Then, a wall brown butterfly on a white clover flower.

This is a wall brown video from the Netherlands.

A dead mole on the footpath.

We arrive at the hide.

At the small island near the hide, this year’s young black-headed gulls are just learning to swim and fly.

Though they can swim and fly now, they still beg their parents for food.

Meanwhile, the adult gulls like to strike poses on poles.

Barn swallows fly past.

A male wigeon and grey lag geese swimming. And a female teal.

As we walk back, we hear edible frogs, and a whitethroat singing.

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Bittern, avocet chick, butterflies

To all people reading this blog especially for the series on the birds and other wildlife of the Arctic Svalbard archipelago: don’t despair. It will continue as soon as many photos will be sorted out!

Meanwhile, about another island, smaller than Spitsbergen, and not as cold: Tiengemeten in the Netherlands.

This video is about Tiengemeten island.

Saturday 16 June 2013.

Near the ferry to the island, a great crested grebe swims.

Swifts fly overhead.

On the bank of Tiengemeten, three little egrets clean their feathers.

A whitethroat sings.

On the ferry, it had rained, like last time I was on the island. However, the rest of the day, the weather is sunny, with much wind.

Barn swallows nest in the visitors’ centre.

Great tit sounds.

In a reed bed, a reed warbler song.

Tufted ducks. And common pochards.

Avocets on a bank.

A great cormorant, and barnacle geese flying.

Redshanks.

The first butterfly of today: a common blue.

A skylark sings.

A northern lapwing.

Our second butterfly: a small heath.

A common tern flying.

On an islet in the lake, a small avocet chick walking.

A reed bunting sings.

Shelducks swim.

A marsh harrier.

Then, our third butterfly … really, a moth: a cinnabar moth.

Then, something special. A bittern, flying against the wind, so: slowly, to the left.

Garden tiger moth caterpillars cross the footpath.

A spoonbill flying.

A big group of gadwall ducks resting.

Grey lag geese.

Near the hide, a kestrel standing almost still in the air, despite the wind.

Four barnacle geese couples swimming together, with two goslings per couple each.

Two black-tailed godwits flying and calling.

Egyptian geese standing on a sandbank.

A flock of over a hundred starlings.

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California birds and beetles video

This video, recorded in California in the USA, says about itself:

May 17, 2013

Crystal-clear high-speed video reveals the hidden details of animals in motion. A lumbering scarab beetle turns weightless as it spreads its hidden wings; a hummingbird visits its nest; shorebirds capture prey and swallow it with a quick toss to the back of the throat. Recommended for viewing in high-definition (720p).

Recorded by Andy Johnson, Ben Clock, Shailee Shah and Teresa Pegan on a Macaulay Library student workshop to southern California during March 16–24, 2013.

Read more about it here.

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To Longyearbyen, Svalbard, Arctic

This video is about a plane landing at LYR airport, Longyearbyen, Svalbard, in May 2007.

2 June 2013.

I have been to the Antarctic.

But I had never been to the high Arctic so far. The closest I came were the Lofoten islands of Norway, and Iceland, both near the Arctic circle.

Now, however, to Svalbard. This Arctic archipelago is about halfway between northern Norway and the North Pole. Outside Norway, the islands are often called Spitsbergen; in Norwegian, the name of the largest island.

First, our plane went to Oslo, the capital of Norway.

After some hours waiting, we transferred to a smaller plane.

At 10pm, it passed the Arctic circle, flying near Bodø in northern Norway.

23:05: we pass Bear Island, about half way between Svalbard and continental Norway. Officially, Bear Island is the southernmost island of the Svalbard archipelago. It is uninhabited now, except for a meteorological station.

Then, the plane reached the mountains of the west coast of Spitsbergen island.

This video is called Landing at Longyearbyen / Svalbard lufthavn (LYR) on 8 April 2009 on a flight from Ny-Ålesund.

Almost at midnight of 2 June, we landed at the airport of Longyearbyen, the capital (basically: the only sizable village) of Svalbard.

We drove from the airport to Longyearbyen village.

It is Arctic summer. So, the sun never sets now.

Svalbard is one of not so many countries where there has never been a visit to Dear Kitty. Some blog yet. Not that surprising: only 2,500 people live there, not all of them fanatical Internauts.

During the next days, there were will be photos of birds, other wildlife of Svalbard and other sides of Svalbard on this blog.

About Svalbard prehistory:

Bryozoans from the Lower Permian Treskelodden and Wordiekammen formations of southern and central Spitsbergen respectively, Svalbard, have been studied. Twenty species are identified, including one new genus, Toulapora gen. nov., with Toulapora svalbardense as type species and one new species, Ascopora birkenmajeri sp. nov. The taxonomic composition is typical Lower Permian, with species in common with Timan−Pechora and the Urals (Russia) and Ellesmere Island (the Canadian Arctic). Growth habits reflect a moderately to deeper shelf environment.

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Bee lays egg, video

This is a video about a red mason bee in the Netherlands, laying an egg in an insect hotel.

Zwaan made this video.

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Newt eats fly, video

This is a video from the Netherlands, about a smooth newt catching a fly and eating it.

Rianne de Graaf from Kockengen made this video.

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