Blogtober Thirteen

During the night, about 3am, we were awakened by a Tawny Owl, calling loudly from quite close.

"Ke-wick, ke-wick, ke-wick."

The day properly began with an email requesting that I complete a survey. As it concerned the Big Garden Bird Watch and volunteering for the RSPB, I decided to contribute my twopenn'orth.

A few minutes later, I arrived at the final questions which included "Which age group are you?" For the first time ever, I realised that I was in the last group, which was a bit of a moment.

Daughter Ruth and grandson Louis visited us today, and we all ventured to Fineshade Wood, a site which I hadn't previously been to. In early Summer, it is a Mecca for butterfly enthusiasts, as Fineshade is home to a thriving colony of Purple Emperors. Not in mid October though. However, we had a lovely lunch at the cafe, then wandered along one of the waymarked trails.

We saw several Migrant Hawker and Common Darter dragonflies, a few species of plant that were new to us, then arrived back at the cafe for tea and cake.

Back at the log cabin, I was setting out cushions on the outdoor furniture when I noticed a ladybird sat on a corner of one cushion.

As I went to remove it, I saw that it wasn't alone. It was stood over a fuzzy ginger mass of fibres which seemed to contain a more solid mass. Realising that this was no ordinary ladybird, cameras were deployed as we researched 'zombie ladybird'.

A parasitic wasp Dinocampus coccinellae lays an egg directly into a ladybird's body. The wasp larva grows inside the beetle, eating non-essential body parts to keep the ladybird alive.

When fully grown, the larva leaves the beetle, spins a silk cocoon and infects the ladybird with a virus which zombifies it so that it stands over the cocoon, protecting it from predators.

This is what we had found.

Around a third of affected ladybirds survive this ordeal.

After Ruth and Louis had left, Megan and I took a wander along the bank of the stream flowing through the site. On a ragwort flower head, we found a Small Copper butterfly hunkered down in the breeze.

After all that excitement, now it is time to decide which pub we will frequent for dinner.