A painful lesson is learnt!

I'm on my way down to the farm this morning and Dougy, who seems to have a problem sleeping and is already there, is on the phone to tell me there's a Little Stint and three Dunlin on the pool variously known as the Plantlife pond (as Plantlife funded it), the dead pool (because for the first couple of years its existence it seemed devoid of any form of life) and I Can't Believe It's Not Walmsley, this last one being a sarcastic reference to the fact that every now and then it does attract a wader or two.

So I amble across the field and there's the man himself, standing behind his Velbon monopod and Nikon 'scope looking very pleased with himself. After all, this is only the third Little Stint ever to be seen on the reserve. It's a typical juvenile, dashing about all over the place, loosely accompanied by two of the Dunlin which are trying to keep up with it.

"The other one's over there - it's been half hidden behind the rushes" says Dougy. He hasn't had a proper look at it yet as he's been enjoying good views of the stint.

I point my bins across the pool at the precise point that the fourth wader emerges on to the open mud. I suggest to Dougy that he might like to take a closer look. Although he makes an admirable attempt to appear unfazed, I can tell he is shattered as he realises that it is in fact a Pectoral Sandpiper!


I'd like to point out that Dougy, never one to let pride spoil a good story, insisted I tell it like it was. He has now learnt his lesson, i.e. grill everything properly before anyone else arrives....

All the waders suddenly took off and flew toward the airfield, but we later relocated the Pectoral on Ruan Pool, where we got great views from the old hide. It was unusually flighty, even being spooked by a passing Jackdaw, which then chased it round in circles before allowing it to re-settle.

This is the third record for the farm - it's as regular here as Little Stint!

Hybridising hirundines?

Nothing too out of the ordinary to report lately. A juvenile Marsh Harrier was found standing in the shallows (thoughts of the Rolling Stones there...) of one of the dragonfly ponds on 3^rd. We've had a few waders through: Ringed Plover, Greenshank, Ruff, Whimbrel, Curlew, Dunlin, Green Sandpipers. One of the Curlew had a horribly damaged leg, bending 180° backwards from the knee. The Whimbrel was hobbling a bit too. There's been an average passage of Wheatears, Whinchats, Spotted Flycatchers and Yellow Wagtails. A Wryneck failed to make it on to the farm by a matter of feet last weekend.


And so the rarest bird to pay us a visit this autumn dropped by this morning as I was standing by the Plantlife pond. A bunch of about 15 Swallows came down and skimmed the surface. Amongst them, flying away from me, was one with a big white rump patch. It was not a House Martin. Red-rumped Swallow flashed through my mind for about a nano-second, because as it turned, it was just a Swallow. In every respect except that rump, it looked like a bog-standard young Barn Swallow.

Off they went, gaining height and moving south, leaving me scratching my head and wondering if it was just an aberrantly plumaged Swallow or a hybrid x House Martin. I think the fact that the white patch was regularly-shaped and clearly defined makes the latter the more likely.

More angst for arachnophobes

Although Ruan Pool is pretty well dry, some of the our other pools look suitable enough for waders, yet they're in distinctly short supply so far this autumn. Stithians Reservoir is having a sandpiper-fest, so I can only presume that Simon, the warden up there, is playing dirty and has set up some kind of feeding station for waders. Well Simon, we have a secret weapon that will be kicking in soon and I am strongly tipping Windmill to turn up an American or two before September is out.

So this morning our thoughts turned to butterflies, dragonflies, moths - and spiders again, especially as the overnight mist had left thousands of webs glistening in the sunshine. We found a number of large orb webs very similar to that spun by our resident Wasp Spider (see posts below), but the inhabitants, although quite large and colourful, didn't have quite the same impact as the stunningly scary Argiope bruennichi.

We took a number of photos and were later able to i.d. them as two common species of Araneus, namely quadratus (above) and diadematus (below). Thanks to Dougy Wright for the top left and bottom right photos and supplying his shorts for the backdrop to that at top right.

Feeding-time for the beast

I renewed my acquaintance with the Wasp Spider today. The hayfield will be mown soon so I cordoned off the area where it lives. As I approached it I disturbed a grasshopper which jumped straight into its web. Now that's unlucky. It was immediately set upon. They quickly immobilise their prey by wrapping it in silk. It is then bitten and injected with venom and a protein dissolving enzyme. Nice.

This spider is listed in the Cornwall Red Data Book. Rosemary Parslow tells me that they found two in a field on Scilly three years ago. It's amazing how they spread.

An exciting discovery with a sad twist

I came across the most incredible spider at the farm this morning. The abdomen was about 1.5 cms long and from the tip of the front legs to the tip of the back legs was about 5.5 cms. That is some BIG spider! I was able to identify it from the Collins Field Guide to Spiders as Argiope bruennichi, known as the Wasp Spider. It's a female, full of eggs. That zig-zag ribbon of silk is called the stabilimentum - there are several theories as to its purpose.

In Europe this species is locally distributed in France, Germany and the Low Countries. Following the first British record in 1922, it is apparently now well established in locations near the English south coast and is spreading northwards. The females make their webs in long grass, often near field edges, and that's just where this one was.

An internet search for "Cornwall spiders" led me to www.stevehopkin.co.uk, a real enthusiast's resource where you can download a distribution map for every species found in the county. The map for the Wasp Spider shows only seven locations where it has been recorded, the nearest being on the Fal estuary. Coverage throughout the county is patchy but the Lizard and West Penwith have received more attention than most other areas.

I noticed that the maps haven't been updated since April 2006. Another search and I was shocked to learn the reason why. Steve Hopkin was killed in a road accident the following month. He had been a senior lecturer in zoology at Reading University, a scientific associate in entomology at the Natural History Museum in London and was the spider recorder for Cornwall. What is especially poignant is that the biography on his website is still in the present tense. A work in progress was abruptly and tragically terminated.