My ecology placement at Gatwick

Guest blogger: Elliott Lloyd

My summer has been awesome, mainly due to the part-time placement I did at Gatwick Airport assisting Rachel with her ecological work. I was joined by fellow student in my course, Mark, for the first half of my time there. Mark and I were partaking in a placement scheme run by the careers service of our university, Royal Holloway. From the career centre talks, we were under the impression that we’d basically be the tea maids, so we were pleasantly surprised to hear that we’d actually be getting stuck in with both the field and data work.

Breeding bird survey, North West Zone

 Breeding birds was the first survey we participated in, lead by Tom Forward from Gatwick Greenspace. With his amazing knowledge of bird song, we recorded the different species we could hear, walking through woods and meadows and looking for any evidence of breeding. We did another bird survey a couple of weeks later and luckily that time it didn’t chuck it down.

And they said it wouldn't rain

The following evening we conducted a bat survey with Martyn Cooke who is a bat expert, or Batman. Using bat detectors we picked up the echolocations, allowing us to identify the species that were zooming past our heads. Then it was time for moth trapping with Laurie and Jake who are moth recorders. It was great to be introduced to another hugely diverse group that the vast majority of us don’t get to fully appreciate due to their nocturnal life style.

Don't go into the light!

Later that week we were dragonfly surveying along the River Mole, for which we had to catch and handle the damselflies for identification and view dragonflies through binoculars. Next I was helping check bat boxes and whilst doing this, we identified the range of moths that had been potted and put into the fridge the night before by Rachel, which were then released on site. The next day Rachel and I were surveying for reptiles by looking under refugia and we found four Grass Snakes.

A 'nosey' Elephant Hawk-moth

On week 2, Rachel and I did a RiverSearch survey where we recorded physical aspects (man-made and natural) of the Gatwick Stream and recorded the distribution of invasive species like Himalayan balsam. Later on in the week we teamed up with Tom Simpson and volunteers from Gatwick Greenspace, destroying Himalayan balsam along the River Mole. After giving a presentation about this plant as an invasive species for my degree, I felt like I was practising what I was preaching.

A mountain of Himalayan Balsam (like its namesake)

The next week Mark and I were sent on a top-secret mission. We went to Merrists Wood College, Guildford, where we were briefed (lectured) about invasive species in Britain by agents (ecologists) Glenn and Danial from Surrey Wildlife Trust. Then we searched the large campus grounds for examples of the species we had talked about and lo and behold, we found the evil American Signal Crayfish in a stream. It was then humanely dispatched due to being invasive.

Dr. Crayfish

The next day I was feeling back to my normal self, assisting in a newt habitat quality survey. After some butterfly catching and recording we checked some Dormouse boxes and I found a Yellow-necked Mouse! From a photo I took before he wriggled free we could tell he was a male. The next day we helped out in a Bioblitz day at Chesworth Farm, Horsham, run by Kevin and Tom F from Gatwick Greenspace. The day was all about introducing a group of year 5 school pupils to recording as many species as possible. We recorded something like 113 species which broke last year’s record apparently.

Yellow-necked Mouse, woken up from his lie-in

After a break due to moving house and a trip to the Isle of Wight, I returned to join in a invertebrate survey with Rachel and Ryan Mitchell, who is an insect encyclopaedia walking on legs. We found and recorded many different insect species, my favourite by far being the scorpion fly (Panorpa communis). The next day it was just Rachel and I recording and we found a native British Cockroach (Ectobius lapponicus) underneath a reptile mat. Ryan joined us again the following day and amongst the many things we saw, we found a rose bush covered in lacewings, and some of the females were ovipositing. We took one back to the JSA compound and used a microscope and guide to identify it to species level.

Master (left) teaching padawan (right)

Chrysoperla lucasina - a lacewing we preserved in alcohol in order to identify it to species. 

It was for the greater good of conservation data-gathering

The next week started with us photographing leaf-cutter bees. Whilst Rachel and I were identifying a speedwell species in Ashley’s field, two Roe Deer came bursting out of the forest, ran straight past us and turned back again when they spotted us. We set up a camera trap near a pond (we found that rabbits and foxes were using the pond), did more butterfly surveying, collected and cleaned up bamboos for a new bee hotel and more data entry.
   Sadly, the next day was my last official placement day; we cut reeds for the bee hotel and then went to Woods Mill for a meeting with the Sussex Biodiversity Records Centre, about Gatwick's biodiversity data.

The finished bee hotel I helped collect materials for

Exploring Woods Mill Nature Reserve

And that was my placement (or, a lot of it anyway). It went so quickly and I saw so much that I haven’t even told you about. At no one point did I think I was doing a ‘work placement’ but instead doing the things I was doing because I enjoyed it and I was surrounded by friendly, enthusiastic people. I’m very fortunate to have met so many different specialists, and hopefully some of their knowledge and experience rubbed off on me. After doing a marine biology course in Scotland, I returned for a couple of days in September to help plant wildflowers, clear willow scrub, search for a stripey Grass Snake and I was even involved in finding a Hazel Dormouse in the ancient woodlands. And that’s the story so far; thanks for tuning in!

Here are my favourite species that I photographed (to see more, see my flikr account - my username is elliottlloyd45):

Fuligo septica. , a Slime Mould I found in the woodlands. I’d been wanting to find a one since doing a presentation on them in my first year of university

A Green-legged Sawfly I think... (Tenthredo mesomelas)

Blattodea (Cockroaches) - the most misunderstood insect order. 

This might be the species called Dusky Cockroach (Ectobius lapponicus)

The Emperor of dragonflies (Anax imperator)

Scorpion Fly (Panorpa germanica)- looks like a mish-mash of other invertebrates

Leaf-cutter Bee (Megachile spp.) hiding in the bee hotel - never knew an insect could be so cute

A pseudoscorpion we found in a King Alfred's Cake (which is a fungus, not a cake!)

Dormouse discoveries!

It is the end of a busy Friday afternoon and Laurie's phone rings. She looks down at the caller I.D., sighs and wonders what random question Rachel now has about bats (I still find bats incredibly complex and alien beings). Or birds. Or moths. Or Harvest Mice.
 

After reading my excited text, she tries to call me back right away. Of course, as I'm somewhere in Gatwick's woodlands with unpredictable phone reception, this goes on for sometime... 

   And so, after finally getting through to each other, I then get to say the words: we've got Dormice!

The elusive Hazel Dormouse (Muscardinus avellanarius)

Gatwick's sneaky ginger-ninjas have finally been spotted in the fur; they couldn't elude us anymore! Laurie is a licence holder for several UK protected species and experienced in Dormouse handling, so I was awesomely appreciative that she shot up to Gatwick to lend us a hand. We found two individuals in separate boxes; here they are, resplendent in their golden-brown refinery!

Hazel Dormouse (Muscardinus avellanarius)

We reckon these might some of the best-looking Dormice around too... (Not that we're biased).

Hazel Dormouse (Muscardinus avellanarius)

Big eyes, small ears, fuzzy tail. Evolved for maximum cuteness

These furry fiends are notoriously difficult to detect - they live in low numbers, are arboreal (tree-dwelling) and mostly come out at night. Still, after 3 years of surveying it was starting to wear that we hadn't seen the little blighters in the fur. Quite frankly, they were making us look bad. 

On the other hand, our Wood Mouse and Yellow-necked Mouse record database had really come along!

For comparison: Yellow-necked Mouse (Apodemus flavicollis);

 darker fur, bigger ears, pointy nose... Bigger attitude!

She might look chunky, but this little female weighed about 19g, making her over half the weight of a Yellow-necked Mouse which tipped the scales at 40g. 

Hazel Dormouse (Muscardinus avellanarius) 

Hey, remember folks, the camera adds 10 pounds

Slightly insulting was the fact that they were found in boxes installed by Tom Simpson's volunteer group, rather than mine from the 3 years before. This goes to show there is just no accounting for Dormouse taste (being from Crawley after all).

Laurie checks age and sex, then pops it into the weighing bag. 

Unoccupied nest - the centre is tightly woven with fine strands of Honeysuckle bark,

 the outside is layered with recently fresh hazel leaves

For now, we will continue with monitoring the Dormouse population at this site under the supervision of licence holders, carrying out regular box checks and looking out for signs of breeding.

Home-sweet-home

About this time every year, a YouTube vid makes the rounds of the internet, featuring a Dormouse apparently snoring. The mammal officer who took the footage says the ridiculous sound was added on afterwards; the actual sound is more like a high-pitched whistle (d'awww!). Still, it is gorgeous seeing a Dormouse in torpor (deep sleep).

To find out more about the Hazel Dormouse, check out the People's Trust for Endangered Species.

Gatsbees B-Log: August 2015

Black-eyed Susan 

(Rudbeckia fulgida var. 'sullivantii Goldsturm')

By the time August arrives, the bees know for certain that winter is only around the corner

Runner beans (Phaseolus coccineus)

and the pantry must be full of honey and pollen.

I sometimes go to the apiary intent on doing ‘a job’ but occasionally I get there and the orderly haste I find persuades me to leave them alone and watch.

Much less stressful for all of us!

We found the queen in this colony (the one with the longer abdomen in the centre of the picture

and the peanut shaped cell from which she emerged (centred above the wooden bar)

We also found a text book queen cell torn open by the workers, where there is a dead queen larva, which would have been stung in its cell by the first queen to emerge. Queens have no barbs on their sting and so can kill more than one rival.

Cardoon (Cynara cardunculus)

It was at about this time when the weather changed for the worst; the bees were unable to leave the hive and forage

and nectar became a premium, one visiting the sedum, which had hardly begun to flower in the cold.

The rain began in earnest

And those bees still out foraging, chilled and died.

As I made the choice to not treat for varroa, one colony (although not at Gatwick) swarmed themselves out, couldn’t tolerate the viruses and were very sick. They become disorientated and unable to function and died out quickly but it’s difficult to watch and the temptation to throw medicine at them is huge.

 (Foreground: Bee with Deformed Wing Virus. Far right: bee with varroa mite on its thorax)

I found that treatments may kill the varroa mites, but the bees still become sick, albeit in different circumstances. Putting down a colony of bees is extremely dispiriting.

I’m sure that all beekeepers would love their bees to be hygienic; that is bees with the ability to recognise the presence of varroa mites in the cells, pull them out and eject them from the nest. This house bee is probably looking for mites on her sister, a good start and something we should try to look at in more detail next year. See Google: Swindon beekeeper Ron Hoskins

Peony (Paeonia) seeds

Creeping Thistle (Cirsium arvense)

One sunny afternoon, after Duchess’s colony became queen right again (had a laying queen) the workers began to evict the drones. They become a nuisance when they are no longer needed for breeding as they just hang around the hive eating the stores of honey.

It's a brutal event, with the workers trying to bite off the drones’ wings as they are forced out. It’s a one way ticket for a drone; die in glory if you mate with a virgin queen, die in the fury of the workers if you don’t.

You’ll be pleased to hear that wasps are useful in this world after all, picking up dead and dying insects to take back to the nest for their larvae to eat in spring and early summer, and receiving a sugary liquid in exchange, but now the nest will  have disbanded and it’s every wasp for herself.

At the same time, the ever neat and tidy bees are trying to pick the bodies up and fly away with them to drop them far away from the nest to eliminate the smell of death.

Other visitors to the hives:

(Balaustium spp.) A tiny mite regularly seen at the hives, it feeds 

on pollen and predates other tiny invertebrates

This nest of a Leaf-cutter Bee (Megachile spp.) is not part of the Honeybee colony

A brave choice of site for the nest of this Leaf-cutter bee, tucked in a gap between the roof and the crown board, crafted from rose leaves cut out with its mandibles and flown back to the nest.

Persicaria, agapanthus and verbena bonariensis.

Dahlia. 

Autumn is on the way. 

Gillybee X

Galling yet spanglely

Galls are weird. A parasitic insect lays its egg in the epidermis of a leaf, it hatches out and the tiny larva then exudes hormones, messing with the plant's cell division and causing mutations of plant tissue.

Spangle Galls on an Oak leaf. At the top near the thumb is a young Cherry Gall

These mutations form specific structures to each species, which become a source of food and protection for the larva. A rather enclosed and sedentary lifestyle, kinda of like ecologists writing up their survey reports in winter.

Ecology student Felix identifies gall species in Goat Meadow

Felix is a 3rd year Ecology project student, visiting our biodiversity sites from Royal Holloway University (my old stomping ground). He is studying the prevalence of galls on Oak leaves, looking for differences between species in changing environmental conditions.

Silk Button Spangle Gall (Neuroterus numismalis)

The types of gall he is studying are formed by tiny wasps of the family Cynipidae. This group contains many species, and the adult wasps are so small that we barely notice them. It is much easier to identify the species by the unique structures their larvae have created.

Smooth Spangle (Neuroterus albipes)

At the top of the picture: Common Spangle Galls (Neuroterus quercusbaccarum)

You can often have several different gall species on one leaf. The darker one below these Common Spangles is quite an unusual one...

Cupped Spangle (Neuroterus tricolor)

Either this species is very uncommon, or just particularly under recorded in the UK. In any case, an interesting find and I reckon the species distribution map could do with updating.

NBN Gateway

Despite the tough materials which galls are formed from, they are not immune from enemy attack... 

Looking more closely, Felix spotted this tiny shady character hanging out on out the Silk Button Spangles, and she is no galler... 

A torymid wasp

This is a 'parasitoid' of the gall wasps, using a long ovipositor to lay her own eggs deep into the spangles. Her larva will then hatch and slowly feed on the other within (nature is pretty brutal). I googled the Torymidae wasps to find out more, and found out a few species are hyperparasitoids, meaning they are parasitoids of the parasitoids... I then stopped reading and went to bed.

Here are a few other weird and wonderful species of gall about the place, all belonging to the family of cynipid wasps:

Knopper Gall (Andricus quercuscalicis) growing on an acorn

Marble Gall (Andricus kollari) on a leaf bud

Cherry Gall (Cynips quercusfolii) growing on a leaf vein

Robin's Pincushion (Diplolepis rosae) on a wild rose leaf bud

Not only galls are found hanging about on the Oak leaves...

Possibly a Grey Dagger Moth caterpillar, which has a cool species name (Acronicta psi) 

Theridion pallens; a tiny comb-footed spider. The female is guarding her sputnik-like egg case

Good luck with the rest of the project Felix (particularly the statistical analysis part, I've been there myself)!