Abernyte Naturewatch - Autumn 2024

Luck has been on our side in recent weeks - having enjoyed, so far, relatively dry autumnal weather - making it possible to enjoy the colours of the leaves as they turn from green to yellows, oranges, chestnuts and finally browns.  This year the leaves have come off the trees quite gradually, with only Storm Ashley to help them, the first named storm for the 2024/25 season. 

Fallen leaves are a pleasure to kick your way through, but only when they are dry!  Looking at fallen leaves I have discovered recently can be a source of entertainment as well as interest.  All sorts of small larval creatures, including flies and beetles as well as my favourites, moths, make lives within them.  Often these “leaf miners” as they are known, are clearly visible. As they feed they make tiny channels of particular shapes within the leaf.  Others make little “blister mines” and may cause distortion of the leaf, making them easy to see.  The little moths which eventually emerge from the mines (not until next spring at this time of year) are beautiful little miniatures, each one with its own unique markings.  Next time you are feeling a bit bored whilst waiting for a No.39 or Ember bus, have a look at the leaves and see if you can spot a leaf-miner!  The bus will arrive much quicker and hopefully on time! 

Geese arrivals

We saw our first skein of Pink-footed geese over Dundee Law on the night of 11^th September. And then there were more seen over Abernyte the following day - exactly the same date that they were reported last year! Isn’t it wonderful to hear their excited cries as they pass overhead?

Low butterfly numbers

The weather earlier in the year however was not particularly favourable for Butterflies or moths with some very low overnight temperatures.  Butterfly Conservation were so concerned at the low counts which resulted from their “Big Butterfly Count” that a Butterfly Emergency has been declared.  Whatever we can do as a community to help butterflies and other insects the better it will be for their future, and for our own. What would the world be like without such beautiful creatures?  We can all create a wild spot for Nature in our gardens or community spaces.  Plant some wildflowers – or just leave a few “weeds” so that butterflies can lay their eggs on them and birds can feed on the seeds. 

Shark caterpillar

There have been some alert nature-spotters around our area this summer.  In July, Alan Sands at Southfield found a really gorgeous caterpillar on a garden Achillea being grown as a cut flower.  This was a larva of a moth called the Chamomile Shark, which has only recently turned up in East Perthshire.  It is usually found feeding curled up in the centre of Mayweed flowers. An adult of this same moth was also caught in Collace in May this year. Shark may seem a strange name for a moth, but there are a whole group of moths called by the name of Shark, apparently because of their rather pointy crest which looks, to the very imaginative, like a fin.  

Giant Aphids!

On a warm day towards the end of September, Claudia at the Farmhouse in Abernyte alerted us to a most peculiar event. A spruce tree in their chicken pen was covered with enormous black insects which on closer examination proved to be aphids, but at 6mm long, much the largest aphids any that any of us had seen before. A bit of online research suggested that these were Giant Spruce Aphids.  They feed on the resin of spruce trees resulting in a white wax secretion on their rear end.  They lay eggs on the leaves.  Fortunately they are not thought to adversely effect the growth of the tree (the chickens were not remotely interested in them). 

Hedgehogs and Road-kill

The loveable and once common Hedgehog has been listed as Near Threatened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. I think a lot of us in Abernyte may have noticed a decline in the number of hedgehogs about, when compared with 15 or so years ago.  Recording road-kill mammals does at least tell us that they are around and helps to monitor changes in their population. Recently fewer hedgehogs seen dead on the roads, suggests a decline. Counter-intuitively, hedgehogs seem to be doing better in the urban environment, a situation that is possibly related to the use of agricultural insecticidal sprays in the wider countryside. Climate change causing warmer winters could also be a factor which effects their hibernation. 

An unusual road-kill in the form of a Beaver was found on the A90 in March this year, and another two beavers were dead on the shores of the Tay.  Despite their occasional annoying acitivity (to us humans) surely we should celebrate the return of this remarkable mammal to Tayside – after all, they were here before us and we managed to live alongside them until just a few hundred years ago! 

You can help to record road-kill and any other wildlife at the website below.  You need to register first, which is very straightforward.  It is best to include a photograph and position with your record. Link below.

iRecord

Cathy