Jeff Clarke Ecology

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Water Water Everywhere

Water Water Everywhere

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All images unless otherwise stated © Jeff Clarke 2011

What a day of contrasts this turned out to be. First thing this morning I set about photographing a ladybird 'first for Cheshire', a wee tiny thing called Rhyzobius chrysomeliodes, only to see it flip out of the specimen tube as I uncorked it and disappear somewhere, never to be seen again.

I then set off for Parkgate Marsh, on the Wirral, to run a birdwatching session for an adult education group. It was a stunningly warm and beautiful day; not good for high tide birding at Parkgate. I arrived early and decided to tap a few bushes around the car park, to try and add a few dots to the maps for the forthcoming ladybird atlas. I headed for a Tamarisk. Two taps later and I was staring at 97 Water Ladybirds and a couple of 11-spot Ladybirds as a bonus. I was completely non-plussed. Water Ladybird is not associated with Tamarisks, it is a ladybird of Common Reed and Reedmace beds.

A short while later my group arrived and after 3 largely unproductive hours, due to high pressure and contrary winds suppressing the tide and a problematic heat-haze we decided to call it quits. I then took a couple of the group with me as I explored the ladybird phenomena further. All along the coast, no matter what I tapped or suckered using my converted leaf-blower, I was getting dozens of Water ladybirds. In total I only sampled a tiny proportion of the area and recorded at least a four figure count. I've never seen or heard of anything like this before. Even in the ordinary grassland behind the seawall they were out-scoring the more anticipated 24-spot ladybirds by 10 to 1. My provisional theory is that the very high tides of recent days forced the Water Ladybirds off the saltmarsh and they have taken refuge along the coastal strip.

I contacted the UK Ladybird Survey and they confirmed they had never heard of anything like this concentration of Water ladybirds anywhere in the UK. So all in all a memorable day of contrasting fortunes.
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