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Not a common butterfly in Otley – they prefer the warmer south of the country – but spotted on Ragwort in Alex Eve’s wilded garden on the east of town. Weather is a significant determinant of population size, and climate change is behind a northward spread. They are also known as the Hedge Brown, and look quite similar to the Meadow Brown, especially with wings closed. Fortunately, the smaller Gatekeeper tends to rest with its wings open, displaying (bird-deterring) eye spots

This angular, slender seabird visits Otley in the summer for the fishing at Knotford Nook and the Wetlands, though they will also eat molluscs, crustaceans and other invertebrates. They drink in flight, actually preferring seawater where available. They are also unusual in that they moult their wing feathers two or three times a year, with females judging the suitability of a partner by the freshness of these feathers. Not seen in Otley, but somewhat intriguing, is the tern b

These common, carnivorous beetles are sometimes used as a biological control agent, consuming aphids in greenhouses for example, and it was for this purpose that they were introduced into Australia. Like many ladybirds, their appearance can vary, and they have red and black forms, with the latter more common in the north where it helps absorb the sun’s heat. Their life cycle is of the egg-larva-pupa-adult variety. The larvae don’t resemble their parents, and bite their way ou

These noisy invertebrates can be seen in Otley’s fields and gardens from May to October. The sound, of course, is once again exhibitionist males, competing for female attention (see also: Wetherspoons, Friday night), but they do it in a somewhat unusual manner, by rubbing their legs against their wings. The resultant eggs are laid in the soil and will hatch from the following March. In the UK we have 30 of the 25,000 different species of Orthopteroids – the order of insects t

This brown butterfly has a variable number of small, yellow-rimmed eye-spots (the “ringlets”), but when it emerges its wings are velvety-black with white borders. The greyish caterpillar has a long dark stripe along the length of its back. Look for the butterflies on the edges of Otley’s woods, or in clearings in the Chevin forest. They have a penchant for blackberry bushes. Ringlets have a distinctive, bobbing flight, and can be seen even on those dull Otley days when most o

Young stoats born in spring are now splitting up to hunt for themselves, making this notoriously difficult to spot mammal, a little easier to see right now. Stoats live alone and are territorial. Stoats are closely relate to weasels but are easy to distinguish the two as Stoats are larger, have an orangey-brown back, a creamy white throat and belly, and a bushy black-tipped tail. Stoats also have a very distinctive bounding gait, arching their back as they move; weasels do no

A pair of these monogamous birds live around our garden, and their cooing is a welcome addition to the local soundtrack. I don’t know where their nest is, but Collared Doves do generally nest close to human habitation. The male incubates the eggs during the day, and the female at night, and this sharing of parental duties continues when the eggs hatch. Three to four broods a year is normal, but there have been instances of six! Sometimes these broods overlap, in the sense tha

It’s Moth Night 2020 today, and although the cool and somewhat windy conditions are far from ideal, you should stand a good chance of seeing this moth using a torch. The name comes from the silvery Y-shaped markings on each of its brilliantly camouflaged forewings. They are migratory and visit Otley gardens for nectar from May onwards. In the late Autumn the cold will kill some, but others will migrate south to winter around the Mediterranean and Black Seas. I find it incredi

Perhaps an association with the “scruffiness” of some of the sites it populates can lead to this flower being undervalued. Also known as Fireweed, it’s often the first plant to colonise waste ground, such as that left after a forest fire. Mine were on the old railway line east of town, and prior to the expansion of the railway network in this country it was quite rare. The flowers are often mentioned in British post-war literature, due to their ability to pop up on bomb-sites

You rarely seem to see these gregarious birds alone, and often you hear the flock making frequent “contact” calls before you see them. They look a bit like feathery lollipops (short roundish body, long thin tail), and close inspection reveals a lot of subtle pink as well as the dominant black and white. Their nests use a Velcro-like combination, where the tiny leaves of moss act like hooks catching loops of spider silk (from egg cocoons) to give structural stability. The outs

Seen In Otley Today 100th edition! These molluscs are hermaphrodites. They need to mate for their eggs to be fertilised, and prior to this each snail will try to stab the other with one or more love darts. These are made internally of similar material to their shells, and are stored in a dart sac. The process is a form of sexual selection. It doesn’t involve the transfer of sperm, with the benefit to any successful snail coming from the introduction of hormones from the mucus

Another wildflower to be found on the old railway line to the east of town, this geranium is very tough, surviving in temperatures down to -20C in its homelands of the Altai mountains. Also, if for example roadside flowers have been cut down by mowers in June, the plant often produces a second flush of flowers in September. It is more abundant in Scandinavia, where it is called Midsommar Blomster – Midsummer Flower – because it can always be relied on to be flowering in time

I love the frequent din of sparrows arguing in our privet hedge – they seem more cantankerous than your average bird. Hopefully they are more appreciated now their numbers have fallen in both rural and urban areas (try spotting them in London these days). The Great Sparrow Campaign was one of four pest control schemes in the “Great Leap Forwards” in 1950’s China, but it’s believed it only resulted in increases in the insects they feed on. Ancient Greeks associated sparrows wi

One of the first insects to be domesticated, and probably the single most important pollinator for agriculture globally. Colonies can consist of tens of thousands of bees, and they communicate with each other through pheromones (eg alarm) and dance (eg food location). They are often used as model organisms in studies into fields such as social evolution, learning and memory. Honey found in an Egyptian tomb dating back 3000 years was said to be still edible. Photo by Pixabay

These are easy to spot on the old railway line east of town. Also known as Butter & Eggs and Impudent Lawyer (!), they are a popular food source for bumblebees and flies, and have been commonly used in folk medicine for a wide variety of conditions. They are similar to Snapdragons, and share the characteristic that children can make the “snapping” flowers “talk” by squeezing them at the base of the corolla (the crown of outer petals). This comparison has led to other colloqui

Whereas a lot of birds are pretty quiet and keeping a low profile at this time of year, two nuthatches were twittering away as I walked through the cemetery. I couldn’t see them, which was a shame, as they show great agility as they forage along the branches for seeds and insects, often walking upside down or descending head-first. At their best these stout, angular little birds have attractive plumage too, a bit like an undercover Kingfisher with blueish grey backs and chest

Continuing our occasional series on some of the perceived “Bad Guys” of the animal kingdom, today we look at the wasps invariably compared unfavourably with bees. As well as a poor contribution to the Spreads shelves at the supermarket, this is probably due to the fact they will sting repeatedly, unlike for example, the honeybee, whose barbed stinger tends to get stuck in human skin, along with part of its digestive tract, a huge rupture the bee can’t survive. However, as wel

There’s a lot of this in the scrappy bits of land adjoining the A660 as it roars up the Chevin (during lockdown it was a peaceful route with spectacular views). Also known as Bird or Cow Vetch and Fingers & Thumbs, it is popular with bees and butterflies, but also with cattle farmers who use it as a forage crop. In addition, it enriches the soil with its nitrogen-fixing properties. This means it converts the nitrogen gas in the air, which is useless to most organisms, into am

One of our committee members saw a juvenile visiting a feeder in her garden near Burras Lane this morning (first picture). This Autumn it will moult and its red forehead feathers will be replaced with black ones. As an adult it will have red under its tail, and if it’s a male, a red nape. Hopefully this youngster will avoid flying into a window, which is a major cause of death in young woodpeckers. As well as striking colouring, these woodpeckers have interesting anatomical a

Commenting on the essential absurdity of bees making honey, Eddie Izzard once asked “Do earwigs make chutney?” Probably not, but that isn’t going to stop me continuing to rehabilitate the public images of the Bad Boys of British Nature (see eg Magpies) with this interesting nocturnal insect. For a start, the name doesn’t reflect any tendency to hide or burrow in the human ear. The ear reference is believed to relate to the human ear-like shape of their rarely used wings. The