💾 Archived View for magda.cities.yesterweb.org › oblog › 2024-june-12.gmi captured on 2024-06-20 at 11:56:11. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
⬅️ Previous capture (2024-06-16)
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Strong winds, a mix of sun and clouds and temperatures reaching 17°C at 12:30 PM, this day was not supposed to be a field trip day due to the weather conditions. As local workers from my town suddenly started to show up to mow the meadow in from of my home down, my mom told me that the same guys were in the midst of mowing parts of my main zone, fearing that the very tiny patch of viper's bugloss, which has been getting smaller due to the reckless mowing regime of my municipality YET still attracted masses of C. mercuriale, was completely destroyed and the damselflies killed.
+-------------------------+---------------------------------+--------+ | Species | Location | Status | +-------------------------+---------------------------------|--------+ | Coenonympha pamphilus | Zone I / II | Adult | |-------------------------|---------------------------------|--------| | Cupido minimus | Zone III | Adult | |-------------------------|---------------------------------|--------| | Maniola jurtina | Zone I / II | Adult | |-------------------------|---------------------------------|--------| | Melanargia galathea | Zone I | Adult | |-------------------------|---------------------------------|--------| | Melitaea athalia | Zone II | Adult | |-------------------------|---------------------------------|--------| | Pieris rapae | Mixed Field / Zone I / II / III | Adult | |-------------------------|---------------------------------|--------| | Polyommatus icarus | Mixed Field / Zone I | Adult | |-------------------------|---------------------------------|--------| | Thymelicus lineola | Zone I | Adult | |-------------------------|---------------------------------|--------| | Vanessa atalanta | Zone III | Adult | |-------------------------|---------------------------------|--------| |-------------------------|---------------------------------|--------| | Pyrrhosoma nymphula | Zone III | Adult | +-------------------------+---------------------------------+--------+
To start off with the bad news: My mother's fears were justified. With the destruction of the viper's bugloss, all damselflies within this area vanished, as well. A single blue damselfly was seen in the bushes north to the area for a few seconds, not wanting me to get a better look at itself. P. nymphula, which actually does not occupy the destroyed area, was not seen within Zone II at all but in Zone III, which it did not inhabit prior to this.
In terms of butterflies, things appear to be recovering from the sudden drastic decline a few weeks ago, albeit slowly. Whilst studying the surrounding area of the destroyed area, my mother and I were surprised by a single M. athalia searching for food. It highly appreciated our clothes, our hands and my shoes to such a degree that I was able to fully capture its wings with both my Canon and my phone camera, respectively, but this also highlights that I messed up once again when I tried to identify a single observation of M. sp. at "Bog Hill" based on data collected nearby – the only member of this family recorded by volunteers was M. aurelia without providing photographic evidence and, even more embarrassingly, few volunteers with academic degrees initially classified them as M. cinxia, only to quietly change the records to M. aurelia in their database without ever releasing a correction regarding their state-sponsored report.
Another unexpected observation was a common egret emerging from the pond. While it did not leave the area, it clearly wanted to hide from us specifically, however I managed to identify it before it went out of my sight.
Another positive surprise is a growing dominance of hay flower in Zone I, specifically the southern side of the hill and the abandoned hay field south to it, despite the still-persisting dominance of orchard grass and both areas no longer being mowed or grazed. Crossing both habitats revealed a growing number of all kinds of insects, most notably moths.
Overall, this was quite a rollercoaster of a spontaneous field trip with both catastrophic observations and a bunch of surprises. And all despite the strong winds and rather cool temperatures for this season.