Outing to Crone Woods, 23/08/2021

Another lovely, yet this time, hard on the feet, trip to another woods!

Just a couple minutes into the trek and already I had seen a dragonfly. It whizzed passed us down to where we had came from, only allowing me to get a glance of its light stripes down its body. By my guess going by that vague description, it would have been in the genus Aeshna. I had also seen another two similarly shaped ones patrolling treetops not too long after that first one. Unfortunately, all of them were much too fast to get a proper picture of.

After we, came across some Woodland Dor Beetles (Anoplotrupes stercorosus) (1, 2) in quick succession. We figure we were going to run into more. We weren't wrong.

During this hike, I paid particular attention to the fungi as I haven't gotten many on my life list. They were a rather big turn-off for me before as they were hard to identify, even to a class. However, I have gained some experience with them and know some particular important identification features now, such as the gills, which I've taken particular care to photograph.

A while later, my brother pointed out some Common Green Grasshoppers (Omocestus viridulus) on a dead branch. It appeared as the male, which is the smaller one, was stridulating to a female. It was nice, little, romantic interaction, until one of us scared them and they both hopped away.

Above: The two common green grasshoppers.

Then, after a little more walking, came the hardest part of the trek. A weaving path going up the mountain. I don't often do hikes up mountains so this was tricky and sore to my feet. But, I managed. Even got a couple observations of mushrooms and moss. To make matters worse, there was a constant annoying drone of flies right next to my ear too.

However, after that hard hike, the view was truly stunning.

Above: The view from the top.

Eventually we had to get going.

After a ladybeetle, fox moth caterpillar, bumblebees, grasshoppers and a lot of heather, we reached the view of Powerscourt waterfall. It was also very magnificant.

Above: Some shots of Powerscourt Waterfall.

Near the end, after a short deciduous forest and a field of gorse, we bumped into what looked like a murder scene of Woodland Dor Beetles. It had to be at least about five of them visible in the same place, however there seemed to only be two survivors. (1, 2) Probably got stepped on by other hikers. Poor things.

Throughout the trip, I also met up with a bunch of butterflies, particularly Peacocks (Aglais io). They were all gorgeous, however my personal favorite was a rather photogenic Comma (Polygonia c-album).

Above left: One of the Peacocks, Above left: The Comma.

Next time I come back, I would really love to try a new route, as there were a ton of roads to choose from. But, overall, it was a very nice outing. Very scenic too.

Posted on August 24, 2021 12:53 AM by bitsnbirds