Anything that has been spotted on the nature reserve
Visited the tower early yesterday morning hoping to see the young and on arrival, found an adult stood at the bottom, normally in previous years they have been on top of the tank. After about ten minutes it took off and flew over the fields, only to return five minutes later but not carrying any […]
Pleased to see the family of tufted ducks, still with nine ducklings. Quite a few dragonflies around today, including 4-spot chaser, black-tailed darter and a brown hawker. Managed a rather poor photo of the dsrter on the path by the main pool – just couldn’t get close to it. Some marsh helleborines in flower, though […]
Lew told us he had spotted seven Sand Leeks on the old Vickers tip , not seen these before so had a look and took a couple of photos, and then had a wander around, for such a small area there is an abundance of flowers and took photos of some. Lew, Bob and Bri
These very warm days and nights have brought out lots of butterflies and dragonflies, Lew normally does a count on his way around and these are his figures, Yesterday – 320 Meadow Brown, 2 Small Heath, 8 Gatekeepers and 49 Grayling. Today – 27 Gatekeepers, 1 Black-tailed Skimmer, 2 Emperor, 3 Brown Hawker, 3 Four […]
As Ian said it was a few degrees cooler morning, enough to keep the Damselflies and Dragonflies tucked up out of sight but in the afternoon the temperature rose and on Mill Lane Pond there was an Emperor, Brown Hawker and a few Four Spots, managed a shot of the Emperor settled on some reeds. […]
Posted by Ian Cooler this morning,more comfortable to walk around the reserve without all kinds of flying things trying to bite lumps out of me. Had not seen the tufted family for a day or two,bit concerned as there is always some predator or other looking out for a tasty snack. But there they were […]
Caterpillars – There are lots of hairy caterpillars wandering the paths at the moment and most are the Drinker Moth, normally they wander onto the path and wait to be stood on, but we found one the other day crawling up a grass stem, see photo. The moth is night flying and would not be […]
Posted by Ian Another lovely warm and sunny day (18c at 6-30am!). All nine tufted ducklings seem to be doing ok but I haven’t seen the mother duck for two days.Was she just out of sight?. The remaing two cygnets are thriving along with a recent clutch of mallard ducklings. The long pond water level […]
The Swans are now down to two cygnets, one went missing last Wednesday night, Bob is feeding them up with Shreddies. Lew told us the Pyramidal Orchid on the path near the butts was in flower, see pics, it is located on the path west of the butts about ten yards south. The one and […]
Posted by Ian Beautiful warm sunny morning biting things everywhere around the ponds. Walking through the dunes the rabbits were everywhere but my presence was noted as a fox out hunting them objected loudly by barking . Never heard a fox bark before except on episodes of ‘Midsommer Murders’! (see pics)