25.06.2010

while attempting to photograph these little creatures,
I became a little sidetracked by the banded demoiselles.

When perched on a leaf they obviously present a pretty picture.
In flight their wings seemed to act like helicopter rotors.

That was it, I had to capture one in flight.

here’s one at rest

in flight, look at the helicopter wings!

here, we have a female banded demoiselle.

another variation, here I think we have a ruddy darter.
My trusty nature book leads me to this identification -see bottom of posting.

this is a mystery bug, anyone got any ideas?
There are so many minute creatures whizzing about and they all seen to be tiny,
fast and hard to capture, with a camera, a net may be more successful.

here’s another, sitting on a lily pad -not found it in my book, yet.

my trusty book by the way: the Collins Complete British Wildlife by Paul Sterry.
It’s really useful as identifying photographs convey exactly what one sees in the field.
I found one cheap in a garden centre last year. Have a look for it.

The butterfly beds are beginning to look good but where are the butterflies?
This summer I’ve seen orange tipped, small white, comma, peacock, speckled wood and common blue – but only a few each time I visit the site and none today

The male Banded demoiselle is very striking and familiar, with its electric blue body and dark patches on each wing that catch the eye as it flutters. The female is probably less well known. Here’s one demonstrating the full emerald green bodywork and wings. There were loads of males and females as well as other species fluttering around the site in the sun today, particularly by the low bridge by the spit.

I didn’t get such a good photo of the male, but I include it for completeness. I suppose it’s kind of arty!

heron stalking …….metal duck?

This Muntjac deer slowly ambled across the bridge over the Mere whilst working party attendees sipped hot drinks in the bird hide. It then slowly made its way down the path on the other side, stopping to nibble at the grass. This is by far the best sighting I’ve had of a Muntjac as they’re usually running away into the bushes.

David, who is recording numbers of species for the Reserve, remarked that ‘December was the most species in a month so far for him. January could be better still’.
On 18th January he commented:
‘Yesterday morning was brilliant for Ducks: 9 gadwall and 3 shovellers …I’m not so sure they will have enjoyed the Wassail though!’

A brilliantly attended wassail today on the reserve, not just by people but also by birds.

This is actually an older picture from a few weeks ago of Siskin high in the stand of Alder trees where they feed on the seeds. Today I saw Siskin on the feeders.

Two pairs of Gadwall stayed happily towards the far end of the mere. I understand they’ve been a relatively constant presence recently. The female looks a lot like a Mallard female, but the biggest clue is the lack of a green flash on the wing.

Best of all was a Little Egret that swooped in briefly, stalking the shallows of the mere for just a minute before heading off again. This seems to be a wassail tradition!

On Boxing Day I had a much better view of the flock of ‘finch-like’ birds (around 50 birds) and the majority seemed to be Siskins- no Redpolls identified that day.

A pair of teals are spending a fair amount of time on the reserve- I have mainly seen them on the smaller water areas away from the mere. They soon fly away once they know you are there.

On the 23rd of Decemeber whilst the snow was still around I had a couple of visits to my garden (near to the reserve) of a single Brambling. It was amongst a small group of chaffinches. So it is worth looking very closely at Chaffinches on the reserve at the moment.