Big garden birdwatch!
Little egret and water rail seen behind the ageing willow.
Don’t believe me?
Here’s the water rail at least ….
An elusive creature, more easily spotted in winter.
This is the first time I’ve managed to get a shot of one.
This female ‘leaflitter crab spider’ – Ozyptila praticola – was found at the reserve yesterday on an ivy-covered tree trunk beside the bog. These spiders are very well camouflaged amongst earth or on tree bark and they move very slowly, playing a sit-and-wait game to capture their prey rather than making a web or actively hunting. They will also rely on their camouflage or play dead (thanatosis) rather than run away if disturbed. Ozyptila praticola are fairly common in southern England.
Plenty of insects enjoying the sunshine at the reserve this afternoon, including a few Marmalade hoverflies (Episyrphus balteatus) and this lovely Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta)
The sunshine today was enough to tempt out plenty of wolf spiders plus
this smart young Nursery Web Spider (Pisaura mirabilis)
At the summer event back in June, the pond dipping was great fun as always. My favourite find was this bullhead lurking in the mud. It’s perhaps 7cm long and quite chunky with a great big head, hence the name bullhead, and the alternative name miller’s thumb.
They tend to live at the bottom of fast flowing stony rivers, feeding on invertebrates at dusk. They are very well camouflaged – unless you stick them in a white tray of course.
A kindly male kingfisher was in the mood for posing and I got possibly the best shots I ever have done. He spent a while over the pool in the middle of the site but then moved to the river at the back where he fished for a while and I got these pictures.
Interestingly he caught a fish then somehow attached it to the branch he was perching on. Perhaps it was tucked in a crook or impaled on a twig, and I really can’t be sure whether he meant it or not. He left it there.
The pictures have come out with a slightly other-worldly almost flash-lit look to them as he was perched in a shaft of sunlight above the shady river. Also I messed up a bit with the camera and had to rescue it in post-production, which contributes to the look in a funny sort of way!
With a bit of luck the offspring will stay hidden in the reed and evade the attention of predators!