Paxton Pits Update

Another sunny and very warm day at Paxton and there were very few insects about. After finding an unusual bee on Red Bartsia flowers at another reserve yesterday, I thought it worth looking for this flower at Paxton and with it I found the target Red Bartsia Bee (Melitta tricincta). Other finds were Green-veined White, Migrant hawker, Common Darter, Brown Argus, Ormyrus nitidulus, plant bug Sternoderma laevigatus. Furrow Orbweaver and Brown Argus. The Grebe chicks are  beginning to dive, with the Cormorant much too  but with a beak full of foliage. (Also Common tern and Little Grebe)

New Species for My Garden List

To ensure that I spent at least some time clearing the area round my pond today rather than photographing the inhabitants, I locked my camera in a cupboard till after lunch. Even visits from Common Darter and Southern Migrant Hawkers to the garden were ignored while I tackled the excess vegetation around the pond. In the afternoon, I settled down for a couple of hours recording the life in the pond now much easier to access. No Dragons but there was a Willow Emerald Damselfly, lots of Wasps and Bees plus Pond Skaters and Trypoxylon attenuatum Slender Wood-bore Wasp. The Wasps were mainly Europaean Paper Wasps Polistes dominicus - a first record for my garden and obviously breeding somewhere nearby from the amount of activity.

The first pond skater image rivals any Shakespearean tragedy with the Pond skater standing over and about to stab its victim  (a Pond Olive).

Toft Garden Moths 2

 A second set of moths from the garden which included a Water Boatman, Sigara lateralis. Moth ID sheet at the end

Paxton Pits 4th August

The Great Crested Grebes still have their two young which are growing fast though still riding on the back of the adult some of the time. Fingers crossed they avoid predation by the many Cormorants around Heronry South Lake. I couldn't resist a few more images of the Migrant hawker though the light was not as good as on Sunday. 

Dodder Fen Invertebrate Survey

Although the sun stayed behind cloud for quite a bit of the morning, it was very humid and hot hunting among the reeds and rushes on Dodder Fen for insects etc for our August Wildlife Survey. The Dodder plant at Paxton Pits is one of the special species that gives Paxton its SSSI status. It is parasitic on Nettles and grows over quite large areas at Paxton. 

I will take a day or so to collate everyone's invertabrate images and IDs but here are a few of mine that I like, including this wonderful Field Grasshopper with its amazing marking on every area including the eye. Hairy flies were the commonest sighting - nearest identifications at end.