Toft Garden Update

Butterflies are attracted to the patches of purple Honesty that are in bloom in my garden and I was pleased to get close to this Orange Tip, until I realised it was in the jaws of a Flower spider, There are several more Misuma spiders in the garden and good to see the Red Mason bees active around the bee Hotels.

 

Heron's Tale

 It has been a delight watching a pair of herons at Paxton build their nest, incubate and then bring up 3 youngsters. They are not yet fledged so fingers crossed for them. The image sheet sows the dates and certainly support the facts on heron breeding below. It is also interesting the way the colour palette turns from reddish winter (autumn) tones to springtime green as the leaves come out 

 Grey Herons typically take about one to two weeks to build their nests. Nest building is primarily carried out by the female, with the male bringing materials. A female grey heron lays 3 to 5 eggs per clutch,  at intervals of about 48 hours. Both parents share the responsibility of incubating the eggs, which lasts about 25 days. Incubation often begins with the first egg laid, leading to asynchronous hatching, where chicks may hatch at different times. Both parents feed the chicks, which fledge (develop feathers necessary for flight) at around 7 to 8 weeks old. 

Toft Garden - Shadowlands

Beautiful bright day here in Cambridgeshire yesterday but a challenge photographing insects to avoid shadowing so decided to seek out some more interesting ones such as these flower spiders in the Spurge and Marsh Marigold, If anyone has ideas about the third image - appears to have spider skins included with other corpses.

Toft Garden 'Ugly' Bug Parade

I am still sorting the species etc from a garden recording session yesterday so here is an 'Ugly Bug Parade' from Toft - amazing what a macro lens reveals. The first is a Bee-Grabber fly which jumps onto a Bumble Bee to hitch a lift to its nest where it pays its fare as an egg laid in the Bees nest. The emerging grub feeds on the pollen and the bee larvae! The final image shows a Flower Spider that has captured a Hoverfly.

Paxton April Wildlife Survey

 On Tuesday we spent 2 hours recording the various plants, birds, insects etc etc that were present in two related areas of Paxton Pits - the Sanctuary and the Inlet pond area of the Moorings Meadow. Mostly my ID shots were not very pleasing photographically but here are a few that I liked together with the ID sheets. Compared with 2024 (we do a 2-year cycle on sites) there was a marked absence of crane flies and flies in general reflecting the recent dry conditions. To compensate we did see a lot more plant bug activity (Hemipterans).