Lakenheath Dragons

Thursday's hot weather suited the Damselflies and Dragonflies at Lakenheath; I particularly enjoyed the Willow Emerald which were everywhere through the reserve together with Common and Ruddy Darters and Migrant and Brown Hawkers.

September Survey, Paxton Pits 1. The Gully

Yesterday was our final survey for the year at Paxton Pits and we split this between a gravel area with a strip of reeds along the centre, known as the Gully and another gravel area. The sun was slow to come out but it was warmer than recently and plenty of insects etc to record.

Garden Project 18 - Maturity

 I try to remember to document the garden through the year as part of my project to produce a Wildlife garden with as many habitats as I can in the smallish area of my front garden. Here a snapshot of a (late)summer garden when flowers are beginning to die back but still plenty of wildlife in the Herbaceous borders, Pond, Hedgerow, Woodland and Meadow. Some of the inhabitants are shown with their chosen plant.

Yesterday was our monthly Dragonfly and Butterfly count at Paxton Pits and, despite the windy weather , we ended up with reasonable numbers of both groups. Brown Argus are particularly common this year and good to catch a mating pair. Lots of Ruddy and Common Darters, Emerald (with blue on body and black stigma) and Willow Emerald (green with pale stigma) Spread wings, Brown and Migrant Hawkers, Common Damselflies and Variable mating in the Water Soldier area.

Paxton Safari

A very pleasant morning spent at Paxton with Jo yesterday seeing what was lurking in the vegetation and, as usual, the number of insects was outstanding including this Musk Beetle, Banded Demoiselles, Migrant Hawkers, Common and Ruddy Darters, Brown Chinamark Moth (only moth where larvae are completely aquatic), numerous fly species and Wasps but also a Grass  Snake and White-lipped Snail. The images were taken with two extremes of focal length for 'macro' - 23mm with Supplementary lens (eg beetle) and 450mm telephoto (demoiselle etc!).