Paxton Pits - Rain At Last

In other years, the camera would have stayed in the camera bag with light levels as bad as they were yesterday morning, but the first rain into Heronry Lake at Paxton for many weeks had to be recorded!! The two Great Crested Grebe chicks are now as big as their parents but still being fed by them. They spend a lot of time in the shallow water - a good tactic to avoid the Cormorants. All the usual 'players' visited - Gulls, Gadwall, Coot, Heron, Egrets etc. 

Perfect Trio of Subjects at Paxton

 I spent about an hour yesterday afternoon photographing life on South Heronry Lakes and was well entertained by a close Heron, an even closer Egret and a family of Great Created Grebes,. The heron  spent a while looking into the water and eventually struck out and caught a fish. The tongue is obviously important with its barb in forcing the fish down the throat and need a good clean afterwards. The Egret was too close to frame well but a great pleasure to observe. The GCG hatched a few days ago and the two chicks are happily riding around on the adult's back, hopping off occasionally into the water and then returning to safety. So hope that they do not fall victim (as the last brood) to the Cormorants when they are in the water. Distant shots so no great quality.

Macro Session at Paxton

The sky was cloudless on Thursday morning for our macro photography session at Paxton so I decided to go for dramatic portraits and therefore  look for situations where the subject was lit against darker backgrounds (normally I would be looking for even lighting to bring out as many details as possible for identification!). The Jade Hopper is always one of my favourite subjects (except it is very small!!). There were plenty of Grasshoppers/Crickets and other Hoppers though the Wasp Spider was catching as many as it could. Close ups of  Darters and Norfolk Hawker faces gave some good macro practice as they rested on sunlit branches.

Paxton Water Surveys 2026

Disappointed that I didn't have longer looking at the samples taken for the first of the Water Quality survey at Paxton Pits today due to a clash of events but I did get to do a few photographs of the very small insects/invertebrates that needed further magnification such as these very attractive Pond Weed bugs (about 3 mm). Their latin name is Mesovelia furcata. It is usually wingless but winged forms do occur. It lives round the margins of well vegetated ponds. Its eggs (about 100) are inserted in water plants. Also pleased to identify a Soldier Fly larva as I wasn't aware the larvae were aquatic till today though the adults do frequent marshy areas. I wonder if there is an ID group fro these as with Hoverfly larvae. (ID sheet at the end)

Paxton on a Sunny Afternoon

Amazing where three hours can go sitting in a hide overlooking water! I was entertained by hunting Norfolk Hawkers and by many familiar subjects, including Great Crested Grebes sitting on a new nest having we think lost all three chicks at quite a mature stage to the Cormorants, several Egrets and one of the three Heron Chicks now confidently fishing along the margins of the Lake.