Macro Practice at Paxton Pits

 Photographers are never satisfied with the weather - today was a bit to hot and breezy for our macrophotography session at Paxton Pits as the insects were sheltering from the sun or waving around on leaves. All the Damselfly species other than the Emeralds are now on the wing and we managed to find most species and also an obliging Hairy Dragonfly perched plus quite a few views in the air together with the occasional Green-eyed Hawker etc. Right at the end we came across a couple of unusual Shieldbugs - Eurydema ornata only appeared in the south of England in 1997 and seems to have abandoned its usual coastal preference.

ID Sheets for Paxton May Survey

 The wildlife survey this month was the meadow adjoining Cloudy Fen which for much of the Winter was completely flooded so interesting to see if this has made a difference to the flora/fauna. Certainly, we found a lot of marshland insects especially wetland-specific Hoverflies and lots of Damselflies.

Paxton Pits May Wildlife Survey

 Very enjoyable morning yesterday at Paxton Pits recording the flowers, birds, insects etc in the large meadow adjoining Cloudy Fen. All the Damselfly species were recorded (not all illustrated here!!) though Variable were the most common. Small Copper, Orange Tip and Common Blue Butterflies gave us some great photo opportunities though the Scorpion fly was my favourite capture. Not finished sorting and identifying all the invertebrates so will be a day or two before I post the completed sheets!!

Snail Survey 2 Paxton Pits

On Saturday, Richard kindly undertook a second survey of the snail species at Paxton Pits. We intended to do both aquatic and land species including slugs but the recent hot dry weather resulted in an absence of the latter. Here are a few from Sailing Lake area, Rory's Wood and West Scrub starting with a very obliging Caddis Fly larva that has made its case out of a great variety of snail shells. (All photographed at the time so natural light etc and some are only a few mm long!)

Wetland Birds Count

Paxton Pits along with other wetland reserves carry out a monthly count of the birds on the Pits  (WeBS). Beautiful morning for our December count though difficult for ID etc against the light. The most prominent birds for our route round Rudd, Cloudy and Weedy Lakes were the 40 or so Canada Geese plus this one Canada GooseXGreylag hybrid. Looking it up they appear quite common and very consistent in marking with just the head, neck length and beak revealing the Greylag parentage. All the usual Ducks plus a solitary Grey heron. Couldn't resist photographing the Long-tailed Tit at the end of the walk.