A bit out of sequence but this post completes the record of what we photographed on the RPSNature Residential Weekend at Juniper Hall in Surrey and a very handsome collection of insects they are either from the moth traps of the vegetation in that area..
Newdigate Brickworks opened 1928 and finally closed in 1974. The site was abandoned until the turn of the century when it was decided to build a housing development with the remainder as a nature reserve run by the Surrey Wildlife Trust. There are two lakes and a series of smaller ponds. The mosaic of woodland, scrub, grassland, marsh, water-side and aquatic vegetation communities makes the site particularly diverse. Around 220 plant species have been recorded for the site (including 27 ancient woodland indicator species). Lots to photograph including Butterflies, Moths, Bugs and Bees! Here just a selection of generally common species but I will update when I manage to identify this very small but feisty spider.
We were pleased to find some very obliging Mayflies on the wing during our morning Macro session at Paxton Pits on Tuesday and even more delighted to witness the Hobbies hunting around the Lakes in the afternoon no doubt catching lots of these mayflies, plus damselflies, and two new species to me Grouse Wing Mystacides longicornis (Caddis Fly) and Cataclysta lemnata, Small China-mark, is a semi-aquatic moth species with larvae that feed on duckweed and other floating plants.
The Cambridge Natural History Society surveyed the plants etc in Grantchester Meadows in 2006 and 2016 so this year is time to repeat the survey. We met on Sunday afternoon at the Cambridge end. The first two meadows are known as the Lamppost Meadows as each has a lamp-post at its centre from 1920-1940 when the meadows used to be flooded with water pumped from the Cam and used for skating. There is an attendant’s hut at the corner of the first field, where the fee of six pence for an evening’s skating was collected. It is managed in a traditional manner - once the meadow has dried out there may be a summer hay cut and it is grazed until the end of the year. No fertilizer or herbicide has been used. The public path alongside these meadows emerges into open meadows stretching to Grantchester, owned by King’s College. The CNHS group were identifying and recording all the plants species including grasses and sedges while I concentrated on the invertebrates, lichens, galls etc. Here a few plus possible IDs sheet. I was intrigued by the spore cups of he nettle Rust, Puccinia urticata,
