July Survey of East Scrub Paxton

In the hot weather, insects tend to move under leaves into the shade to prevent overheating so we were not surprised that there did not appear to be many species to record during our Thursday July survey of East Scrub. However, a bit of hunting around in the vegetation revealed quite a variety of subjects. Great to phoograph both Willow Emerald and Emerald Damseflies, Picture-wing Fly, several species of Grasshoppers, Moths and Flies.   ID sheets are at the end together with a few more pictorial portraits.

Juniper Hall Final Morning

 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..

Infrared Images from Juniper Hall Trip

Images  taken with a Sony RX100 compact camera converted to record infrared light. The first images were taken early in the morning on one of the moth trapping sessions; the others later in the day around Juniper Hall with its wonderful gardens complete with lots of different habitats (as you would expect from a Field Studies Centre!!).

Newdigate Brickworks

 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. 

What Paxton's Hobbies are Hunting

 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.