Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre

We were promised sunshine for our Nature Group outing to Slimbridge yesterday but most of the day it was cloudy with a bit of rain. Here some of the birds around the central area of the reserve. The Jackdaws and Rooks were busy building nests. The views of the Estuary and its birds were great with a dark stormy sky behind while it was good to get images of Chiffchaff, Snipe and four different Kingfishers

Oldbury Birds

A few images taken on a dull evening walk up to the masts behind Oldbury Travelodge yesterday. Magpies are very wary birds so difficult to get close shots.

Creating Mining Bee habitats at Paxton Pits

 We spent Thursday morning cutting some vertical faces to one of the banks on the Paxton reserve and also in a smaller gully. In addition, we dug an approximately one metre square pit with vertical sides, piling the spoil up to create a mound. Even while we worked solitary bees started to show an interest so we have our fingers crossed for lots of nesting burrows in these sites.

Toft Churchyard 30th March: Shieldbugs!

Warm sunshine brought out a number of Shieldbugs including two new species for my list, Bronze Shieldbug and Bordered Shieldbug.

Very Wet Spring, Hardwick Wood

Primroses, Oxlips, Violets, Celandine, Dog's Mercury are all in bloom in Hardwick Wood but not in great numbers and the Oxlips that are out have been eaten extensively.