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.
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!!
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!)
With this last week's warm temperatures, a lot of flowers have come into bloom while others are dying away. It is definitely Red Campion time making wonderful splashes of colour everywhere contrasting with the blue Alkanet and Centaurea. Buttercups have largely taken over from Cowslips in the meadow, the Bogbean is in bloom in the pond, the Perennial Alyssum is attracting lots of insects along with the three species of Spurge etc!!
