New Species for My Garden List

To ensure that I spent at least some time clearing the area round my pond today rather than photographing the inhabitants, I locked my camera in a cupboard till after lunch. Even visits from Common Darter and Southern Migrant Hawkers to the garden were ignored while I tackled the excess vegetation around the pond. In the afternoon, I settled down for a couple of hours recording the life in the pond now much easier to access. No Dragons but there was a Willow Emerald Damselfly, lots of Wasps and Bees plus Pond Skaters and Trypoxylon attenuatum Slender Wood-bore Wasp. The Wasps were mainly Europaean Paper Wasps Polistes dominicus - a first record for my garden and obviously breeding somewhere nearby from the amount of activity.

The first pond skater image rivals any Shakespearean tragedy with the Pond skater standing over and about to stab its victim  (a Pond Olive).

Toft Garden Moths 2

 A second set of moths from the garden which included a Water Boatman, Sigara lateralis. Moth ID sheet at the end

Paxton Pits 4th August

The Great Crested Grebes still have their two young which are growing fast though still riding on the back of the adult some of the time. Fingers crossed they avoid predation by the many Cormorants around Heronry South Lake. I couldn't resist a few more images of the Migrant hawker though the light was not as good as on Sunday. 

Dodder Fen Invertebrate Survey

Although the sun stayed behind cloud for quite a bit of the morning, it was very humid and hot hunting among the reeds and rushes on Dodder Fen for insects etc for our August Wildlife Survey. The Dodder plant at Paxton Pits is one of the special species that gives Paxton its SSSI status. It is parasitic on Nettles and grows over quite large areas at Paxton. 

I will take a day or so to collate everyone's invertabrate images and IDs but here are a few of mine that I like, including this wonderful Field Grasshopper with its amazing marking on every area including the eye. Hairy flies were the commonest sighting - nearest identifications at end.

Paxton Pits Macro Day

Ten RPS Nature Group Members together with four Volunteers from Paxton Pits Reserve enjoyed a surprisingly varied selection of wildlife photography considering the recent ongoing hot arid conditions. We started in one of the large Meadows which was full of Grasshoppers, Crickets, Damselflies though very few Butterflies but we soon needed to find a shady spot along one of the trails where we could watch Darters and Dragonflies from the cool shade of the trees. After a welcome drink and lunch back at the visitor centre, some of us braved the Bee-wolf site which was busy with female wasps carrying in bees, trying to remember where their predug burrow was. I was also pleased to record Astata boops, the Shield-bug Stalker Wasp (without Shield bug unfortunately), a new record for the site I think and such a wonderful latin name.

Everyone appreciated the cool of the hides and a lot of time was spent trying to capture the Migrant Hawker in flight, Brown Hawker laying and also the birdlife (images to follow)