My first Damsels and Dragons of the year at Maple Lodge NR

Today I spent my first full day at Maple Lodge, a nature reserve in Maple Cross, Hertfordshire, that I recently joined as a member. It's a closed reserve and is only accessible by a key code, therefore I felt incredibly safe in the knowledge that any one I did bump into was going to be very much on my wavelength. And I had a lovely time.

 

The weather was looking very promising today, and it didn't take me long to find my first damselflies, and my first dragonfly, of the year. There was a certain patch near the Plantation where every where you looked there was a damselfly. Even sitting on the handily placed bench by the Puddingstone I could just gaze at all the damsels flying around. I photographed loads today and once home uploaded them for complete ids. Four separate species in one day in mid May is pretty good......

Large Red

Blue-tailed - male

Azure Blue - male

Common Blue - male

In flight it can be very hard to distinguish between Azure and Common Blues. But once settled the Azure Blue has thinner black lines on it's thorax than the Common Blue. However I am no expert, so if you need to correct me feel free to leave a comment....

 

Common Blue - female

 

another Large Red....

and another Large Red....



another female Common Blue - but don't ask me what she's doing...

another Common Blue - male

And my first dragonfly of the year, a stunning male Hairy Dragonfly, which I later found out was only the third sighting for Maple Lodge....

male Hairy Dragonfly

Of course with the lovely warm weather came the butterflies......

 

a well camouflaged Brimstone...

Speckled Wood...

Holly Blue...

very tatty Peacock...

Green-veined White

By the owl box I was resting on one of the benches when I found this wonderful clump of newly emerged Small Tortoiseshell caterpillars....

 

Small Tortoiseshell caterpillars

and a closer view of the cats

Other butterflies seen today but not photographed were Orange-tips and Commas, and

other delightful critters found on site included these.......

 

Dock Bug

Aphids being 'farmed' by ants

Sailor Beetle

a member of the Ichneumoide family

female Earwig

Scorpion Fly

Along with the Bluebells, Red Campion, dandelions, daisies and buttercups, other wild flowers are emerging....

Yellow Flag Iris

Green Alkanet

Pink Purslane

 Naturally there were plenty of birds to watch too.....

On all three visits to the Clubhouse hide today there was a male or female Great Spotted Woodpecker. Twice I briefly saw both birds at the same time, but I wasn't lucky enough to get a photo of them together.... 

 

 

However by one of the other hides I was lucky enough to have a Wren pop up in front of me for a few seconds....

 

It had moss in its beak rather than food, so following on from all the time I spent watching Wrens last spring on my patch I'm guessing this is a male adding the finishing touches to a nearby nest. The male builds several nests and his female will chose which one she likes the best. Once she has decided she will then add her own finishing touches of feathers and softer moss to line the nest. This male is looking a little haggard so maybe his 'missus' has been giving him a bit of a hard time when it comes to house hunting !

 

Back at the Plantation area a Sparrowhawk was soaring overhead....

 

 

From the Rotunda hide a Heron was out fishing....

 

From the Shell hide I watched the tern rafts (mainly full of Black-headed gulls) drift around a Cormorant......

 

The tern rafts were moving about quite a bit as you can see from the comparison shots above and below, and every now and then a Cormorant (which looks as if its found an old Coots nest to sit on ??) would take offence to the constant mobbing of the Black-headed Gulls.....

 

I heard and saw several Little Grebes today, but only managed to grab one poor record photo...

 

The same with the Long-tailed Tits. I heard loads today as they moved around the site, but only once could I see one long enough to grab a distant shot....

 

Despite the tern rafts being largely occupied by Black-headed Gulls, I did hear a familiar call and looked up to see a lovely Common Tern flying overhead....

 

 

 

In the 'Everglades' there were at least four Gadwall taking advantage of the cover....

 

And whilst waiting for the invisible Treecreeper to appear (it did for plenty of people during the week but not for me today) it was nice to see several of the nest boxes occupied....

 

 

Other birds seen today but not photographed were singing Reed Buntings and Sedge Warblers from the Sanctuary and Rotunda hides, a possible singing Reed Warbler from the Sanctuary, yaffling Green Woodpecker from the Plantation, and a Treecreeper in the 'Everglades'.

 

It was so blissfully quiet at the reserve with no kids running around screaming and no dogs running around barking, that several times I found Rabbits out in the open....

 

And to finish my blog post today is this beautiful female Mallard and some of her ducklings, resting on the naturally planted hollow log across the 'Everglades' just before the 'alligator'.....

 

 

In the below shot I swear she is smiling.......

 

So a really good eight hours spent at this reserve today. I will be making this a regular place to visit, though it will be more likely once a month than once a week. I don't drive and although the journey here by bus was fine once you knew the timetable, the cost of a 15 minute journey from Uxbridge to The Cross was a staggering £7 for a return ticket. On top of that was my fare to and from home, another £1.50 each way but for journeys that take just over 30 minutes each. There's a huge difference between country and city buses.