Wino Wendys Wildlife World : A day at Maple Lodge NR - with special guests 'Fewy' and 'Posh Boy'

Today was my third visit to Maple Lodge Nature Reserve in Maple Cross, Hertfordshire.

On my last all day visit I was incredibly impressed by the quietness of the reserve, no children running around, no dogs barking at my camera, no oiks on motorbikes tearing about and no 'yummy mummys' pushing their prams. It was bliss, and at times it felt like it I was the only one there with just the wild life for company. Maple Lodge NR is a members only nature reserve, and it works perfectly.

Todays visit was no different, except that as a member I had invited two guests, John aka 'Fewy' and Rick aka 'Posh Boy'. Both had expressed an interest in visiting the reserve, and today was the day. Armed with fluids and food, we set out after I had read them the 'riot act'....

1) Stick to the paths.....

2) Close all hide hatches when leaving a hide.....

3) No Barbeques.....

4) No skateboarding or scooters (made sure the Posh Boy understood that one, he can be a right tyke sometimes)....

5) Don't pick any flowers, fruit or fungi

6) Respect the wildlife

Basically take nothing but photos and leave nothing but footprints. As both Fewy and Posh Boy are fanatical nature photographers, I didn't need to repeat the rules twice. They know and they understand.

I've known for a while that a pair of Sparrowhawk have nested on the site, but I didn't know the exact location. Luckily for us one of the Saturday morning work party met us on the path way and without us even asking, she asked us if we wanted to see the nest site. We weren't going to say no of course, and we spent as little time as possible looking at the birds so we wouldn't disturb them. We went past a few more times during the course of the day, checking the nest first before grabbing a photo and moving on. This was probably the high-light of my day, along with the Kingfisher later, as this is the first time I've seen a Sprawk nest.

Don't let my photos fool you into how close the nest it, because it isn't. Heavy cropping is how I got these two shots, one from the morning and one from the afternoon....

I could have gone home happy with that, but the forecasted rain held off and although still overcast, it seemed a fine day to explore.

There was a wonderfully marked chrysalis on one of the Flag Iris leaves. I've left it to the Maple Lodge local insect expert, Martin Parr, to try and identify it (and it was nice to finally meet you today Martin).....

The Peacock caterpillars have started to emerge. This batch were by the Puddingbasin meadow....

Not many butterflies were around on this mainly sun-less day. I saw a male Brimstone flying but not settling, and this Meadow Brown settled just long enough for me to grab an open wing and under wing photo....

Over the last few weeks I've been photographing mainly male Scorpion Flies so it was nice to get a shot of a female one today...

It really is Damselfly season, there were plenty to see today....

Male Common Blue...

The jury is still out on this one below.....

Male Blue-tipped.....

Female Common Blue...

and finally a pair of mating Common Blue...

Fewy, Posh Boy and myself probably spent most of our time at the Long Hedge Hide today. We went back there twice. There was plenty to see.

A family of Great Crested Grebes had two young 'humbugs', one of which was still small enough to get on and off it's parents back....

And there was a lone Little Grebe 'humbug' seen too....

We also had the pleasure of seeing a Pochard family go past....

But the high-light of the visit to this hide was having a Kingfisher fly in to the willows from over the hide, then fly to a nearby perch and fish and preen for almost an hour.......

My photos aren't great, I've only got a 300mm zoom lens, but I bet Fewy and Posh Boy got some cracking shots. The bird was so obliging....

On the same body of water I also saw my first beautifully marked juvenile Black-headed Gulls of the year.....

But that's not all we saw....

As anyone who reads my Cranford Park posts knows, I love Stock Doves. I get a real kick out of seeing these under-rated birds, so it was lovely to see several around Maple Lodge today....

Also seen today were this cleverly camouflaged Treecreeper....

a female Black Cap laden with food...

one of several Great Spotted Woodpeckers...

and one of loads of juvenile Blue Tits.....

There were also countless numbers of juvenile Long-tailed Tits, Great Tits and Wrens.

The meadow viewed from the Rotunda Hide has over 1000 Southern Marsh Orchid flowering spikes at the moment. My photo doesn't do them all justice...

We were incredibly lucky with the weather. There were a couple of heavy rain showers later in the afternoon but us trio were already tucked up in hides when the heavens opened.

This Canada Gosling didn't mind the rain, it just kept on picking at whatever goslings pick at.....

All in all it was a good day out. Highlights for me were the Sparrowhawk and Kingfisher. I know they're both commonly seen birds, but I'm very easily pleased.

I'm also pleased to report Fewy and Posh Boy behaved themselves (makes a change - just saying......) and they didn't embarrass me in any way at all (which also makes a change - just saying....)

Both have decided to become members, which is great news for me as I don't drive and they both do, and they have to come past my home town to get to Maple Lodge (hint hint - just saying...)

Fewy and Posh Boy

One thing that really stuck out today though was the viewing panel near the Rotunda Hide. Absolutely perfect for my guests today. Fewy gets the top view and Posh Boy gets the bottom one.

It was just made for them.