And the rest of my day at the London Wetland Centre

The rest of my day at the London Wetland Centre seems to be quite flat after the excitement of seeing a full breeding plumaged male Little Bittern there this afternoon, but here's the best of the rest.

 

It was a chilly start to the morning. The sun didn't really burn through until lunch time. I wandered off from the main group of John, Therese, Philip, Joe, Keith and Rick the Posh Boy to finds damselflies and lizards. I failed dismally with the lizards, but once the sun came out there were damselflies galore. All of today's were of the usual two species - Common Blue and Blue-tailed - although the site is also known for the lesser seen Red-eyed damselfly.

 

So here's the usual complete overload.....

 

 

There are two orchids currently flowering at the LWC. The Marsh Orchid and the Bee Orchid. Plenty of Marsh are appearing now, and in a couple of weeks the site will be full of these beauties. Only two spikes of Bee Orchid at the moment, but there may be more as the season gets going....

 

Marsh Orchid

Bee Orchid

As to be expected on a warm May day, there were Thick-legged Flower Beetles everywhere. I mentioned in my last blog post that I would post a photo of a male and female...

 

male with the thunder thighs....

female with the general all over slimmer appearance

 I'm not sure of the plant name for the one below, but it took me a while to spot the Fourteen-spot Ladybirds mating in the flower head....

 

 

Of course there other birds on site....

 

Grey Heron....

 

male Pochard....

 



 

batheing Feral Pigeons (just for Xtina....)

 

silhouette of a hovering male Kestrel....

 

at least four Shelduck were present. These two were first spotted from the Wader Scrape Hide but  flew off to join another pair on the main lake....

 

Of course my blog post wouldn't be complete without a hoverfly !!

This is one of the Parhelophilus species, a particularly pale hover with a hairy thorax.....

 

 

It was a great day in all. The excitement of the Little Bittern obviously made it, but it was good to bump into my old friends again.

So thanks John, Therese, Philip, Joe, Keith, Martin, David and June for making my day complete.

 

 

 

 

Mega at the London Wetland Centre

My morning was fairly quiet at the London Wetland Centre, as you'll see from my second blog post from the day, but mid afternoon it all went a bit crazy.

 

Martin Parker, Joe Davison and John Cass were near the Wildside Hide at about 2.30pm, Philip Giles was in the pond dipping area and I was looking for lizards near the Dulverton Hide. I had just spotted Philip when his phone rang, and he quickly gave me the nod that a 'Night Heron' had been spotted by Martin, John and Joe. Minutes later my phone rang with the same news from John Cass.

 

A very fast half run-half walk around to the wildside and we found the others scanning the reed beds along the second channel. The bird had flown in to them minutes before but Joe had managed to get a photo before it took flight. Examining the photo the conclusion was this was no Night Heron, but a stunning full breeding plumage male Little Bittern....

 

photo by Joe Davison

 As the news spread we were joined by several members of the LWC staff, David and June, Therese, Lawrence and some others. We spread out. Some of us went back in to the Wildside Hide to look down in to the channels, others stayed on the bridge. I shuffled from channel to channel and was right next to Lawrence when he called out and there was this stunning small bird just in front of us. It had climbed to the tops of the reeds, just like our winter visiting Bitterns often do just before they take off. And so it took off again. No-one managed any photos that time, and tracking the bird as it flew was difficult as it disappeared from view behind a large tree.

 

 

Again we all split up trying to relocate the bird. I went in to the Headley Discovery Hide and Philip went round to the Dulverton Hide. A short while later my phone rang and it was Philip confirming he had the bird in his sight. Another quick half-run, half-walk trek back to where I had been when the Little Bittern was first spotted.

 

It was very distant now across the main lake, but it's light colour and splendid orangey-red beak made it very easy to spot through my bins. For a few minutes we all saw the bird until it suddenly dropped down in to the reeds. From there I made my way to the top floor of the Observatory but it didn't show again for the last half an hour. It was spotted again by Martin Honey after I had left, and it was heading back to the wildside channels.

 

But what a find ! Well done Martin for spotting the gorgeous bird, and well done Joe on getting a photo. The photo above is an iPhone grab of the back of Joe's camera.

Back on the patch with some new surprises

I was back at Cranford Park on Friday. My last visit was only 12 days ago but the park has changed so much. Trees are now in full leaf and there are whole swathes of Red Campion and other flowers. It was a short visit so I only done a walk from the wood circle to the Secret Garden and on to the River Crane and back.

 

At the wood circle I found an 'ant farm', yes you read that right....an 'ant farm'. Aphids feed off a host plant like a nettle, and secrete a form of honeydew. Ants often 'farm' aphids and feed off the honeydew that the aphids release. In return the ants protect the aphids from predators such as ladybirds.....

 

 

I saw several butterflies today, mainly Speckled Wood and Holly Blue (as below), Orange Tips and Green-veined Whites but I also saw a lovely Red Admiral which is one I haven't yet photographed this year, and it will stay that way for now as the little beauty refused to settle for a photo..

Speckled Wood

 

Holly Blue - female

 

 

Insect season is definitely underway. There were lots of Green Flower Beetles in the buttercups and I'll get some photos of the males and females on my next visit, but the most prominent beetle sighting today was of the stunning Cardinal Beetle....I spotted 13 of theses harmless critters on my walk...

 

This is the Common Cardinal and later in the season I often see the Black-headed Cardinal too.

 

I popped into the Secret Garden to see if the Great Tits had fledged, and they have. They were using the nest box nearest to the wall 12 days ago, and the front nest box was empty. But today the front box was occupied by a new family of Blue Tits and the back box was empty. I managed to get two shots but from a distance as I didn't want to disturb the birds....

 

 

Also in the Secret Garden, nicely perched on a Greater Celandine flower, was this stunningly marked Speckled Bush Cricket....

 

 

and the pond was alive with several hoverflies, this one being a Helophilus species...

 

 

At the drained wildlife pond in front of the Information Centre, despite there being no water in there at the moment, there was plenty of critters in the vegetation.

 

A Fourteen-spot ladybird....

 

a pair of mating flies...

 

and the prehistoric looking Dock Bug....

 

I didn't see this caterpillar at first, I was looking at the little black blobs which I recognised as caterpillar poop (I kept caterpillars for a season three years ago so recognised the poop straight away) and then I spotted the fairly large (two inches long) caterpillar nearby....

 

 

Its the pupae of the Copper Underwing moth, although it could also be the pupae of the Svensson's Copper Underwing - apparently they can only be truly identified just before the caterpillar goes in to the last stage of pupation.

 

Whilst I was trying to get the best angle on photographing the caterpillar, a family of Long-tailed Tits arrived above me chattering away. It was a large flock of around 20 birds, most of them juveniles. One of the ridiculously cute youngsters sat on a twig just above me, waiting to be fed....

 

 

Along the River Crane there were the usual couple of Mallards and a Moorhen, but there was also this lone male Mandarin. This is only the third confirmed sighting of a Mandarin on the river. I had a brief glimpse of one last year and Sue saw a pair a few weeks ago. The male was on his own, which did make me wonder if the female has found somewhere to nest. They nest in hollows in trees, not on the ground. He wasn't bothered by me or the couple that also stopped to admire him, and I hope he sticks around as he's a stunning duck.....

 

 

Up by the iron bridge there were quite a few Large Red damselflies.....

and in the tree canopy above a pair had started mating. If I had hung around I would have probably seen them go down to the water and lay eggs...

 

Again, there were plenty of small fish in the clear water, not a great photo below but it's of a shoal of around 30 Sticklebacks, plus I spotted at least three Minnows too...

 

 

The vegetation along the river is also rich with insects and butterflies. I found several stages of ladybird larvae, including this one below though I've not been able to narrow it down to any definite species yet.....

 

 

Blackcaps, Chiffchaffs, Song Thrushes and Whitethroats were all singing along the river, and I managed to track one Common Whitethroat out in the open singing it's little head off.....

 

I wasn't at the park for long, but there was plenty to observe.

 

Also seen but not photographed were three Great Spotted Woodpeckers, two Green Woodpeckers, Common Buzzard, male Kestrel, a distant Hobby, Pied Wagtail, several Linnets and a pair of Mistle Thrush.