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.