THE CENTURY

This posting is the hundredth one since the beginning of the year and the sun was out on Tuesday 17th making it a nice and warm day at the country park.
Part of the park pond looking a bit empty of life in the photo. The little bit of excitement that I noticed without binoculars whilst standing here, was a brand new brood of ruddy ducklings. As the population drops elsewhere in the county it is reassuring to know that we still have one or two here to admire. Four tiny fluffy balls with sufficient energy to dive under to feed, whilst the mum kept an eager eye out for danger.

The water quality was crystal clear except for the seething mass of microscopic life that could be seen. Millions of tiny daphnia-type creatures revealed the pond to be in great health. Luckily the pond is spring fed with fresh water so water levels remain good even in dry summers.
One black-tailed skimmer dragonfly found the warmest basking spot to be on the brown hide of a resting bull!

Haven't been onto the park grazing fields above much recently as the cattle seem to be happy enough. The grass growth has been vigorous and all the other plants have done well too - including lots of thistles. Today was ragwort pulling day in the fields and with two helpers, the fields were cleared in a couple of hours, which was pleasing. The dots of white above are yarrow flowers with the yellow flowers being the very widespread smooth hawksbeard.

Lots of summer rain over the last couple of months have kept the ditches and creeks topped up with water in the grazing fields. The main ditch shows the thick reddish blanket of the water fern Azolla, covering the water surface. This alien water weed in recent years has restricted itself to this central ditch, sparing lots of the other watercourses from being suffocated.

The mute swan family were alongside one of the rush-choked ditches with all six cygnets still present. A family of five mallard ducklings were seen too on one of the small ponds. Few insects were noted as there was a reasonable breeze blowing, although lots of meadow browns were noted. The moth trap that was set on Monday night attracted 25 of these latticed heaths with their fine chequered markings. About 30 species were noted including poplar grey, lunar spotted pinion, coxcomb prominent, lychnis, dusky sallow, least carpet and the mother of pearl.

The day finished with another eyecatching sunset transforming the colour of the clouds into a variety of tints.