REELING IN THE SPECIES

Expert botanist Luke Bristow couldn't resist checking out the plants in the ditch in the country park's grazing fields during his visit on Wednesday 3rd. Out came his long line and hook which was tossed into the water-filled ditch, then reeled in pulling various aquatic plants towards him. The 200 metre length of freshwater looked in good health and had lots of soft hornwort, starwort and duckweed. Luke also found the scarce golden dock plant growing in the fields.

A flock of sixty goldfinches flew around the fields feeding on the vast crop of thistles. A whinchat perched on top of a thistle - the first one of the autumn for the park. A willow warbler called from the hedge along the central ditch.

At the park pond little egrets flew off from their roost and there was a good number of mallard present too with about 60 birds seen including 2 shoveler.

The sunny weather was perfect for dragonfly activity on the pond and there were lots of common darters flying around in tandem flicking eggs into the floating pondweed. Southern hawkers were also seen flying about the pond. A mating pair are shown above, with the tip of the blue-coloured abdomen of the male fastened round the back of the female's head. The abdomen tip of the female is reaching up to receive the sperm from the body of the male.
There were several small red-eyed damselflies resting on the floating weed and algae with at least one mating pair seen.

One of the few butterflies seen at the park was this pale holly blue, feeding on a hebe bush in my garden. Numbers of the second generation have been low this summer with this one only the second one seen at the park so far. Other butterflies on the wing during the day were speckled wood, red admiral, small white and large white. One of the wasp spiders appeared to be keeping a close eye on a small cocoon in the long grass which maybe holding her eggs.

The sun still managed to shine in the late afternoon and the recent high tide had left behind a clean sandy beach on this section in front of the park.