#gotthemall

In a recent blog, Lake Fernwy, I mentioned that I was busy looking for the 22 species of fern that had previously been recorded on the reserve and that I was still looking for a few. Well I have now successfully found all 22 species (#gotthemall) and potentially found a new species for the reserve. The final couple of ferns found were the green spleenwort and hard shield fern, both of which are associated with calcareous soil or rock. Here at Lake Vyrnwy we don’t have a lot of calcareous rock but there is at least one relatively small band of mudstone inter-bedded with limestone which is ideal for the calcareous lovely plants to grow. My potential new find is the mountain male fern, however it can be very tricky to ID and we are therefore looking to get an expert to confirm its identification.

Late summer has seen an increase in insect life with lots of late flowering plants emerging such as knapweed, devil’s bit scabious and heather (both ling and bell heather) which certainly adds a lot of colour to the uplands. Butterflies seen have included: peacock, red admiral, green-veined white, larger skipper and the not so common, at Lake Vyrnwy at least, common blue which looked stunning feeding on a knapweed while I didn’t have a camera to hand! Bumblebees, solitary bees, wasps, hoverflies, moths and a whole host of other insects take advantage of what will be potentially their last decent nectar source before they sadly die or go into hibernation.

While these flying insects enjoy the nectar slightly larger insects, particularly dragonflies, take advantage of the bountiful supply of food. Common hawker, southern hawker and brown hawker are seen occasionally ‘hawking’ up and down open forest tracks or around pools looking for an easy meal, rarely sitting for a rest while the sun shines.