Being out and about on the reserve doesn’t mean always having to look for birds. Look down and around and there’s usually something moving about whether it’s crickets, ladybirds, bees, butterflies or bettles.
Black and yellow longhorn beetle by Kate Thorpe
Lesser stag beetle by Kate Thorpe
Soldier beetles by Pam Dalley
The wind and the rain isn’t making it easy to see butterflies which are having to shelter but if you look carefully you can sometimes see them hiding amongst the long grasses. As soon as the sun comes out they get out and about again.
Ringlet on knapweed by Pam Dalley
I did a butterfly survey earlier this week and was lucky to see a couple of essex skippers, no photograph, sorry!! For those not sure what they look like, they are very small orange butterflies with black tips to their antennae which look as though they’ve been dipped in ink.
Bees aren’t so affected by the wind and rain and can certainly been seen out collecting pollen in all but the worst weather.
A flower I’d never heard of has appeared on the reserve. Sainfoin was found about a month ago and is still producing lovely flowers. It can be found on the canal side of the Jubilee wetlands towards the North Pools.
Sainfoin by Pam Dalley
It's that time of year again when some of the birds go into moult, expecially our friendly robin.
Scruffy robin by Pam Dalley
Keep your eyes open and look for the little fellas that are always around whatever the weather..