Afternoon,
How are you?
Earlier today I took a wander out to the Draper hide to see what wildlife was about. so I thought I would lte you know what I saw.
I saw blue tits, great tits, crows, pigeons, magpies, and lapwings flying round the meadow.
Talking of the meadow - have I mentioned the three big buffalo are back after their numerous escape attempts and a mini holiday?
Along the edges of the bridge (that you stand on to look over at the Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust meadow) do look over at the vegetations - there's lots of different creatures - I saw bees, beetles, flies, ladybirds, snails, spiders, and more.
Along the paths there are lots of plants keep an eye out - I spotted:
A female scorpian fly
A rather fabulous flower beetle Oedemera nobilis
A very nice soldier beetle that refused to sit still! You know we get lots of solider beetles here, and a number of cardinal beetles (the slightly bigger and red all over beetles). people often confuse soldier and cardinal beetles for scarlet lily beetles - they are the ones that eat your lovely flowers. Soldier and cardinal beetles are a gardiners friend, they are predator and will be very good in your garden as they are an important predator of aphids.
With the little bit of sun this afternoon a couple of damselflies were showing nicely.
These are the birds I spotted out at the Draper hide:
Coots, moorhens, common terns, black headed gulls, a lesser black backed gull, swans (and cygnets), little grebes, Canada geese, a cormorant, pigeons, swifts, 3 lapwing, 3 little ringed plovers, 3 grey wagtails, and lots and lots of ducks! I saw 124 different ducks:
52 tufted duck
27 gadwall
21 pochard
2 shelduck
22 mallard
And not forgetting the fox as well!
I only went up to the Draper, but I saw lots and enjoyed my walk!