June 27th Minsmere

Biting Stonecrop

Things have calmed down at Minsmere since BBC Springwatch left the reserve after three weeks filming stoats, sparrowhawks and the drama of a great tit family parented by a single blue tit. Though there were plenty of people around today, it still wasn't as busy as I expect it was during those three action packed weeks. With the cameras and wires all tidied away and the film crews and production teams long gone, I thought it was about time that I checked up on the real stars of the show, the wildlife. What has happened to those stone-curlews, the avocets and the Sons of Si? That is what I wanted to know!

Southern Marsh Orchid? (Quite tall and by heathland)

Southern Marsh Orchids

Small Heath

At the visitor centre, I had news that the mother stoat was reported this morning at the Island Mere Hide tackling a moorhen in the water with a lot of success! So Mum and I decided to head over there first via the track leading down the hill where the Springwatch studio building is. We saw plenty of interesting plants along the way as well as a few butterflies including a single small heath. Unfortunately, there was no sign of the stoat and at the Island Mere Hide, we could only see a pair of common terns, a few swifts, swallows and martins and a cormorant and hardly anything else. The sticklebacks (Sons of Si) were doing well and you could see plenty of them from the bridge leading to the hide.

Sticklebacks

Four-spot Chaser

Common Tern

Green Woodpecker

Walking along the bottom of the hill on our way to the Bittern Hide, we came across three people with their binoculars up. They had clearly found something, but what? It turned out to be a green woodpecker feeding amongst the grass. Its green plumage made such great camouflage that two of these people were still trying to locate it for themselves using the directions given by their friend. The five of us ended up with good views of it eventually and passers by were guided in to get a look of it, too. Unlike the other two British woodpecker species, the green woodpecker is a ground feeder, probing its long tongue into ant nests. This one spent several minutes doing just that, while also giving us the odd stare between each peck to the ground. From Bittern Hide, we saw the odd distant marsh harrier and little egret, but that was pretty much it.

Ringlet

Sand Martin Chicks

Stone-Curlew

After lunch, we walked down to the beach to the East Hide. On the way, two volunteers were showing visitors the stone-curlews out on the heath through their telescopes. This was apparently the same pair that failed to hatch their egg on the show. The pair have now moved to a different location on the heath much nearer than they were before and have started again. We could see one of them sitting at the nest, while the other was walking within some scrub behind it.

Yellow Horned Poppy

Black-headed Gull Chick

At the East Hide, the scrapes have changed since Springwatch ended. There were black-headed gull chicks everywhere, all of them grown too big for the hungry bigger gulls that were predating them during the show. As for the avocets, there were no sign of any new chicks, at least not at the moment. I also saw a few kittiewakes and a few Mediterranean gulls out on the scrapes as well as several nesting terns. We made one last look at the stone-curlews as we made our way back to the visitor centre, discovering that a red deer had decided to have a rest on the heath several yards away from where the stone-curlews were nesting.



Black-headed Gull

Kittiewake

Avocet

Mediterranean Gulls

Black-headed Gull (above) with Mediterranean Gull (below)

Sandwich Terns with Common Terns

Burnet Moth

Red Deer

Juvenile Pied Wagtail

June 24th Strumpshaw Fen

Azure Damselfly (I think)

Its Friday and boy, what a lovely day! I have returned to Strumpshaw for the afternoon for another attempt in finding three of the four insects that are still on my challenge list. With the willow emerald damselfly still yet to emerge, my attention is mainly on the common blue butterfly, the hornet and the water scorpion. These three species should be out now and the fact that I have yet to find and photograph them is a bit embarrassing. They shouldn't be this difficult to find, but for some reason, they have been avoiding me.

Meadow Brown with Bumblebee

First up, a walk down the Sandy Wall path for common blues and hornets. The bird's-foot trefoil is still out and the brambles and other shrubs are now in bloom, plenty of nectar sources for these two targets to chose from. However, I could not find either of them. Meadow brown butterflies were out in force this afternoon and there were even a few large skippers and brimstones as well as the odd small tortoiseshell  and red admiral, but no sign of the common blue! As for the hornet, I had a few people coming up to me and telling me that they've just seen one just moments ago! Not fair!

Large Skipper

Hoverfly of some kind

Another Hoverfly

Red-tipped Clearwing

One of these people was Ben the Strumpshaw warden. He was busy surveying the reserve's insects when I met him today. He was after clearwing moths, dayflying moths that resemble sawflies or wasps. To survey them, he had put up some bait in a bag (mainly scent-producing plants that these moths can't resist) and hang it up on a branch. They were soon drawn to it, well, like a moth to a flame and Ben had his net at the ready to sweep them out of the air. Apparently, I had just missed him catching a white-barred clearwing, which, according to Ben, is the first on record for this part of Norfolk (the Yare Valley)! I may have missed out on Ben's catch of the day, but the bait was still working its magic and more clearwings were being lured to it. This time, they were red-tipped clearwings. I have never seen a clearwing before, so I was happy in seeing this far more commoner species than no clearwing at all.

Red-eyed Damselfly

At the river end of the Sandy Wall path is a jetty. Peering down from this jetty, lily pads were just about floating above the surface as the water level in the river was high after the extremely heavy downpour from last night. As I stare down at the lily pads, I soon found a personal favourite of mine, the red-eyed damselfly. Though not a target for my challenge, I couldn't resist seeing them as I think there's nothing better than to see them hop from pad to pad with a quick pose to show you how pretty they are in the sunshine of a warm, lazy, summer's day. If only Monet included them into his paintings of lily pads.

Black-tailed Skimmer

Stickleback

With no luck with the common blues and hornets, I did a spot of pond dipping to try and catch a water scorpion. Despite sweeping the pond for several minutes, I could only find a few water boatmen, caddisfly larvae, a stickleback (I think) and other tiny pond creatures. No water scorpion. I feel like I need a group of children to find me one. Children are good at finding water scorpions and they are far more energetic than me. They could probably pond dip for hours if they wanted to.

Water Boatman

Brimstone

After failing with the water scorpion, I made one more walk along Sandy Wall, but still no common blue or hornet. So I then decided to check the meadow trail for them. The meadow trail was a bit boggy to walk along. You really need proper walking boots or a pair of wellies here as the path was waterlogged in places and very muddy. Still, these were great conditions for the orchids and the entire meadow was full of them. Wherever you look, several of them were poking out of the grass with red, pink, purple or white flowers. Each ranged in various heights and number of florets that each possessed. It is hard to tell if they are different species or if they are just hybrids of the same species without an orchid expert on hand, but if I had to guess, I would say that they were mostly southern marsh orchids. I couldn't find the hornets or common blues or even the marsh helleborines that were supposedly here. To end my afternoon, I saw a hobby in a tree from Reception Hide, while a shrew was scurrying between the benches inside the hide.

Small Tortoiseshell

A Moth that I have no idea what it is

Four-spot Chaser

Southern Marsh Orchid

Orchids in the meadow

Red Admiral

Hobby