Saturday, 25 June 2022
Tuesday, 14 June 2022
Four-spotted Chaser - Libellula quadrimaculata
Click to enlarge. Not a great picture but a record none the less.!
Red-eyed Damselfly - Erythromma najas
Male. The small red-eyed damsel male can be identified by a small black x shape mark on the last segement of the abdomen.
Friday, 3 June 2022
Wildflower Time - What's not to love!
Bladder Campion
Corn Camomile
Sorrel
Wild Carrot
Brown Hare - Leverette
Common Vetch
Thursday, 2 June 2022
Large Skipper Butterfly (M), Common Blue and Azure Damsel (F)
Large Skipper
Common Blue on a Cornflower
Female Azure damselfly
I rescued this damsel from drowning in the pond. She was submerged while still being held at the back of the neck by the bright blue male. After her wings dried out, she was able to fly away.
Sunday, 22 May 2022
A Facinated Oxeye Daisy!
Well I never... Apparently this us what is known as a 'Facinated' flower. It's a quite rare event caused by a number of possible causes including, genetics, virus or fungal infection etc. In a field of tens of thousands of daisies I was lucky to spot this unique bloom.
Scarce Chaser Dragonfly
This is a first for me either at Longbeach Farm or anywhere. Pleased to add another species of dragonfly to the list of Longbeach residents.
The extra picture below is a follow up to a previous picture of recently emerged Dragonfly exoskeleton only this time it seems that this stem of Reed mace was very popular with several dragonflies selecting it as their preferred exit route.
Orange Tip, male and female comparison.
Male with Orange Tipped Wings
Female with Grey Black tipped wings. Easy to confuse with Large and Small White butterflies if you are not paying attention.
Yellow Sweet Clover
Melilotus officinalis, Yellow Sweet Clover, another new discovery in the meadow.
Saturday, 21 May 2022
Too Early for the Navtivity..
Quite by chance I uncovered this Star of Bethlehem wild flower in the tall meadow grass, I'm confident that it predates my sowing of my meadow as it was found in an area that had not been seeded and is on a small patch of dense legacy 'improved' grass that existed before I made the flower meadow and it is the only plant I have found; one cannot however be 100% sure of these things.
Kidney vetch is making a showing across the meadow.
Common vetch being visited by a thankful bee.
Red clover is also making purple presence known.
Barn Owls, Cuckoo's and Doves
Delighted to see the Barn Owl hunting round the pond and over the meadow. I have deliberately left areas of uncut meadow and grass to allow a thick thatch to develop to create the perfect habitat for mice, voles and shrews. My Barn Owl box put up earlier in the year has so far only attracted Stock Doves to use it as a home. While I'm happy to have the box used by birds my preference would have been for the owls to use it! Maybe next year... in the picture below there are two stock dove chicks looking more hairy than feathery. On the theme of squatters, I have had house sparrows take up residence in one if my four swallow nest boxes, I'm hoping that I manage to get at least one bird in the right nest box! Heard but did not see a cuckoo yesterday so it seems the theme of squatting continues.
2 X Stock Dove chicks in the Barn owl nest box.
Thursday, 19 May 2022
Dragonfly Emergent Exoskeleton
Returned home from work and noticed that there were at least 6 Emperor dragonfly cases on the reedmace and flowering rush plants in the pond. They must have all decided to hatch overnight or during the day as they were not there the day before. A shame I missed them emerging and expanding their new wings to take to the sky. Given my pond is only a year old I thought that I would not see emergent dragonflies for a couple of years. I had seen the larval forms swimming in the pond last year, but assumed they needed to mature for a few years before they would emerge. Better do some research to check my facts!
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