30 Days Wild – Day 16

June 16, 2016February 26, 2025 / nrowberry / Leave a comment

Day 16 of 30 Days Wild and I didn’t really have any idea of what I was going to do today. But as I got home from work a thunder storm started and I thought great, I can do a mean and moody storm post. The thunder was rumbling and the rain was pelting down, as I dashed about the house grabbing camera and sound recorder. Of course being the fickle thing that British weather is, it all stopped pretty much the second I stepped out the back door. The sun even came out, ruining my mean and moody plans!

So I decided to switch to Plan B and photograph my little area of “meadow” that I’d planted earlier this year. Although it was now sunny all the plants were of course looking soggy and a bit limp. I was struck though at how quickly the bees reappeared once the rain had stopped. Within minutes the soggy flowers were buzzing again with all manner of bees. Most of the bees looked dry and fluffy, like a bee should. They must have been sheltering somewhere during the downpour. But if there was a wet bee contest, I think this poor mite would win hands down. I couldn’t even tell what species it was, he was so bedraggled. Don’t know why he hadn’t had the sense to find shelter like the rest of them, but his bad hair day didn’t seem to stop him getting the nectar!

Feeling inspired by the bees (both wet and dry) I thought I’d move on to Plan C – lots of nice bee shots after the rain. Again the weather intervened and it started drizzling – not enough for my moody storm post but enough to spoil any bee photography. Feeling in a bee kind of mind now though, I decided to check on my bee species tally for the year. I realised we’d now recorded 21 species of bee in the garden this year already. I’d blogged about bees previously when we’d reached 12 species, but hadn’t done an update since. So Plan D – today’s post is really an update on the remaining 9 species of bee from our garden to date. Should anyone want to read the original post on bees 1 to 12, you can find it here: https://toolazytoweed.uk/2016/04/13/bumblebee-bonanza/

So bee No. 13 was Gooden’s Nomad Bee (Nomada goodeniana). This striking looking bee actually looks more like a wasp with its black and yellow abdomen. All the Nomada bees are parasitic on other bee species – they lay eggs in the hosts nest and their grubs then destroy the host’s eggs and eat the food. So not quite the adorable image of a classic bee!

Next up bee No. 14 is the Red Mason Bee (Osmia bicornis). This one nests in pre-existing holes in walls, old wood, stems etc. and is supposedly a common one to make use of “bee hotels” – I’m not aware any having made use of ours though. They use wet mud to create cells for their grubs in these holes, which is presumably why they’re called Mason bees.

No 15. is a Blood Bee of the genus Sphecodes. I think they are so named because of the blood red abdomen, rather than any gruesome blood sucking habits. Having said that they are also parasitic, but I guess no-one is perfect! There are apparently lots of species of Sphecodes and they are not only very small, but very difficult to identify to species level just from a photo, so I can’t pinpoint the exact one without capturing it,

Bee No. 16 is the Orange Tailed Mining Bee (Andrena haemorrhoa). You can just about see the orange hairs at the end of its abdomen in the photo. We had a lot of these in the garden, burrowing into the dry ground around the strawberries.

Bee No. 17 is the Common Mourning Bee (Melecta albifrons). This medium sized dark bee (I think they’re called mourning bees because they’re mainly black) is yet another parasitic one. We had quite a few feeding on the rosemary. You can’t really tell from the photo, but one of its identifying features is its white knees!

Bee No. 18 is the Buffish Mining Bee (Andrena nigroaenea). I love the fact that someone decided to call it Buffish rather than just Buff! I only saw this species once and fortunately happened to have the camera with me at the time. This species mainly nests in bare ground, although it will sometimes nest in soft mortar in walls – I hope this isn’t a sign that our garage wall here is crumbling!

Bee No. 19 is the Garden Bumblebee (Bombus hortorum). This is a social bumblebee nesting in small colonies – at last a bee on this list that fits my “adorable bee” stereotype! These are particularly common in the garden right now.

Bee No. 20 is Barbut’s Cuckoo Bee (Bombus barbutellus). This one looks very much like the Garden Bumblebee above and for a good reason – it is a social parasite of the poor Garden Bumblebee – laying its eggs in the nest and allowing the host to feed and raise its grubs – real cuckoo behaviour!

And finally Bee No. 21 the Patchwork Leafcutter Bee (Megachile centuncularis). Not easy to get a good photo like that so we caught it (I feel guilty we made him drop his leaf!) to get a better one. Unfortunately as soon as we opened the pot it flew off, so this was the best we could do. You can at least see the thick orange pollen brushes on its abdomen.

So those are the nine bees which, with those in the earlier post, make up the full 21 species from the garden. I must admit I am really pleased that our little garden has attracted so many species. There may well be more – I’m pretty sure I’ve seen a few others, but either not been able to get a photo, or they’ve been too difficult to ID without dissection (which I don’t want to do). Just goes to show what providing a variety of habitats and nectar sources can do for your bee biodiversity!

30 Days Wild – Day 15

June 15, 2016 / nrowberry / 3 Comments

Day 15 of 30 Days Wild and we’re half way through already! Today was a first for me – a Moth Breakfast! Fortunately the only thing that was actually consumed was a very nice Pain au Chocolat, but the moth demonstration was also excellent. Herefordshire Wildlife Trust had organised the moth breakfast and had put moth traps out the night before to give us a taste of what can be found on a typical night. By typical night it turns out that meant a bit of a wet one, but there were still plenty of moths to look at. I think about 12 of us turned up and were privileged to get the benefit of two moth aficionados for a couple of hours.

The breakfast was held at Herefordshire Wildlife Trust’s Headquarters on the edge of Hereford next to Lugg Meadows. A gorgeous old building (second oldest in Hereford apparently) in a beautiful setting.

The contents of various moth traps were examined avoiding the rain under a bright orange gazebo – hence the slight orange hue to some of my photos! Our two experts talked us through the moths and were really helpful answering all our questions. I’d really recommend going to one of these events if you want to get a taster of what moth trapping is all about. The photo below shows the abundance of moths found just on the tea towel that was used to cover the trap – let alone those that were actually inside it. Just about visible are Elephant Hawkmoth, Peppered Moth, Heart and Dart and Small Magpies.

Other highlights were this gorgeous shiny Burnished Brass (my photo doesn’t do his glossy sheen justice – I blame the orange reflection from the awning!!)

Also this stunning Leopard Moth (top), Buff Tip and Blood Vein (bottom).

The undoubted headliners though had to be the Hawkmoths – in particular for me the Poplar Hawkmoths, as I haven’t managed to trap any of those in the garden yet this year.

There were several other species in the traps that I’ve never seen at all and I could feel moth envy taking over. Ghost Moths, Dog’s Tooth, Oak Hook Tip – I can but dream of catching these in the garden!

Once we’d finished oohing and ahhing over the moths, I decided to go for a walk. The Trust sits at the edge of Lugg Meadows – ancient meadows that date back to the time of Domesday. It would have seemed rude not to have a walk around while I was there. They are rich in plantlife – I love the way the plantlife is so rich it is partly obscuring the Plantlife information board!

Lugg Meadows are famous for their Snake’s Head Fritillaries. Of course I was too late in the year to see those, but there was plenty else to admire. As with yesterday’s walk along the River Severn at Upton, today I was tormented by House Martin’s swooping past me hunting for insects. Once again they were so close and yet so far in terms of getting a decent photograph – believe it or not the dark blob in the middle of the photo below is the closest I got to capturing a pic of one!

The River Lugg itself is for me a reminder of childhood. I grew up in Bodenham close to the Lugg and remember sunny days spent mucking about in the water down by the church. I’ve had a soft spot for the Lugg ever since – the River Severn is all very magnificent and grand, but the lazy Lugg suits me better.

The trees along this section of the river show a clear flood line marking where the muddy water must have reached during the last floods. It is several feet above the current river level, showing how much this normally placid water must swell during flood conditions.

The river banks were aflutter with Banded Demoiselles, so of course I couldn’t resist taking yet more photos – they are just so photogenic, I wish my skills did them justice.

While walking back I spotted a few snails that I’d never seen before. I think they are Amber Snails – assuming they are, these snails are common in damp meadows – which these certainly were today.

And finally as I got back to the Trust HQ I spotted these pretty little fungi growing in a pile of wood cuttings. They were pale and ethereal, glistening in the rain. No idea what species they were, but they looked like they were out of some kind of imaginary fairy kingdom.

Thank you to the Herefordshire Wildlife Trust for a really great morning. It’s got me all fired up for more moth hunting and for a trip back to Lugg Meadows next year to see the Snake’s Head Fritillaries.

And to finish off as always the latest weed from my garden for 30 Lazy Garden Weeds – this time the Petty Spurge. These little green flowers pop up all over the garden, but particularly for some reason on our drive (I call it a drive, but you can barely squeeze a car onto it!) I presume the Petty bit is so called because it is small rather than petty minded. I like the unusual formation of the flowers – a sort of deconstructed flower arrangement!

30 Days Wild – Day 14

June 14, 2016 / nrowberry / 1 Comment

Embrace the rain! I decided that was my motto for today – Day 14 of 30 Days Wild. I got soaked at work about 3 times and the clouds were looking ominous over the Malvern Hills as I set off for home. So I decided rather than avoid it, I would just go for a walk in the rain. I can’t remember when I last did that (not sure I ever have)? Of course I’ve been for walks and got caught in downpours, but that’s not the same as deliberately setting out to walk in the rain. It was quite liberating in a way, knowing you are going to get wet, so no point trying to avoid it.

Having decided on a watery walk, I figured I might as well take the wet and wild theme a step further and walk along the river. Since I work on the edge of Upton on Severn this wasn’t a difficult thing to achieve. It wasn’t a long walk, but I really did enjoy it. Even in the rain there was plenty to enjoy and take photographs of – spoiler alert – there is some serious cuteness at the end of this blog!

The rain was pretty much non-stop as I walked – not torrential, but definitely constant. I loved watching the rain falling on the river and the tiny concentric circles emanating from each droplet. It was quite hypnotic and had there been somewhere to sit without getting a wet bum, I could have watched for ages.

The first wildlife I saw was a swan the other side of the river, pulling leaves off the overhanging bushes. It was a bit far away to get a decent photo, but at least it is recognisable as a swan!

I hadn’t really expected to see much in the way of insect life today, but this bee had found this patch of foxgloves and was as busy as ever. Whether he was really after the nectar or just using the foxgloves as walk in umbrellas though I don’t know.

There were lots of House Martins swooping low over the river, presumably catching insects over the water. They were virtually impossible to photograph as they were just too quick. The best I managed is a (very) brief glimpse of them in this video flying past a duck that was progressing more sedately down the river.

A wagtail kept me company on the walk, tail bobbing up and down as it searched for insects (or possibly for food dropped by the riverside pub customers!) Shame that in the only half decent photo I got of him, he was standing on what looks like astro-turf rather than somewhere more scenic!

But of course it was the ducks that were really the stars of my watery walk. There were a few cruising up and down the river – I love the bow wave that has formed around this one as he paddles serenely up stream.

Quite a few though were just sitting on the bank – although it was supposedly “nice weather for ducks” today, they didn’t actually look that happy about it.

I think these were all Mallards – they may be common ducks, but the colours on the males in particular are absolutely stunning.

I was just starting to head back to the car, when a group of people peering over the edge of the river wall waved me over. Baby ducklings – what can I say, but serious cuteness overload! There were 5 in total, paddling about with their Mum. I could easily have loaded dozens of photos of them here, but have restricted myself to just the two.

I couldn’t resist trying to video them as well. They may only be small, but they’ve clearly got the hang already of rummaging about in the weeds for food.

I’d guessed that I’d probably see ducks today in the rain; but to find ducklings was better than I could have hoped for – the perfect end to my walk.

And finally the latest weed in my 30 Lazy Garden weeds is Ivy. Beautiful glossy leaves, covering up our ugly fence – evergreen, so brightening up the area all year round. Ivy is particularly good for insects, providing not only cover and homes, but the flowers provide much needed nectar when there’s little else around. Moths of course absolutely love Ivy – so for that reason alone it would get my vote!

30 Days Wild – Day 13

June 13, 2016February 26, 2025 / nrowberry / 1 Comment

Day 13 and it’s Monday – never the most inspiring day of the week and today was a wet one to boot. So I was wondering what to do for 30 Days Wild to lift the spirits. On the way home I pass an open area that is basically just a very wide verge along the side of the road. As the sun finally came out at this point, I stopped to take a look. We went butterfly spotting here last year as it attracts a lot of species – Marbled Whites, Small Coppers, Blues, Skippers etc. So I hoped it might have something today too. It may not have been the perfect weather, but the area was buzzing with life.

Malvern Council thankfully don’t cut the long grass here (apart from a stretch right next to the road) until after the summer, so there are lots of flowers and insects. Yellow Rattle (below) was a common plant, with lots red and white clover, buttercups and even an orchid.

The first insect I spotted was an old favourite – the Seven Spot Ladybird (although it did seem to have a couple of extra spots down one side strangely).

The cornflowers were all full of ants – you can just about make them out in the middle of the photo below.

The cow parsley was particularly popular with the insects – like this large yellow sawfly and several day flying moths below.

The clover and yellow rattle were particularly popular with the bees.

This elongated beetle was a new one for me – it is a Click Beetle. Apparently they make a clicking noise when disturbed. It’s probably a good job I didn’t realise this at the time or I might have been tempted to disturb the poor thing to get a click!

Each step I took through the grass seemed to produce movement as crickets leapt out of the way of my big feet. I find them really hard to take photos of, as they always seem to swivel around bits of grass so they are at the opposite side! But I finally found one whose legs seemed to be almost too long for him – he seemed to be struggling to control his gangly limbs, which made him easier to photograph. I’ve since learnt that he (or she) is probably a Roesel’s Bush Cricket.

Of all the insects I saw this afternoon, the one group that was a bit under-represented was the butterflies – perhaps the sun just hadn’t warmed things up enough. I only saw one in the time I was there – a Large Skipper. It was of course too fast for my slow Monday legs to catch, so you’ll just have to take my word for it.

So in the half hour I spent wandering around the verge (getting strange looks from the drivers going by no doubt) I saw a huge variety of insects – ladybirds, ants, beetles, crickets, moths, bees, sawflies and one butterfly! That half hour also revived my flagging Monday spirits and all from a roadside verge! It just shows what a benefit letting verges grow can be for wildlife. I know there are campaigns now to encourage councils to do just that and I couldn’t agree more.

And finally as always the latest weed from our garden for my 30 Lazy Garden Weeds – The Scarlet Pimpernel. The flower itself is small, delicate and very pretty, but what I really like is the glorious name. Memories of cheesy movies – and the rhyme “The seek him here, they seek him there…” I don’t know about being elusive, but the flower is certainly easily overlooked, but well worth looking out for.

30 Days Wild – Day 11

June 11, 2016February 26, 2025 / nrowberry / 1 Comment

TWT 30 Days Wild_countdown_11 Day 11 of 30 Days Wild and last night’s drizzle has turned into today’s rain. We had planned on a trip to the Wyre Forest in the hope of seeing the Small Pearl Bordered Fritillaries – they would have been a new species for us. But no point going in the rain, not much likelihood of seeing butterflies on a day like this.

So thought I’d just go with the flow today – if it’s raining, find something to do with animals that like the rain! It may be nice weather for ducks, but our pond is too small for them. I did see a frog this morning when emptying the moth trap, but of course it was long gone by the time I decided on the wet weather plan. So what’s left? Well one thing our garden produces lots of is molluscs. And in the rain this morning it was heaving with snails and slugs.

A quick trawl round produced 5 species of snail (we have others, but they would have required more hunting than I was prepared to do in the rain).

First up our largest species at Too Lazy To Weed – the Common Garden Snail (Cornu aspersum). Plenty of these today hiding amongst stones and a few intrepid individuals heading across the grass.

Next up two very similar species, the Brown Lipped Snail (Cepaea nemoralis) and the White Lipped Snail (Cepaea hortensis). The Brown Lipped has a brown band around the opening of the shell (top image below) and the White Lipped has (not too surprisingly) a white band at the opening (bottom image). Other than that the two species both vary hugely in colour patterns from near white, yellow, brown and all manner of stripes in between.

Fourth snail today was a Girdled Snail (Hygromia cinctella). This species is a relative newcomer to the UK, being first seen in the south in the 1950s – well it’s now reached Malvern. It has a keel or girdle round the middle, defined by a white line. (the photo below was actually taken a few months ago, because for some reason I couldn’t get today’s one to focus!)

And finally we found one of the Glass Snails (Oxychilus sp.) These glossy little snails have a blue/black body and some supposedly smell of garlic.

In addition to the snails, there were at least 2 slug species around. I think the big one is part of the Large Black Slug group (Arion ater agg.) When I moved it, it rolled up into almost a ball and started rocking from side to side – apparently a characteristic of this group. Not sure yet what the smaller slimmer slug is – any suggestions welcome.

Having assembled a selection of molluscs for the photos, I decided to do something I haven’t done since I was a child – have a snail race! My sister and I used to collect and race snails all the time (mainly when we were killing time with our friends on a Sunday afternoon in the pub garden while our parents were all inside!) I did consider inviting my sister down for the race, but figured she has probably sensibly moved on from such things, while clearly I have not!

When we were kids we would of course just race any snails. But since I am now older and if not wiser, at least a bit more knowledgeable about snails, I decided to pit one species against another. Oh yes the fun never ends in our garden! The girdled and glass snails were a bit small and the garden snail was too big, so the obvious choices for this gladiatorial contest was the Brown Lipped versus the White Lipped.

So I set up a track, with a finish line and “raced” 2 Brown Lipped against 2 White Lipped.

The snails of course did exactly what they used to do when we were kids – veered all over the place – they have no concept of sticking to their lanes!

It took a bit of time but eventually 2 snails did approach the other end of the course, although one was not technically between the finishing lines, but I decided not to be picky. In a nail biting finish, the White Lipped Snail won by an eye stalk!

After so much excitement, I thought perhaps it was only fair to let the garden snails have a go. Unfortunately though, they really didn’t seem to get the hang of racing and made the other racers look positively professional!

Don’t think you can draw too many conclusions from this non-scientific competition – pretty sure another time a Brown Lipped may well have raced ahead instead. But for today at least the White Lipped Snails were the fastest molluscs in Malvern and I was back being a kid again!

And finally today’s weed in my 30 Days of Lazy Garden Weeds is Herb Bennet or Wood Avens. I must admit I have a love-hate relationship with this one. I love 5 petals interspersed with the 5 sepals into form a star shape. But I hate the seeds – they form masses of curved or hooked seeds that are designed to stick in the fur of animals that pass by. They do of course stick in clothing (towelling dressing gowns in particular!) just as well, where they seem to burrow in only to emerge later to stick into you like a splinter! I guess no pain no gain though, so I’ll put up with the seeds for the sake of the flowers.

30 Days Wild – Day 10

June 10, 2016February 26, 2025 / nrowberry / 1 Comment

Day 10 of 30 Days Wild and it’s our wedding anniversary! Seventeen (in)glorious years! 17 doesn’t seem to be one of those anniversaries where you buy something special – 2 for paper, 25 for silver etc., but my husband has just bought himself (sorry us!) a Pit BBQ, so I guess it’s become the BBQ anniversary.

I had planned to eat outside this evening anyway – I’d ordered American crayfish (the ones you’re supposed to eat to protect out native ones) from our fish supplier at work, but sod’s law being what it is, they couldn’t get any this week. So it’s a burger instead – not quite got the same cache, but what can you do. I’m sitting typing outside while the coals heat up and it’s starting to drizzle – sometimes life just doesn’t quite live up to expectations. But it is at least warm drizzle and it’s Friday night and I’m outside, so not really complaining.

When we got married in Scotland all those moons ago, the dolphins in Aberdeen harbour appeared and put on a display that felt like it was just for us. 17 years later and we haven’t got anything quite so spectacular to help us celebrate, but I’m honestly just as happy watching the wildlife in our garden. There’s something special about knowing that the bees and the birds are all there in part at least because of our lazy attitude to weeding and organic approach to gardening.

We decided to grill some of the asparagus from the garden, but first we had to remove its residents – the asparagus beetles. They are such striking beetles, it’s just a pity they have quite such a taste for our asparagus. Fortunately for them there was a lot of asparagus left that we’d let grow too big – so it was too tough for us to eat, but the beetles didn’t seem to mind.

Even though it was not exactly a sunny evening, the bees and hoverflies were out in force. I particularly liked this Early Bumblebee, such a brightly coloured little guy.

Managed to get a photo of a small Marmalade Hoverfly.

My husband had bought me a large bunch of flowers, which we took outside to decorate the table for the BBQ. They were big, bold, beautiful flowers, but for all the time they were out in the garden, none of the bees or hoverflies came anywhere near them. They clearly preferred our native weeds, as they flew right past the vase even though it was very close to the natural flowers. Again it sort of justifies our decision to have a “wild” garden, as we’d much rather have the subtler British flowers buzzing with insects, than the showier cultivated varieties.

And finally as always the latest weed in my 30 Lazy Weeds from our garden – Yellow Corydalis. This is apparently a garden escapee that originally grew in the Alps, but has now spread round Britain. I probably shouldn’t like it as it is a non-native plant, but it’s hard not to like. I’ve always been attracted to plants with more unusual shaped flowers or leaves and the little yellow trumpets fit into this category. It grows easily in shade and unloved areas of the garden, so brightens up our driveway no end.

30 Days Wild – Day 9

June 9, 2016June 11, 2016 / nrowberry / 1 Comment

Day 9 of 30 Days Wild and I managed to finish work early enough to get out and about. I decided to stop at a little nature reserve on the way home, but first I went strawberry picking. The season is just starting and the local fruit farm hadn’t even got their sign out advertising the strawberries. This meant the strawberry field (well poly-tunnel actually) was deserted apart from me. It was lovely and peaceful and the lack of people meant there were lots of bird and bees about instead.

I took my punnet of strawberries with me to Boynes Coppice and Meadows Nature Reserve which was just round the corner. (No I didn’t scoff all of them, but those I did were very nice eaten in the fresh air!) The reserve consists of a series of meadows managed by Worcester Wildlife Trust. They have a wide variety of flowers and grasses and consequently attract plenty of insect life.

There were lots of hoverflies about – a group of insects I know nothing about, but once again the Facebook community identified a couple for me. The Common and the Large Tiger Hoverfly.

Having chased Common Blue Butterflies round the last couple of sites I’ve been to, I was amazed to find a mating pair of them today. They even stayed put to let me take photos (I guess they had other things on their tiny minds!)

There were bees everywhere and lots of different species – below (I think) are Honey Bee, Buffish Mining Bee, Hawthorn Mining Bee and Ashy Mining Bee. The whole meadow was humming with the sound of bees, although they were drowned out sometimes by the hoverflies!

There were a few small moths about, a Burnet Companion which I’ve seen before and a Common Yellow Conch which I hadn’t.

The final two additions to today’s insect selection were a grasshopper (possibly a Meadow one) and some kind of huge sawfly. The sawfly really was a whopper, sitting on the gate, guarding the meadow!

I find Boynes Coppice an incredibly relaxing place to visit. It’s off the beaten track, away from traffic noise and quite often I’m the only one there (as I was today). You can sit on the path and watch the insects buzzing all around or just watch the clouds drifting by. I love these little nature reserves that feel like your own little secret retreat!

Latest weed for 30 Lazy Garden Weeds is the Columbine or Aquilegia. I love the fact that Columbine comes from the Latin for dove as the flower is supposed to look like 5 doves with their heads together. We have a huge variety of these in the garden – everything from pretty much white, to deep purple. Some are two toned, some all the same colour. Some have additional layers or ruffles, others like this one are slightly more restrained. All of them though have got here under their own steam and generally seeded themselves around the place. They are great for bees, some of whom go in the conventional way, but others cheat and drill a hole in the top to access the nectar directly. Lots of the flowers in our garden have tiny holes where the bees have cheated!

30 Days Wild – Day 8

June 8, 2016March 12, 2025 / nrowberry / Leave a comment

Day 8 and I’m still ploughing my way through the IDs from the weekend’s bioblitz – maybe shouldn’t have taken quite so many photos! But it’s all good and discovering some new species for the garden list. It being Wednesday though, I dragged myself from the computer and headed over to take my Dad out for our weekly pub lunch – no hardship there!

As it was a lovely hot day we decided to head to one of our favourite pubs The Riverside at Aymestrey in North Herefordshire – the pub is by the river Lugg and you can sit outside right next to it for your lunch. Today they had Herefordshire snails on the menu, so I went for those (with a big pile of chips of course!), while Dad went for some smoked salmon.

It is a fantastic spot and we go there quite often in the summer to watch the dragonflies, butterflies and once a kingfisher that darted down the river under the bridge and away. Sadly today all you get is a photo of the bridge!

The little river has fish and lots of insects, which in turn attract plenty of birds. Today we saw nuthatches and yellow wagtails, plus lots of sparrows chirping non-stop. Today’s real prize was the Beautiful Demoiselles. Having chased them around for ages on Sunday at Knapp & Papermill reserve, here they were landing within feet of me, while I tucked happily into my snails. Not only that but there were mating pairs (the Demoiselles, not my snails!)

Feeling full and happy after lunch, I took Dad home, then decided to stretch my legs to work off those snails! I headed to Bodenham Lakes, which are about a mile from where I grew up, but once again I’m ashamed to say this is somewhere I’d never visited. Funny how you often don’t visit the things that are on your own doorstep! That’s one of the great things I’m finding about 30 Days Wild, that it’s getting me to do some of these things – finally!

Bodenham Lakes are actually old gravel pits that have been flooded and are now managed by Herefordshire Wildlife Trust. They are apparently very good for bird spotting and even have otters – not that I saw any of those today. I did though hear my first cuckoo not only of the year, but probably the first one I’d heard for about 30 years! I then managed to find the bird hide which has splendid views, in this case of the Canada Geese.

The meadows by the lake were full of flowers including these beautiful Common Spotted Orchids and the whole place was buzzing with bees, most notably these Red Tailed Bumblebees.

But the stars for me today of Bodenham Lakes were the damselflies and demoiselles. They were everywhere! It felt like I could hardly take a step without disturbing them – I kept seeing flashes of blue all around me. As at Aymestrey there were even mating pairs. I thought all of these below were Common Blue Damselflies, but I’ve already found out from the very helpful people on iSpot that the bottom ones are Blue-tailed Damselflies instead!

Not only damselflies, but I also saw Banded Demoiselles (thereby completing the set of Demoiselles in one day – I think there are only 2 species – Beautiful and Banded). Didn’t manage to get a brilliant photo – I need a steadier hand for photography, but hopefully it is at least recognisable.

There weren’t that many butterflies around today, although I did see another Painted Lady, some speckled woods, what can only be described as a “brown one” and some Common Blues. The Common Blues were flighty as ever, but I did pursue one long enough to get this just about identifiable shot.

So all in all a particularly good day today. I shall definitely be heading back to Bodenham Lakes soon and also no doubt back to the pub too!

And finally as always the latest weed in my 30 Lazy Weeds from our garden – Lady’s Mantle. I like the subtlety of this gentle looking plant. I love the soft wavy pleated leaves, especially the way they catch droplets of water like this. They provide lots of ground cover and are quite happy in the shade as well as in sunnier spots, so suit pretty much any garden. Time to give room to less showy plants like Lady’s Mantle!

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