This walk with my camera started off as a guided walk by the warden Steve but as is often the case I continued my wanderings after Steve had finished. The walk started at 10:00am but after walking along the river and canal it was getting on for 4:00pm before I decided to head for home.
The header image is of several male and female Goosander on their favoured rocks opposite the entrance to the reserve.
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Hoverflies
When the Sun was shining the place warmed up a bit and the Dandelions, Nettles and other plants were soon swarming with bugs. One of the interesting ones we spotted was the Bee Fly with its really long proboscis. That was the only one of those that I spotted.
Plenty of other varieties were around though. Each of these photos is of a different species of Hoverfly or Drone Fly.
I am reasonbly confident with the first one. I think we have:-
- Dark Edged Bee Fly, Bombylius major
- Drone Fly, poss Common Drone Fly, Eristalis tenax
- Hoverfly, prob. Syrphus ribesii
- Drone Fly, poss. Tapered Drone Fly, Eristalis pertinax
- Hoverfly, poss. Chequered Hoverfly, Melanostoma scalare
- Hoverfly, poss. Epistrophe eligans
- Hoverfly, poss. The Footballer, Helophilus pendulus
Bees & Wasp
During the walk around several large Bumblebees buzzed out from deep in the leaves and then dropped back down out of site. They were much larger than any of the other insects flying around and were probably White-tailed bumblebee, Bombus lucorum. The other bees were small in comparison.
The one I have labelled Solitary Bee was the smallest, followed closely by the Nomad Bee.
The wasp was a decent size which made me look at its markings closely to confirm what variety it is. I think it is a Common Wasp but because of its size I would say it is a queen. Quite smart looking too.
- Bumblebee
- Solitary Bee
- Nomad Bee
- Mining Bee
- Carder Bumblebee
- Wasp
Bugs, Birds, Butterflies & Beetles
On this visit the only Ladybirds I spotted were the 7 Spot native variety.
The female Green Dock Beetle is massively swollen with the eggs she is carrying.
The Chaffinch was singing loudly and I could tell it was very close but it still took a while to find it in the tree. Its legs look very scaly. This is usually caused by Knemidocoptes mites or a papillomavirus. Cleaning bird feeders and bird tables helps reduce the spread of this.
- Ladybird
- Heather Beetle
- Green Dock Beetle
- Shield Bug
- Peacock Butterfly
- Goosander
- Chaffinch
Others
Spider alert. You have been warned.
Though I spent most of my time within the reserve I did go up onto the Leeds Liverpool Canal towpath and there, with a little help from a friend, spotted a Grass Snake.
Last year I bought a small steel rule and a couple of crocodile clips with the intention of using them to show the size of things I was photographing. This is the first time I have used the clips. This False Puffball, Enteridium lycoperdon, which is a slime mould, was on the trunk of a Crack Willow about 8 feet, 2.5m, up. I managed to clip onto some of the bark and suspend the rule next to it.
- Grass Snake
- False Puffball
- Bluebells
- White Bluebell
- Water Avens
- Cowslip
- Nursery Web Spider
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The images are published under the Creative Commons, BY-NC-SA license. Feel free to share them, edit them, but please keep my name in the credits. And if I have got the ID of anything wrong please let me know, I don’t consider myself an expert but I have write something. It is often a best guess and it would take up too much room to say It could be this, or it could be… or perhaps.
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