These are a few photos from a visit to Ben Rhydding Gravel Pits Local Nature Reserve and down by the river near Denso Marston Nature Reserve on 25 August. I had been wondering about how to post photos from the last few months, I have fallen way behind. I had been thinking of grouping lots together but I keep going out and taking more photos. I might still create a post or two that group photos but that might be in addition to visit posts like this one.
The header image is of Common Spangle Galls on the underside of an Oak leaf at BRGP. These Galls are as a result of the cynipid wasp Neuroterus quercusbaccarum laying an egg on the leaf.
The tiled gallery I am using here does not have captions on the images but as usual you can tap/touch/click on an image to see it in better quality, with title, in the carousel gallery. If you then click on the i you can see the descriptions and other bits of information.
Ben Rhydding Gravel Pits
Walking down to the river at Ben Rhydding Gravel Pits I noticed a few marks on the leaves of an Oak tree that looked interesting. I contemplated going back to the car for my ring flash but decided to head down to the river and come back to the tree later.
A Grey Heron was wading in the river but was very skittish and was off as soon as it saw me through the trees.
I went back to the Oak tree to look at the Galls under the leaves. There were lots of Common Spangle Galls that are created as a result of the Neuroterus quercusbaccarum Cynipid wasp. Later on, over near the raod, another large Oak tree had more variety of Galls. Plenty of Common Spangle Galls, Silk-Button Spangle Galls, quite a few Artichoke Galls and a few older looking Knopper Galls.
A lot of the blackberries are looking past their best but there are plenty looking juicy for the birds and rodents. The Sloes on the Blackthorn, the Hips on the Dog Rose, and the berries on the Hawthorn are looking plentiful.
I could hear ChiffChaff and Robin but generally it was quiet for birds. A Little Egret flew up and down a few times but usually saw me before I saw it. A couple of Dipper were also on the river but I was too slow to get them. I’m sure plenty of other birds were around but with all the leaf cover I didn’t see them, apart from a few Mallard on the pond.
Riverside & Wildflower Meadow
As with the visit to Ben Rhydding Gravel Pits a Grey Heron was one of the first things I saw on getting to Denso Marston Nature Reserve. This one, though, was not too worried about people walking along the river bank; a lot less skittish than the one at Ben Rhydding.
I then went for a wander along the paths of the wildflower Meadow. The only butterflies I saw were white, mainly Large Whites with the darker edges along their wings. No Common Blues were seen.
The Tansy that, on previous visits, had lots of things on it – Bees, Ladybirds, Moths, Soldier Beetles, Butterflies, Flies, Hoverflies, Plant Bugs, etc. has now passed its best and I saw no wildlife on it. The Bird’s Foot Trefoil though was still busy with Bumblebees – most of them looked like Common Carder bees. This is very different to the Lavender at home that is swarming with White Tailed Bumblebees and only a few Common Carder bees.
After spending some time in the meadow I headed off to the river behind Acorn Park, on the way spotting a polypore fungus growing on a tree trunk.
The purpose of my visit, if I needed one, was to take a photo of the car wheel in the river. We have still not had much rain so the water around the wheel is probably at its lowest.
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The images are published under the Creative Commons, BY-NC-SA license which is Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. So feel free to share them, edit them, but please keep my name in the credits, and don’t make money from them. And if I have got the ID of anything wrong please let me know, I don’t consider myself an expert but I have to 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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