A few photos from a visit to Rodley Nature Reserve on a sunny Saturday, 30 May 2026. A few Little egrets and some photos of two Dragonfly species that I am pleased with.
The header image is of a Swan and Cygnets. When viewing the images in the carousel gallery please tap on the i to see the image titles where you will see more details, the captions are rather brief.
As usual you can tap/touch/click on an image to see it in better quality in the carousel gallery with an i for more information. And if you like what you see please click on one or more of the Share buttons at the bottom.
Birds
I think there are 3 main attractions for Rodley Nature Reserve.
- Birds
- Dragonflies and Damselflies
- Harvest Mice
I had a look at some Harvest Mice in the visitor centre but I have yet to see any out in the wild. When around the small ponds I did see the grass at the edge of the path twitching. Some fur could be seen behind the blades of grass but the grass twitched again and it disappeared. It was too big for a Harvest Mouse. I guess it was a Vole of some kind.
There have been times at Rodley when dozens of birds were on the water but on this visit it was very quiet. Very few Gulls and Gadwall. The vegetation has got quite thick now and easily hides any birds that are still on the nest or keeping their young hidden. The most visible birds were the Little Egrets. Sand Martins were flying around and every few minutes a small bird would fly from reed bed to reed bed and the call of Cetti’s Warbler or Reed Warbler would move with it. Blackcap, Chiffchaff, Wrens, Robins, Blackbird, Great Tit
Dragonflies etc.
As expected there were hundreds of Damselflies around and several Dragonflies. I got good views of a male Broad-bodied Chaser and watched a female flying along and dipping its tail-end in the water to lay its eggs. A Four-spotted Chaser also posed for some photos.
It was quite easy to see which pond had produced some of the Odonata had come from. Some of the reeds had several Exuviae stuck to them showing the various heights the nymphs had climbed.
Most of the butterflies looked clean and fresh though one of the male Brimstones looked a bit frayed.
Please click on the images to take you to better quality images in the carousel gallery where the i will let you see the title, and caption, and some photography info.
You can also leave comments or subscribe to the site – leave your email address and you will get notified when I publish something new.
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.
Leave a Reply