A Mixed Bag

Wednesday, March 23rd 2016

The morning routine showed the wetland to be nicely holding the water in places we want it held, at least until the next Water Vole engineering project.

It was a chilly start to the day, so I did not expect a great deal in the moth trap; however, to our surprise we had our biggest catch this year with 7 species and 14 moths. The most interesting being the Yellow Horned. However, even the Common Quaker, which is a common moth, looked glorious

Yellow Horned

Common Quaker

Christine had gone out to discover more fungi , this time returning with Beech Bark Spot, and Beech Tarcrust.

Beech Bark Spot

 

Beech Tarcrust

 
Going down  to the Scrapes to gather some pond weed for the frog spawn tanks I had been informed of a Greylag who was sitting with male nearby.  Sadly on return later in the afternoon, she was gone. Admittedly she is fairly near one of our popular routes through the reserve, she may return yet!

Wanting to take out some pond weed near her I had thought I had missed the opportunity, and now she was gone it allowed me to do so, as well as raking up some Phragmites Reed debris which was clogging some of the shallower ponds.

Having got some pond weed for the spawn tanks, there were a few Water Slaters, or Water Hog Louse, very similar to their relative the woodlouse. This one here is the more common of the two British species Asellus aquaticus, a little taster of the pond dipping season to come.

 

Still loads of Common Frogs about, and Toads seen mating.

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