Events and CES 8
Following on from yesterday's blog, if you are interested in searching for and finding out more about Foxglove's Marvellous Insects then look on the events page for more details about the Dragonfly Discovery Walk on 21st July,
and the activities for children, Bug Detectives, on Wednesday 1st August. (Booking is essential - thank you)
Walking back along a net ride, I spotted a movement in the grass and tried to take a photograph of a very active female Great Diving Beetle. Many people assume that these insects must live in water. This is true of the larval stage but not of the adult. Adults can walk and fly from pond to pond.
They prefer ponds rather than running or moving water of streams and becks. Some invertebrates do require fast moving water as it has more oxygen contained in it. To find out more about our becks, there are two events supported by the Yorkshire Dales Rivers Trust Rivers 2U lab. More details on the events page and again booking is essential.
Changing topic completely, there was a lie in for the bird ringers this morning - a 0415 start! There was a hint of pink in the sky over the lake.
Children from Wavell School have been following the progress of the juvenile Robins, watching as they change their speckled breast for the red we are all so familiar with. This Robin was definitely showing more red than that shown a couple of weeks ago.
Most of the 150 birds processed were juveniles. Reed Buntings have been conspicuous by their absence but an adult male and this juvenile were ringed today.
Great Tits have had an excellent breeding season and yet more were ringed today. Coal Tits are just beginning to return to the reserve where many will overwinter, eating the seed provided at the feeding stations, filled each week by Colin. Our summer migrants made visits to the ringing room: Blackcap and Garden Warblers were in evidence and it was nice to see the numbers of Willow Warblers and Chiffchaffs increasing.
As always to complete a CES day requires a team of people to work together and today was no exception. Thank you to everyone involved, only four more to go! Thanks and appreciation also go to those volunteers who have worked on the net rides and paths between them, to ensure that they are ready for use. The total of new birds ringed at Foxglove stands today at 61,662, but there are sheets of birds from this year still to be added when time permits.