siskin are back again

another awful, rainy day, however, the wildlife seem to be untroubled by the weather.

nice to see siskin on site again, they were here last summer and winter too.
not sure, upon referring to bird books, whether they are resident in Britain or not.

a house sparrow plucks something tasty from a bramble.

a greenfinch, looking quite regal in the rain.

rain, rain, rain

a dull, wet day at the Mere, however, lots going on all the same

a heron patrolling near the Spit, not sure what he was after, but it went down nicely.

a muntjac, seen on site several times, this time in the Pyghtle by an alert Sheila

Midsummer Madness - Saturday 23rd June

Come along to the the Midsummer Madness family fun day on the reserve on Saturday 23rd June. Festivities start at 3:30pm with various activities for the kids and duck racing on the river at 4:30pm. In the evening we'll have a BBQ - bring your own food and drink! Association members should be receiving a leaflet with full details, but you can download the leaflet as a PDF right now if you want. We look forward to seeing you.

Denis Healey?

extraordinary! Denis Healey, or a house sparrow, on the feeder.
It may be that a few feathers need smoothing down . . . .

male & female bullfinch together on the feeder, my presence didn't seem to put them off.

a nice jay in the Pyghtle, just after this pic. he was chased away by a group of great tits.

one of many young blue tits flitting about the Mere.

Saw a blackcap on the riverbank, opposite the Mere, back of the Pyghtle.

No photo alas.

First thanks to Sam for the previous photos. Like dancing pandas, things only seem to appear when I turn my back.

On site on a very wet Sunday to look at things......

and I always have to remind myself that this patch of tranquillity is only 10 minutes walk from the city centre.

It's taking a lot of effort to create the seasonal pond.............

and it will be a particularly attractive feature, believe me!

No more suggestions for the shape though, it's supposed to look natural.

Fish and Other Critters

I went back and got some pictures of the fish, though it's not easy to do so when they're small and underwater. These were in the mere itself, right on the edge, next to the far end of the bridge. There was a shoal of about 50 or more.



Also spotted were both male and female bullfinches feeding at the same time. The male is the more colourful of the two, at the bottom.



I had my macro lens so I went hunting for smaller beasties. Here are some that I found. Note the three aphids line astern on the stem above the moth.

Fish!

Just went down to the reserve today and was astounded to see a 6cm greeny brown fish under the bridge nearest the river. Probably a fully grown stickleback, but my fish identification skills are limited. Lots of small (1-2cm) dark fish hiding around the edges near the next bridge, by the spit too.

I couldn't get a picture of the fish though, so here's a damselfly - a Banded Demoiselle I believe.



The ducklings were also out - just five of them, and quite grown up now. I also saw one or two moorhen chicks with mother, though they were darting amongst the fringes and so hard to be sure whether it was one chick going in circles or two in a row.



Finally - a picture of a ladybird larva for those that don't know what one looks like. They're quite different to the finished bug!