Friday 30 July 2010

New Hythe Lakes Friday 30th July ( Part 1)

I only had a short time this morning due to picking friends up from Gatwick early this afternoon, so I decided to just spend some time around the Sunken Marsh and Brooklands lake. With birding being so quiet I decided to concentrate on what was lurking in the undergrowth instead of what was hiding in the trees.
Unfortunately the first picture is a UFO, not a good start I know. I also know it looks like a bumblebee but, it didn't fly like one and I didn't think it's eyes looked like one either. So could it be a hoverfly species? Any help would bee appreciated!



As I was hovering around and scratching my head over this I suddenly saw a movement out of the corner of my eye and was surprised to see this young Reed Warbler sitting on a reed stem completely unconcerned by my presence. I watched it for ages, hardly daring to move and then Mum turned up and junior got a nice juicy fly for lunch. I saw him being fed about half a dozen times while I stood there but the parent bird never gave me the opportunity to make it a star unfortunately. I did manage to get a few shots of junior though, I can't believe how obliging he was.










So much for a non birding post then.
There were a few butterflies around but nothing that I haven't featured often enough recently. But I did like the look of this Speckled Wood, especially against the lovely green background so I decided to make an exception and include it in the line up.



SPECKLED WOOD
In the SW corner of Brooklands Lake there's a large pile of chipped bark and I always check it out to see if anything is basking on it as it's always in full sun. While I was doing this I noticed something moving below it's surface, it looked as if it had a beating heart. I thought, that's odd, and took a few steps back, not because I was frightened you understand, but because I thought watever it was I wanted to be able to take it's picture when it broke through into the sunlight. Thank goodness for zoom lenses. Anyway it didn't show itself and it moved a couple of feet along the side of the pile but stayed just below the surface. I don't know what it was but it must have been really hot in there. I'll return to this soon and try to find out what it was.
Close by I found this Black-tailed Skimmer also basking in the heat of the sun and another one on the lakeside clinging to a reed stem. There were also some Emperor dragonflies and a couple of Brown Hawkers in the vicinity but as usual they wouldn't settle.

BLACK-TAILED SKIMMER

BLACK-TAILED SKIMMER

And finally......................
The only other dragonfly that I saw and managed to record was this Ruddy Darter and the ruddy thing had me darting around in the heat for about ten minutes before I was able bag it. I always wondered why they call them darters!
RUDDY DARTER

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Lovely photos once again Phil. What a magic moment with the Reed Warbler - at least with this Blog you can remember.... How quiet the garden seems now - very sad. I always forget that, although for me the summer starts when we break up, actually Autumn is on the horizon. Hilary

Warren Baker said...

It wasn't greenie rumaging around the wood chip pile was it Phil :-)

well envious of your reed warbler photo's mate!

Phil said...

Hilary.
What a lovely surprise! Nice to hear from you. You're right about Autumn being just around the corner, enjoy the Summer while you can......Tempus Fugit, as they say.
See you all soon.

Greenie said...

Phil ,
Not sure on your UFO . The thorax is hairy all over and Hovverflies tend to have a leathery pad on the top of theirs . Possible Cuckoo Bee species ?
Great Reed Warbler shots .
Very fresh female BTS .
Would like to confirm it wasn't me rummaging around in your woodchip pile , I was rummaging around in my own .