Hi(low)light of the day was an injured young greylag goose which some visitors saw being hit by a car on Ellingham Drove. Fortunately they managed to catch it and bring in to the centre. We don’t have facilities or expertise to deal with injured wildlife, but there is a gentleman living close by who is able and prepared to give his time to rescuing wildlife and was willing to look after this bird.
At this time of year the initial frenzy of bird breeding activity has largely abated, many adults will no longer be holding breeding territories and are not so vocal. As they start to moult their plumage they will be less nimble and need to keep under cover, away from predators and birdwatchers. A larger number of the waterfowl are now spending time simply loafing about on the lakes. For instance some 400 coot have been counted on Ibsley water. I was asked to count them today, but unfortunately didn’t have a telescope with me. Some birds, though, are easier to see as were the little egret and grey heron.
Little egret – note the yellow foot
Grey heron
More a time for insect and wildflower interest at the moment. Trolling up to the seasonal path to check on the ponies we have grazing the reserve, I noticed a profusion of pink, yellow and purple from hemp agrimony, fleabane and a mixture of spear thistles and creeping thistles.
Hemp agrimony
The flowers look sort of ‘washed out’ from the side view, but are magnificently intricate and olourful from above
Top view of hemp agrimony flower
Fleabane flowers are, perhaps, one of the the richest yellow colours on the reserve,
Fleabane
especially where they occur in large clumps,
whilst the delightful purple shades of spear thistle are a welcome attractant to many insects.
hoverfly (Volucella inanis?) on spear thistle
even without accompanying insects the plants are a captivating structurally
spear thistle
although an awful lot of the creeping thistle have now set wonderfully fluffy seed heads
creeping thistle seed heads
When I took this shot I was unaware of the small tortoiseshell – a sort of bonus really.
As I hinted above, there are plenty of insects around, but the heat is keeping most of them fairly active – so tricky to photograph, but I was quite pleased with this shot of a common blue damselfly.
common blue damselfly perched on a nettle leaf
The light trap is now in more regular use, following a period when a bird (robin I believe) was using it as a larder. Pick of today’s ‘catch’ were this almost butterfly like moth, a large emerald.
Large emerald
not to be outdone by an impressive garden tiger moth,
garden tiger moth
and an equally impressive tanner beetle.
tanner beetle
Blashford Lakes Nature Reserve 
Your Volucella inanis is a honeybee Apis mellifera – Volucella has a broad abdomen (almost as broad as your thumb) which is clear cut yellow and black banded, being a true fly it also has short antennae which are not usually easy to see when the insect is at rest, the body also lacks any great amount of hair. In this photo long antennae can clearly be seen, which immediately rules out a hoverfly or other similar large fly species, the thorax is covered in dense hairs and the abdomen is narrow and rusty coloured.
Hope this helps.
Have you put up the wrong photo? The photo of Hoverfly, Volucella inanis ? is of a bee.
Steve, Thanks for your expertise in going through the moth trap. After we parted I ha d Xylota sylvarum a new hoverfly for me at Blashford.