A fair few of the young common terns on from the Ivy lake rafts have fledged now, and I managed to get some photos of a few while had my lunch in Tern Hide today. Four sat on the lake shore in front the hide, easily told from the adults by the brown fringing of the feathers on their wings and backs.
Juvenile common tern
Juvenile common terns
A fair few juvenile black-headed gulls were also present, begging noisily for food from the adults. I also saw the 2 young oystercatchers, two little ringed plovers and forty-four Egyptian geese. A hobby was reported during the morning and yesterday two little terns were seen by visitors although I didn’t see either of these today.
Juvenile black-headed gull
At the edge of the car-park a few gatekeeper butterflies were on the wing and this six spot burnet moth was resting on a bramble flower.
six spot burnet moth
Last week while out strimming paths I checked on the areas of willow cleared during the winter by the volunteers to try and increase the amount of reedbed habitat. The results have been excellent, below are a few photos of progress over the last few months, it’ll be interesting to see how the habitat develops and what wildlife it attracts over the next few years.
Area cleared of willow during the winter. 2/4/2015
Reed growth on 7/6/2015
Reed growth on 6/7/2015
Blashford Lakes Nature Reserve 