From Around the World to Blashford (unfortunately!)

It is the time of year when reserve officer’s thoughts turn to invasive plants, yes we can be a bit boring like that! Anyway after weeks of building tern rafts today the volunteers had a walk along the Dockens Water to look for Himalayan balsam. This plant used to dominate long stretches of the stream shading out other species but several years of pulling it up is showing real dividends, it is not gone, but for long stretches there is little or none to be found now. The seed are only viable for two or three years so pulling it up before it flowers for this time should have seen it gone, but a few always seem to hide away and get missed, so it never quiet disappears.

Although the balsam has got much rarer it is noticeable that we are seeing more of another invasive alien plant, the pink purslane, this time hailing from North America. Hopefully it will not become as much of a problem as the balsam, but we are pulling it up, just in case it has plans for a take over!

pink purslane

We came across a few other plants that do not belong, highlighting that garden plants are getting thrown out and establishing themselves all the time and, probably some of them will become invasive in time. One of the new ones today was star of Bethlehem, I doubt this will become a problem, but you never know and every garden escape is growing where a native plant could have been, so in a small way they all impact upon out native flora.

 

There should have been a picture of star of Bethlehem here , but it would not load!

Of course alien plants do not just impact upon other plants, they also reduce the native plants available for insects and other species to feed upon. Plants support lots of other wildlife, often specific to single species, native plants support a native fauna. By contrast alien plants tend to support a range of species that live in that plant’s native range and usually do not occur here. Some alien species will support some of our native fauna, but usually not much, which is why they do so well, there is not much eating them!

The warm sunshine today did bring out quite a few insect, I actually saw two species of dragonflies for the first time this year, which just shows how slow the season has been so far. The species were broad-bodied chaser and downy emerald. I did not get pictures of either of them though, but I did get one of a snail-killing fly,

snail-killing fly

and a weevil.

weevil

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An Unexpected Visitor

Another warm day on the reserve today, which is good at this time of year. Most insects prefer the warmth and there are good numbers of dragonflies out now along with hoards of damselflies and increasing numbers of butterflies. However my insect of the day was a tiny weevil I found on mullein at the back of the Centre at lunchtime, I think it is one called Cionus hortulanus.

weevil

I did also have a go at taking some flight shots, not of birds, but of a hoverfly, I think I have got some way to go before I can say I have mastered this particular type of photography! It is Volucella pellucens now sometimes called the great pied hoverfly.

Volucella pellucens in flight.

Locking up at the end of the day the grass snakes were once again in front of the Ivy South hide and I got a shot of two coiled together that nicely filled the frame.

grass snakes coiled together

The big surprise of the day came at lunchtime, I went over to the Tern hide to check on the ponies grazing the shore of Ibsley Water and scanning the lake I spotted a most unseasonal visitor, a very fine adult drake goldeneye, goodness known what he is doing on the reserve in late June! Sadly he was much too far away for a picture though.