Just the Weather for (Counting) Ducks

 Sunday was the March WeBS (Wetland Bird Survey) Count at Paxton Pits. It started overcast and misty but soon the rain started and by the end was very heavy. The best 'count' was certainly the single male Smew but the large numbers of dabbling ducks (Teal, Shovellers) together with Coots, Gadwall etc and Geese on the flooded meadows will be the lasting memory

Paxton Cormorants and Ducks

The cormorants already have the white patch on the body under the wing showing they are ready for breeding. Lots of Wigeon around pestering the Coots as they dived for food (kleptoparasitism). Also Tufted Ducks including one with a very snazzy beak 'Ring'  LVC3 I think

Toadstool Time at Paxton

The rain earlier this week has produced a good crop of fungi at Paxton Pits. Here are a few including resident flies and the very strange Green Lacewing larva covered in debris

Paxton Pits

The Dragonflies are still very active at Paxton with lots of Common and Ruddy Darters, Willow Emeralds and Southern Hawkers in the air and resting up. Images with FS Panasonic G2 and 60mm Olympus macro to test quality. These have been through PureRaw3 for noise removal but no changes to colours etc. 

Curioser and Curioser

Our monthly guided nature walk at Paxton Pits produced some very curious sightings, none more so than this Thistle Tortoise Beetle larva which is very spiny like its host plant. It carries around a pile of droppings and debris that it uses to disguise itself -  very small so difficult to get a better shot. First time I have recorded Beewolf Wasps at Paxton - they are nesting where the Early Colletes bees were active earlier in the year. We think it was a young Garden Warbler and certainly there were a couple of pairs of Crows with young in the newly mown hay fields