Friday 22 July 2011

Noddle Hill nature reserve in summer

Last time we went to Noddle Hill it was November. What a difference the season makes. This is a superb place to visit in summer, with wildflower meadows, ponds, wooded areas, some scrub, lots of little cris-crossing paths and the big fishing lake with an island (from the educational pond, above). There were plenty of wildflowers today and we did several Big Butterfly Counts, with a total of 9 species plus Six Spot Burnets all around.
Information board at the entrance of the reserve
A large pond snail netted by the kids
Comma on creeping thistle
 Mating large whites. The male flew carrying the female behind for a while and chose to settle on these almost white leaves.
 Wolf spider Trochosa sp.
Six spot burnets mating
A Red Admiral on my t-shirt 
Gatekeeper and red-tailed bumblebee on ragwort
Small Copper
 Wild carrot
Green-veined white
 Amphibious bistort
 Queen red tailed bumblebee Bombus lapidarius on vetch
 Peacock
 Goats beard and Marmalade fly

Butterflies (& moths)

  1. Peacocks, 3 feeding on creeping thistle
  2. Comma, at least 2 also on creeping thistle
  3. Speckled Wood, 2 males in a territorial dispute near the pond dipping pond
  4. Small Copper, on the meadow next to the educational pond
  5. Gatekeeper, many around on Ragwort
  6. Red Admiral, one lands on my T-shirt
  7. Green-veined white
  8. Large white
  9. Meadow brown
  10. Blue (common?) too distant a view
  11. Six-spot burnet
Birds
  1. Magpie family
  2. Crow, young ones on the road verges
  3. Starlings
  4. Goldfinch
  5. Great tit
  6. Long-tailed tit
  7. Woodpigeon
  8. Collared dove
  9. Sparrows
  10. Greenfinches
  11. Blackbird
  12. Bullfinch
  13. House Martin
  14. Linnet
  15. Reed warbler
  16. Lesser black-backed gull
  17. Herring gull
  18. Black headed gull
  19. Moorhen
  20. Mallard

2 comments:

Michael Flowers said...

Thanks for this post. I'm hoping to take my classes to more urban sites next year, so I'll keep an eye on your blog

Africa Gomez said...

Thank you Michael. We tend to do short trips around town and I hope to visit Noddle Hill more frequently. I'm glad it's a nature reserve now.