Common Darter dragonfly

Derek reports that "a Common Darter dragonfly visited us today" [27th July]:

Green Woodpeckers on Cambridge Road

Richard Wells took these pictures of 2 young Green Woodpeckers he saw in his front garden on 10th July 2014.

Butterflies and Buddleia

Butterflies are said to like Buddleia... This morning (15th July) in the sunshine, on Jennifer's buddleia bush, there were 3 commas, 2 red admirals, 1 peacock, 1 small tortoiseshell and 1 small white – all together at the same time.

Here's a photograph of one of the commas:

Beech Wood trip - 30th May

A small group went to the Beech Wood near the Gog Magog golf club on 10 May 2014. 

David Farrant took these photos:

The group

Helleborine

Bracket Fungus

Bee Orchid

On the evening of 5th June, Stephen Roughley spotted a Bee Orchid just into Babraham parish, on the edge of the footpath over the A11, as he cycled home from Granta Park, He sent these photos:

River Sampling - 2nd July 2014

We sampled in the usual place near the cricket nets from about 6:30 pm. The weather was fine and the river very low. We found mayfly larvae plentiful and also found other fauna including fish and small crayfish.

This is what we recorded for the Riverfly records:

Cased caddisfly:  Nil

Caseless caddisfly:  Nil

Mayfly Ephemeridae:  Nil

Blue-winged olive: Category A, Estimated number 6

Flat bodied up-wings:  Category A, Estimated number 2

Olives: Category B, Estimated number 50

Stoneflies: Nil

Gammarus (Freshwater shrimp): Category B, Estimated number 60

Hatches seen: none

River very low; fine, dry weather, warm evening; 3 kick-shuffles undertaken within the allotted 3 minutes (1. gravel on margin of fools watercress, 2. gravel close to water crowfoot area, 3. 30 sec kickshuffle close to bank + 30 sec sweep in main river)

Other fauna: Signal crayfish (3 large, 3 small); Demoiselle larva (1); 10 tiny minnows/sticklebacks

Fen Drayton Lakes - 5th July

Showery weather did not deter a small group from an expedition on the Guided Busway to the RSPB reserve at Fen Drayton. Jennifer arranged for us to be guided by John Harding.

We saw or heard a variety of birds and some butterflies but the most numerous sightings were of damsel flies. Most common was Common blue (Enallagma cyathigerum); we also saw Blue-tailed Damselfly (Ischnura elegans) and Banded demoiselle (Calopteryx splendens) in reasonable numbers.

Blue-tailed Damselfly

Common blue damselfly

Common blue damselfly (JH)

Banded demoiselle

Red-eyed damselfly

Cinnabar Moth caterpillar (JH)

Red Admiral butterfly

Ladybird larva

We saw and/or heard quite a number of birds:

Tufted Duck	Chiff Chaff	Lapwing
Pochard	Common Tern	Greenfinch
Dabchick	Reed Warbler	Black Headed Gull
Mallard	Red Kite	Heron
Great Crested Grebe	Wren	Egyptian Goose
Coot	Sedge Warbler	Greylag Goose
Cormorant	Blackcap	Whitethroat
Gadwall	Starling	Little Egret
Moorhen	Green Woodpecker
Mute Swan	Reed Bunting