18th September 2024 - after an absence of three years, a Wasp Spider has again been spotted in the village. This large one, and therefore presumably a female, was seen by John W on the wall of his house along Pampisford Rd. Whilst their striking yellow and black-striped abdomen acts both to deter predators and give them their name, they present no threat ... unless you happen to be a small insect!!
14th September 2024 - over the past few sunny days, Andy M has spotted a number of Common Darter dragonflies, with their characteristic blood-red abdomen, and easily distinguished from the Ruddy Darter - the former having brown eyes and thorax, whereas the latter is uniformly red. He also spotted the more unusual Emerald Damselfly along the river, which has a lovely iridescent green sheen, and holds its wings out at an angle, not alongside the body like other damselflies. Finally, several Migrant Hawker, with the piercing blue rim to their eyes, were seen hunting over the reeds around the Granta Park lake.
22nd September 2024 - the damper recent weather seems to have brought the amphibians out of hiding, as there were a couple of Common Frog seen in the long grass on Lewis Cres, and in her Westfield garden, Genevieve D found this rather comfortable looking Common Toad.
20th September 2024 - the NatureWatch RiverCare team meet for the final time this year, to sample the wildlife in the river Granta at the ford. The water level was quite low, as the sampling was before the recent rains, and whilst many of the normal species were found in the sampling, the overall number of invertebrates was quite low. The results table is shown below.
19th September 2024 - a little earlier this year, Sally VP was lucky enough to have a Pied Wagtail nest under the bonnet of an old car, which is awaiting restoration in her garden. She took this very nice video showing the young chicks in a beautifully formed nest.
To start video, click on the central 'play arrow' icon two times
12th September 2024 - Andy M noticed a couple of Jay returning to his garden of late, after a few months of being away. They regularly return at about this time of year to stash acorns from the Oak tree at the end of the garden, but this one seemed also to be partial to the fallers from the apple tree.
6th September 2024 - Andy M spotted this rather lovely-looking Red Admiral in his garden.
This species is interesting in that whilst common throughout the UK, it is an immigrant that arrives here in May or June from North Africa and southern Europe. This major influx slowly works its way northwards through the UK during the summer, with further individuals continuing to arrive in the south. Then, come mid-August, they start to retreat back south with many re-migrating back across the channel, leaving just small numbers to potentially over-winter here.
