A good group of 12 met Peter and Barbara Murphy at the main gates of the reserve at 10 30am. Peter and Barbara had put themselves out to accommodate our group today and we were very grateful to them. Peter gave us a short introduction which included informing us of the planned for nearby housing development and the closure of the reserve since the beginning of the year (reopened in June on Sundays). Access is currently along the canal tow path as the swing bridge is in the process of being dismantled to be rebuilt. Progress has been extremely slow, and Peter was fearful that it would be a considerable time before the reserve could be fully reopened. Furthermore there is concern that the trees adjacent to the river and building site could be removed threatening the bird and animal life of the river. Kingfishers and goosander are frequently seen also a family of otters. A kingfisher was soon spotted by Sue from the bridge.
The group choose to take the path alongside the lagoon and visited several hides along the path. The water level was relatively high, and a variety of birds were seen including gadwall, mallard, moorhen, swan with cygnets, heron, sand martins, little egret, lapwing, lesser black backed gull and juvenile and a group of cormorants in a tree. Alice thought she may have seen a snipe in the area of the dragon fly ponds. We had just missed an opportunity to see barn owl and kestrel chicks in the nest box on screens in the visitor centre as they had recently fledged and flown the nest.
The skies were overcast for the morning walk. We enjoyed the facilities of the visitor centre at lunch time. In the afternoon group members shot off in different directions some returning to the hides others choosing to visit the dragonfly ponds and complete the riverside walk. There were a variety of attractive plants still in flower including purple loosestrife, hemp agrimony white water-lily and fringed water-lily, water mint, marsh woundwort, radish, common fleabane and field scabious. We also enjoyed seeing the fruit bearing hedgerows more especially guelder rose and spindle. While in this vicinity we were caught in a deluge of rain from which we needed to take shelter. The Butterfly bank had a good spread of crown vetch whereas plants had started to colonise the car park due to its low usage,
Odonata species were scarce - one migrant hawker dragonfly, also one speckled wood butterfly. The moths seen were snout and diamond back. Surprisingly no fungi were spotted.
It was reassuring that we were beginning to reform as a group. A programme has now been circulated so we can be more certain of the trips planned for the autumn. We had a very enjoyable day out and our gratitude extends to Peter and Barabara for making this a possibility for us.
See the photos here.
Margaret