Sizewell 2013

Once more, as last year, I was not on this holiday for wildlife but they can hardly be ignored:

Day 1
Travelling down we had an absolute shocker with the trains, but on the way I spotted a little egret hunting in a lake next to the train tracks

Day 2
Walking over to play sport we had to walk past the horrible stagnant pool in case of fire. Hunting it was an Emperor Dragonfly, as well as a Common Darter. In the pond there were still plenty of Palmate newts, one of which I caught to show the people I was with

Day 3
This was the boating lake trip day and I found a few common emerald damselflies as well as some black tailed skimmers

Day 6
Doing water sports and, no joke, we were surrounded by dragonflies litterally hundreds all over the place, all Southern Hawkers. I have no idea what caused there to be so many, but there was clearly enough food to support them

Oats Royd

This time going to Oats Royd I went along the bottom via the fields, which was much quicker and allowed me to walk alongside the river. When I entered the reserve the first thing I saw was a scorpion fly, an insect that has long eluded my camera, and has also been tricky to track down 

-Scorpion Fly

The reserve was full of insects again, the first bird I saw being a wren singing from the top of a conifer tree

-Wren

At the first pond I also found a large flock of willow warblers, possibly a family group as some of the birds looked quite young 

-Willow warbler

The other ponds were full of damselflies of common blue, large red and common blue tailed. I also found the exuvia of a dragonfly, but there was no dragonfly to go with it and since there has been no rain to knock them off it could well have been there for a good month

-Large red damselfly 

-Common Blue damselfly 

-Blue tailed damselfly 

At the first pond I also spotted a newt resting on a crisp packet. There were also loads more on the bottom of the pond but I couldn't get a better photo to identify them with, but I think they are Palmate newts judging by the lack of spots

-Palmate newt

At the far point nearest to the industrial estate there were loads of damselflies, a greater concentration than anywhere else on the reserve. It is probably the most damselflies I have ever seen in one place

-Common Blue Damselflies

On the heath next to the last pool I flushed a small heath butterfly, which was really nice though it was reluctant to sit with its wings open for a photo, so this modest effort is the best I could do

-Small Heath Butterfly 

And on the way back I also spotted a lovely male orange tip feeding, which will add to my limited photo library of this species

-Orange tip

And keeping with the butterfly theme there was also a lovely small copper resting on the path 

-Small copper

And last but by no means least I spotted this lovely greenish weevil of some description on the fens near the central pool which added to the long list of species seen today

-Greenish weevil of some description 

Undisclosed site

Went out with the countryside service tonight to look at the potential for great crested newt habitat next to an already inhabited pond. Sadly we diddnt see any GC Newts tonight, but we did see both smooth and palmate newts, as well as a frog. It was a great place, and glad to know that great crested newts are doing well in calderdale.