Livestock checks

Hi

Today I accompanied Neil Hasdell as he visited a number of county Wildlife Trust reserves checking on the livestock.  The trust manages many reserves with the grazing power of sheep and cattle, but of course these animals require daily welfare checks.

We visited High Wood in the west of the county first, and a collection of Marbled White butterflies was good to see, an insect which seems to be less localised in the county these days.  Common woodland birds included fledged juvenile Green Woodpeckers and Song Thrushes.

A quick look at the small meadow reserve of Ramsden Corner provided Spotted Flycatcher and Marsh Tit in the adjacent copse.

Then a bit of a drive over to the Titchmarsh reserve at Thrapston GP.  In this heat the livestock can be surprisingly hard to find as they take shelter in bushes and scrub, but today they gave themselves up easily!  A few waders present here included 3 Oystercatchers, a Greenshank, 2 Redshank and a Dunlin.  Fledged juvenile Common Terns and Black-headed Gulls were from the reserve island and raft. As always, plenty of Common Buzzards and Red Kites here and large numbers of insects on the wing.

A Marbled White and some Roselle's Bush-Crickets (also spelt Roesel's it seems) were on show from a small lay-by off the A45 near Thrapston and we then drove on to Ditchford GP to check two areas managed by cattle.  Birds noted included a couple of Kingfishers and plenty of dragonflies included Southern Hawker.

Regards

Neil M

Marbled White

Two juvenile Song Thrushes accompanied
by an adult bird sunning themselves in the
canopy at High Wood

Female Banded Demoiselle

Male Banded Demoiselle

Longhorn Beetle sp

Seemingly a Four Spot Chaser but
the 'jizz' just didn't seem right!

Roselle's Bush-Cricket

Red-eyed Damselfly