Saturday, November 16, 2013

Messingham Bits....

After arriving home from our little trip to Manchester,the weather didn't look to bad,so i decided to have a wander around Messingham Sand Quarries.
 After getting a few layers on due to the Man flu,i began to explore this gem of a reserve.A quick look for the recent Otters that have been seen on the Grebe lake revealed nothing more than a couple of Mute Swan and a distant flash of electric blue as a Kingfisher flew around the bottom end of the lake.As i walked along the many paths i checked for any insects that may still be active and eventually found a couple of Troilus luridus soaking up the autumnal sunshine along with a Birch Shieldbug.Other insects seen included a hand full of Queen Common Wasps,no doubt feeding up before they're hibernation.While looking for bugs,a good sized flock of Redpolls were encountered around the heathy area,but were a nightmare to get to grips with,being very flighty,but all the birds i got good views of looked like Lesser's.After arriving at the main lake,the best of the birds present was a drake Pintail,still acquiring his breeding finery and he showed fairly well.Very little else was seen around the remainder of the reserve,but it made a nice change to visit this cracking little reserve again.
Shieldbug sp. Troilus luridus.


Birch Shieldbug.

Drake Pintail.

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