Wildlife

Friday, July 21st 2023

Water Figwort grows at Foxglove and in places around the reserve it is very common.  Not a spectacular flower by any means.  It is a reason not to kill wasps as they carry out pollination of this flower.  I have walked around Foxglove for many years and have rarely seen a wasp near the flower and on the odd occasion that I have managed a photograph, splodge would be being generous!  That all changed this week when a wasp sat relatively patiently on the Water Figwort.  It did not go anywhere near the single open flower left on the head, but a wasp on Water Figwort and a reasonable photograph was very pleasing!  It did decide to clean its antennae.

When taking photographs I tend to concentrate on what I am taking and it is only when they are enlarged on the screen that I realise that there is something else there.  A Pond Skater instar (not an adult yet) was sitting still on a leaf, too good an opportunity to miss, as they normally skate around very quickly.  The reason it was sitting still, was that it had a fly all to itself.  These insects are voracious feeders and will fight over their prey.

Another insect feeding was a damselfly.

One insect that was not feeding, but sunning itself on the boardwalk was a grasshopper.  There are many of them across the reserve.

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