Thundry Meadows, Surrey pictures include Banded Demoiselle male and female, Forget me Not,

A beautiful Sunday morning at the end of July found us wandering around this Surrey Wildlife Trust site. Disappointingly, there were not many dragonflies to be seen, but we enjoyed exploring this rich SSSI and will be a place to return to. Named after the God Thor, Thundry Meadows is a picturesque stretch of land running alongside the River Wey, which forms the southern boundary. A site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), it consists of unimproved wet and dry meadows on Folkestone Beds (Lower Greensand series), alder carr, farmland and ditches. It hosts several rare plants and sedges and is one of the few remaining wet meadow complexes left in the county. The variety of alluvial soils enhanced by moisture from the river and spring waters and riverbank, support a rich vegetation. Over 100 plant species have been recorded including bog bean, climbing corydalis, Dyer’s greenweed, golden saxifrage, heath spotted orchid, lady’s smock, marsh cinquefoil, 14 species of sedge and southern marsh orchid. The riverside vegetation includes amphibious bistort, dame’s violet and musk (monkey flower). The ditches attract dragonflies – over 24 species have been seen – and damselflies and a number of butterflies. The small alder carr is rich in mosses. Through the wood is a small area of heathland noted for many wetland plants, it has 18 species of sedge and 24 species of dragonfly. Five species of bat have been recorded here. (http://www.surreywildlifetrust.org/reserves/show/72 accessed 31/7/2011)

WATER VOLES 30 JULY 2011

These pictures have been taken today of water voles living in the wild, a good sight to see considering the huge decline in their numbers. Water voles are widespread around Europe, living in the banks of slow moving rivers, streams and other waterways. The waterside burrows of these strong swimmers have many floor levels that hinder flooding, as well as nesting chambers and a food store for the long winter months. Although water voles are a quick meal for many predators, the UK population suffered a catastrophic level of predation by the American mink. Water voles are often mistaken for rats. Ratty, in Kenneth Grahame's 'The Wind in the Willows', was actually a water vole (Accessed from http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/European_Water_Vole 30/7/11) Water voles were once common on waterways across the country, but their numbers began to decline in the 1990s and, by 2005, 90% had disappeared. The Environment Agency, which carried out the survey, said this makes it the UK's fastest declining mammal. The agency added that its recovery had been stimulated by an improvement in river water quality. (Accessed from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10345086 30/7/2011)

Hungary Photo Trip 2011 - pictures include sparrowhawk, black-winged stilts, spoonbill, bee-eater, roller

This was a photographic week organised with Balazs, from Ecotours Wildlife Holidays http://ecotourswildlife.co.uk/. The view from our lodge over the marsh at Tiszaalpar was amazing with hundreds of different herons, spoonbills and pygmy cormorants. With a black woodpecker, tree sparrows, long-eared owl, hobby, sparrowhawk, quail, golden oriole, barred warbler and cuckoo for company in the garden it was likely to be a good week. An evening drive to the white-winged black tern colony also gave a great flying display of a family of 5 sakar falcons. Early morning photo opportunities from “Hide 1” deep in the marsh included spoonbills, whiskered terns, little-ringed plover, common sandpiper, great white egrets, night herons, greenshank, black-winged stilts, pygmy cormorants and a young yellow wagtail that eventually joined us inside the hide! We took an early morning journey to Utassy Gyuri, the man with the roller and bee-eater hides. We got amazing pictures but his can be found at http://ugyfoto.uw.hu/pixelpost/index.php?x=browse Our journey home took a detour round a red footed falcon site and it was worth noting that there were 10 kestrel chicks and 5 red foot chicks all in the same group of trees..the food source must be tremendous on the puszta plains of Hungary. We were taken to the other side of Budapest to Palankai Zsolt with the drinking pool and we were safely installed by 5.00am. and it wasn't long before marsh tit, greenfinch, great tit were regularly visiting. Suddenly a large bird flew in and it took us both a few seconds to realize that a sparrowhawk was looking at us. This beautifully marked male drank and washed and spent about 15 minutes totally unaware that we were watching it from less than 6 feet away. Zsolt has a superb website that is well worth a visit http://palankaizs.blogspot.com/2010/05/nos-nehany-szo-lesrol-es-2-alkalom.html . Thanks to the guys from Ecotours Wildlife Holidays: Belazs, Istvan and Attila for a great trip

La Brenne, France 2011 - pictures include Blackcap, greater butterfly orchid, hoopoe, dark green fritillery

La Brenne 2011 Having had such a great 5 days there in 2010, we set off again this June for La Confiance http://www.laconfiance.net/ Our first morning walk around the block gave fantastic views of stone curlew and montague's harriers, red-backed shrikes, melodious warbler and turtle dove. Another morning we set off in a different direction towards Le Grand Village and walked around the two lakes there, this gave us new species of birds including common redstart, savi's, cetti's and great reed warblers. Another morning found us with one of the other guests who had brought his moth trap and the magnificent array of moths that he had caught during the night, including two that we had seen at home...goat and white point. His comment about the sheer numbers of moths was that "he felt totally overwhelmed". The flowers which had been so fantastic in 2010 were in short supply as France had been having a dry spring just as we had in UK but it was the butterflies we enjoyed this year having 45 species over the week. A short walk south of Martizay at Le Budiniere proved to be the best place all week for butterflies and it was a really lovely walk amongst meadows and mixed woodland. We found the large tortoiseshell, woodland brown and ilex hairstreak amongst the array of fritillaries and whites. A new fritillary for us was the marbled which was really common there. We found Tony Williams at Parc du Nature http://www.parc-naturel-brenne.fr/ and once again got some useful information from him about the species in the area. We found a pond tortoise laying her eggs in the sandy hedge whilst on a walk from here, spotted flycatchers and golden oriole were also in the area and the dragonflies were everywhere. It was going to be a challenge to identify them but digital photography is really helpful. Once again we thoroughly enjoyed our time at La Confiance, the hospitality there is fantastic and the food left us wishing we had taken clothes with expanding waistlines! It is a great place to stay with the whole area of La Brenne on your doorstep. It has its own varied wildlife in the garden to enjoy and walks from there give great views of some really rare species. Thanks to Sue and Chris once again for this opportunity to explore this amazing area of France.