Today I learnt that Bee-Flies can fly while mating tail-to-tail…
Several “firsts of the year” today: a Blackcap sang in the reserve; the first Speckled Wood butterfly, closely followed by a pair of males fighting in a clearing; the first Comma on the Picnic Meadow; and these splendid Bee-Flies with their handsomely pictured wings, demonstrating that they may be short, round, and furry, but they can fly while coupled tail-to-tail, not as elegantly as a wheel of Dragonflies maybe, but unquestionably able to get airborne, one of the two flying (of course) backwards.
Netty building a habitat woodpile, the logs packed with clippings to keep it moist and full of insect life
After building a habitat woodpile, we spent the day scything the meadow and raking up the clippings to deplete the mineral status little by little. It seems to be working nicely, as the range of insects and flowers is plainly increasing. Netty found some Vetch and Mouse-Ear; and there are attractive Red-Tailed Bumblebees to join the Buff-Tails and White-Tails that are emerging from their winter lairs.
The air was full of birdsong from Chiffchaffs, Blackbirds, Great Tits, Blue Tits, Goldfinches, Robins, Dunnocks and the newly-arrived Blackcap. A Sparrowhawk circled overhead. The cherries are all in flower. Spring has sprung.
Well, like most Londoners I hardly give Feral Pigeons a second glance.
But at the London Wetland Centre, I saw this ‘blue’ pigeon with delicate green and purple iridescence around its neck. The image is totally unmanipulated, a symphony in soft grey-blue and pastel hues.
LWT Intern Trainee learning to sharpen an Austrian Scythe. We mowed the Acid Grassland along the track of the old railway.
The first day of spring, and a Chiffchaff was singing down in the reserve. The hawthorn hedge, laid last year, is springing up into fresh green and thickening up nicely.
A Red-Tailed Bumblebee groggily clambered aboutA Red (“Spider”) Mite crawled briskly about on a Willow stump. Handsome Hoverfly
What the Wetland Centre is famous for — birds nice and close up in the city. But there’s much more … much closer …
(All the images can be viewed a bit larger from your browser’s menu; most likely right-click the mouse and choose something like ‘View image’)
The WWT’s London Wetland Centre of course brings nature close, from faraway reedmarshes to a corner of our great city. But today I want to look at some features which go much further, bringing nature within touching distance, even if the observer is in a buggy or wheelchair.
The Wetland Centre achieves this with a whole lot of ideas, implemented in robust and attractive materials. One is the accessible pond, in the Thames Water Pond Zone. Here, there are raised ponds (about knee height) surrounded by asphalt, so a group can get up close. The sides are made of railway sleeper-sized chunks of wood, arranged for convenient sitting, and there are built-in interpretation signs with well-drawn pictures of common pond animals. Pond-dipping is allowed under supervision.
Accessible Pond, with Interpretation Key to Pond Animals
The Pond Zone actually has a different kind of accessible pond, more like an aquarium: a robust concrete tank, with an impressive front wall of 50mm thick bullet glass. This is presumably intended to let visitors get really close to (well, 50 mm away from) the pondlife, but not to touch. Ingenious, but it doesn’t feel as natural as the railway-sleeper pond, for my money.
Pond-Aquarium: impressive bullet glass
Accessibility goes for plants as well. Here’s the Herb Garden, next to the beautiful thatched reedbed museum, again with chunky wood to sit down on. Very cosy.
Accessible Herbs – bay, rosemary, thyme and more.
Ok, so that’s ponds and herbs. How about Accessible Bees? The towering bee homes (there are several of them) are certainly talking points.
Bee Home as a towering feature.
The spacious Rain Garden has some nice touches, like an array of large boulders sporting mosses and lichens.
Gloriously lichen- and moss-clad boulders adorn the Rain Garden
Nearby is a very pretty loggery. The fungi are certainly flourishing.
Handsome saprophytic Bracket Fungi on the traditional Loggery
The planting beside the main building puts a giant flowering Rosemary bush against the brickwork, to stylish effect.
Rosemary demonstrating what an elegant plant it is, against reclaimed London Yellow Stock brickwork
Some of the hides have low ‘green’ rooves. This one is covered in masses of the bushy lichen Cladonia ramulosa with attractive chocolatey apothecia (fruiting bodies). Some red Stonecrop lurks in the background (you can’t have everything). It’s definitely “nature up close”.
The ground-dwelling lichen Cladonia ramulosa on the green roof of a birdwatching hide. Magnification about x4: that’s “nature up close”.
The English seem unemotional … except for their passion for nature
