Flying Tonight

A couple of weeks ago a small group of Friends were fortunate enough to witness the emergence and metamorphosis of a Broad Bodied Chaser Larva from one of the small planting ponds in front of the Centre.

One of the lucky group, Peter Hassett, has kindly sent me a fantastic set of photographs, recording the entire process. Sadly, space prevents me from publishing all of Peters pictures, but I hope the following will give a good insight into the sequence of the events and demonstrate Peter's skill in capturing the moment.

The Dragonfly starts to break free from the larva cuticle

Nearly out - the new adult pulls it's body out of, what will become, the exuvia

Now completely free of the larva case (exuvia), 

the dragonfly starts to pump fluid into it's wings

The wings are almost formed and the fluid used to expand them, 

will now be used to help inflate the abdomen. 

The wings have flicked open and the teneral (newly emerged) dragonfly, 

will soon make it's maiden flight. 

The whole process has taken over three hours.

All pictures kindly supplied by and © Peter Hassett

June Open Sunday - Change of Date

Please note that this month we are breaking with tradition - our Open Sunday will not be on the third Sunday as usual - we have moved it to the following weekend the 23rd June, so as not to clash with the Great Linford Water Festival.

We apologise for any inconvenience and hope to see you there.

歡迎 - Sunday 2nd June

Or for the few Friends not conversant with mandarin.

If you haven't guessed it already, last Sunday we decided to give the front of house a bit of a face lift, by repainting the very faded front sign (a lot of people didn't even know we had one), adding a touch of colour to the rather drab tables and benches and spring cleaning the block paving and car park area.

Friends carrying out extensive bench tests

The raised pond that we renovated a couple of months ago, is now starting to benefit from the new plants, and has started to look an attractive visitor attraction, for the many damsel and dragon flies, that have burst forth across the reserve during the last couple of weeks.

There's life in the old pond

Talking of which, a certain bloke with a camera, had to be dragged away from the planting tanks in the wall in front of the Centre, from which yet another Damselfly (possibly Common Blue) was emerging - amazingly two Broad bodied Chaser Dragonflies have also emerged from these small tanks

The Damsel larva climes a reed heading for a new life

Now he's just a shell of his former self - or should that be the other way round?

It seems, that our ponds are not the only things HESC insects find attractive - this fluorescent beetle or possibly weevil, seemed to think our Treasurer was a good place to park for a bit of morning sun.

Anyone able to identify this chap?

 

We will be carrying out similar tasks on the first Sunday in July - please feel free to come and join in. We can offer free tea, coffee and bickies and plenty of fun.

I promise you - helping make HESC look good, makes you feel good.



Photographs © Tony Bedford

Open Sunday 19th May

What a lovely day, the weather was blooming marvelous as were many of the trees.

In their search  for HESC wildlife our visits looked high.....

and low.........

but whatever they found or saw, everyone had a smile on their face.

Thank you as always to all our visitors.

 

Evensong Warbler Walk.

 

Wednesday 22^nd May,

Meet at the Centre 18:30 hrs

 

Leader Andy Harding.

 

Grasshopper Warbler

Photo © Tony Bedford

 

Following on from the very successful Dawn Chorus

Warbler Walk, Andy has also agreed to lead an evening walk to catch the songsters before they turn in .

Open to all permit holders, guests £2:00 each.

Life Through a Lens
Sunday 21st April


Thankfully the fine weather continued throughout the weekend and resulted in yet another very good turnout for this months open Sunday. It was also very pleasing to see yet more new faces and I guess this reflects the fact that the Friends Group membership is now approaching 130.

Many of the groups walking the reserve were enjoying our new spring arrivals with Blackcaps, Chiffchaffs and Willow Warblers all in good voice. There were several debates concerning the ways to distinguish the difference between Chiffs and Willows and the Chairman helped the debate by confidently changing his mind with unerring regularity.

Black legs must be Chiffchaff, but in another picture they look pink 

and does that eye stripe make it a Willow Warbler? 

Oh why doesn't it just, sing then we can be sure.

Also heard, but as is often the case, not seen, was a Grasshopper Warbler which has arrived over the last few days. The Egyptian Geese could still be spotted amongst the sheep, which have invaded the far side of the reserve and visitors also recorded a Greenshank and a Gargany on the bund.

Comma Butterfly taking the Sunday sun - one of the 

first we have seen at HESC this year.

In front of the Centre, Malcolm had set up a number of microscopes with which to view various mini-beasties collected from the ponds. A Stickleback and Stone Loach also received close scrutiny from some of our young (and not so young) visitors along with various larvae, water beetles and pond skaters.

Visitors of all ages enjoyed seeing a little pond life under the microscope

As always thank you to everyone who bought teas, coffees, books or birdseed. These purchases help us raise money, which all goes back into the reserve in repairs, maintenance and improvements and keeping the feeders topped up. 

The Frogs and Toads were a little harder to spot than of recent days, 

but the ponds contained many large masses of spawn

If you would like to find out our plans for future projects please do come along to the AGM on the 15th May (click on projects and forthcoming events for more details).

FoHESC AGM

 

Wednesday 15th May - 7.30pm at the Hanson Centre

Open to all current permit holding members of FoHESC.

Please come along and find out what we have achieved over the last year and our plans for the future. Have your say in how you would like to see the reserve develop and the kinds of projects and activities you would like to see the Friends Group undertake.

For more details click on the events and projects tag.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Tony Bedford
Chairman