Its been a busy weekend, with plenty of activity yesterday (2 walks, 2 runs, along with doing various chores in the garden).
It promised to be a busy day today as well. My partner wanted to make the most of having the same day off so we could go out, but I needed to help my Dad out first, and I needed to squeeze a small recovery run in too...
The only option to fit this in was to forego the lay-in this morning, and get the run done early. As I'd run 16km yesterday, it only needed a small recovery run today, and so at 8am I headed out to complete an easy 6km.
It took me up to 65km in total for the week, which was useful as part of slowly increasing my weekly mileage again.
I was back at home before 9am so I could have a quick shower, and then I could pop round to my Dads house
He was out all morning doing a car boot, to try to sell some older stuff he no longer needed. As he didn't want his dog to be left alone too long, I was asked to pop round for a couple of hours to keep her company and take her out for a quick walk.
Her name is Lola, and quite frankly she is adorable... so I was more than happy to help out haha!
A short walk later, some snacks and then playing in the garden done, I then headed back home.
I had just enough time to wolf down a sandwich before gathering some camera gear together and heading out to the first of 2 nature reserves.
Nature Reserve No. 1 - Fiskerton Fen
Fiskerton is a small village about 3 miles east of Lincoln. On the edge of the village is a tiny little Reserve, so small in fact that we have always overlooked it. Due to the time constraints, we wanted to chose somewhere close, so decided we might as well finally check it out
and as it turned out, we're really glad we did!
The reserve is split into 2 sections, a large pool of water overlooked by a bird hide, and then a narrow strip with a single path to walk down.
We chose to check out the bird hide first
the path was a little overgrown, but you can see the pointed top of the hide in the distance!
The view was reasonably interesting, and presumably you would be able to see an assortment of ducks and geese on the water. There were not many to see today, but to be fair we really didn't look at this for very long because....
In the ceiling of the bird hide was a Swallow nest!
3 very hungry chicks could be seen looking out and waiting impatiently for food.
Every 5 minutes, like clockwork, one of the parents would swoop in and feed the chicks with whatever insects they had just caught
It took a few attempts, but I finally managed a reasonable shot of the chicks being fed. The 3 of them look really well developed (almost looking like adults) so I suspect they will be fledging and leaving the nest very soon
It was time now to see what else we could find. The path seems to pass through a mixture of mixed scrub and hedgerows, there is a small river on one side
There would some different insects seen here, such as small flies, drgonflies, and the odd butterfly... but not as much as I expected there to be.
Highlights included this Narrow-bordered 5-spot Burnet moth (most likely freshly emerged today
Narrow-bordered 5-spot Burnet moth - Zygaena lonicerae
Blue-tailed Damelfly - Ischnura elegans
There were several of these delicate insects flitting about in the warm sunshine. They are in the same family as the Dragonflies, but are much smaller.
After walking to the end of the path (and thus the edge of the reserve) we headed back to the car park, where we found 2 surprises.
First, there were several Swallows sat on top of the barrier to the car park. With so many sat in a line like this, we suspect that these are newly fledged young birds, and they are still waiting for adults to provide food for them
So patiently were they waiting for food, that I was able to get really close to one of them to get a better picture (I had left my big zoom lens at home, so had to make the best of it with with the lens I had
The second surprise was when I happened to glance at some of the flowers next to the metal gate at the entrance to the car park...
Bee Orchids!!
I hadn't seen these species in years, although I often keep an eye out for them. They are widespread across the country, but the distribution is thin, and they turn up in all sorts of random places
To find a patch of 8 plants here in the corner of a car park is completely unexpected, but a great way to end the trip here. Its the first time we have visited, and we'll definitely be coming back to visit soon!
Nature Reserve No. 2 - Snakeholme Pit
The next reserve was just 4 miles down the road. Compared to Fiskerton Fen, SNakeholme Pit is a reserve we have visitied many times in the past. It is very small and off the beaten track, but there is often lots to see.
Part of the reserve is a grass meadow, and there is a river that runs down one side off it. As it is so small, we take our time slowly walking along the mowed paths, to see if we could spy anything interesting...
well we found more activity than was at the previous reserve at any rate!
Meadow Brown Butterfly
Common Blue Damselfly
Large Skipper Butterfly
Black-tailed Skimmer
Ringlet Butterfly
It was a little tough to get around the reserve lol, some of the paths were a little overgrown!
On the whole though, it was a productive walk, and indeed a productive day all round... I am pretty tired now to be honest! This weekend seems to have flown past, and before I know it I need to start getting ready to be back at work tomorrow morning (I am at least working from home which is something!)
Next weekend I'm sure we'll be doing more exploring, and there will be a chance to see some more interesting wildlife, but for now I'll leave you with the highlight from Snakeholme Pit - a female Beautiful Demoiselle:
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