Good in all weathers...

The Tag Loop Ponds are really proving popular now. On Monday Brighouse Central Scouts Group celebrated the end of term with a visit to the reserve for an evening of activities.  The weather was wonderfully mild and we all had a great evening together. Wild walks, bug hunting, bird watching, and pond dipping were all on the programme, followed by games and hotdogs back at the cabins.

All ready and waiting 

On Wednesday we had a much damper start for visitors from Greetland Primary School, but this didn't stop our enthusiastic pond dippers, who managed an impressive collection of beasts, including an adult common newt. As the day improved we had lots of damselflies and a couple of Common Darters around the pond.

As ever, the willingness of volunteers to turn up and run these events is vital. If you'd like to join our friendly bunch please get in touch via the link on this page. It doesn't matter whether your favourite activity is tea making or spider hunting - we'll find you a job!

Margaret

Evening walk 25.07.17

Had a walk over North and tag loop on Tuesday evening , it was great to see all the red clover etc covering North loop. there is an account of the 30 species of moth we saw on the Calderdale Moth blogg .Please use records if needed.
https://calderdalemoths.blogspot.co.uk/2017/07/cromwell-bottom-evening-walk-july-25th.html

An old pic

Found this on the net...................

Little Egret

Little Egret seen around the reserve for the last few days
and a few Common Darters by the Dipping Pond.

Little Egret

Common Darter

At the Ponds

Thursday morning was warm and sunny - a great day for pond gazing. The first working group for a few weeks was small but busy. We added some water into the Tag Loop ponds as the levels were getting very low and took the chance to do a bit of pond dipping ourselves.
Damsel flies were dancing across the water and there was lots of action below the water line. We dipped a few creatures out for inspection - unfortunately some of them ate some of the others before we had managed any ID!

There were plenty of efts [immature newts] of varying sizes:

We also found dragonfly nymphs and watched them devour some of our other treasures - ah well! Here's a link if you'd like to know more about their life cycle: British Dragonfly Society

The ponds are a lovely place to be - please help us all to look after them. Keep children safe and keep dogs out of the water so that it stays clear and settled - thanks!

Margaret 

Moth night morning.

Had a wander on to Cromwell Bottom on Sunday morning to check last night's catch and had an interesting couple of hours sorting through moths with Bruce, Barry and others. All credit to the wildlife group for creating such a family friendly reserve. The highlight for me however was this leaf mine on Birdsfoot Trefoil in Tag Meadow of Trifucula cryptella - I can only find around four Yorkshire records for this species, of course there may be others.

Also on Birdsfoot Trefoil was this striking Coleophora mayrella (below) catching a bit of sun.