The Blue Lagoon (2)

Two days after my first visit chance took me back to the Blue Lagoon: sounds like a film - 'Return to the Blue Lagoon'. My first visit had not been particularly productive, perhaps because of a rather keen wind. There had been no rarities but the Celery Leaf Beetle, the Hawthorn Leaf Beetle and the European Chinch Bug all turned up.
Compared with my first visit there were fewer pedestrians about and, notwithstanding the noise of heavy traffic at the nearby Barnes Meadow roundabout, a Grey Heron stood serenely in the shallows.

A Grey Heron kept a careful eye on me. Blue Lagoon, Northampton.

15 March, 2017

Coot, Mallard, Moorhens and Mute Swans were also present and, rather surprisingly, a pair of Teal, Anas crecca, were busying themselves beside a reed bed.

In general fewer butterflies were seen but Small Tortoiseshells were very common, perhaps attracted by the beds of nettles (the food-plant for their caterpillars) on the bank side.

Several Small Tortoiseshells were enjoying the sunny conditions.

Blue Lagoon, Northampton. 15 March, 2017

A singleton, colours a little faded, was soaking up the sun but a more active pair was engaged in a spot of courtship. Their colours were far brighter, suggesting that they had only recently emerged from their pupae.

With procreation in mind... Blue Lagoon, Northampton.

15 March, 2017

Along the bank fluffy balls were being blown around by the breeze. The seed heads of the Common Reedmace or Bulrush, Typha latifolia, had burst open and these were the seeds being borne on the wind with the aid of downy strands. We have two species of reedmace in Britain, the other being the considerably less widespread Lesser Reedmace, Typha angustifolia,
I returned to my car, parked a few yards away, and was just preparing to drive off when there was a little 'clunk' on the bonnet. It was a Lesser Water Boatman; to be more precise it was Hesperocorixa sahlbergi, a very common species found throughout Northants. It is a true bug and therefore related, if only rather distantly, to bedbugs and aphids.The steely grey-black of the car, glinting in the sun, had clearly been mistaken for a lake or even a river (the insect may have been misled by the word 'Ford' on the front of the car). Anyway, it got a nasty surprise.