A walk down the canal

Neither as part of my circumnavigation of Leicester or as part of the Leicester Round (which is again walking around Leicester) I decided to go for a walk. I would start near the Hope and Anchor pub in Syston, walk by the canal to the main road near Cossington before returning down a path that leads the other side of the sewage works. It was a good walk in terms of wildlife, the birds and bugs were out in force and it was easy to get distracted. The ground wasn't the best for walking, the path crossed fields on a sharp camber and often across the stubbly roots of cut down crops but I'm not complaining. It was good just to be out in the fresh air.

The canal side was bursting with life. This female Common Blue Damselfly (Enallagma cyathigerum) was quite relaxed and crawled onto my finger.

Down by the water lots of Black Caddis flies were resting on pond side leaves before flying close to the waters edge in small swarms. I've seen the larvae of these before, but I didn't realise they grew up to look like this.

A little further on I flushed a Lapwing (Vanellus vanellus). She circled me noisily several times. I must have been near her nest.

Further on still this Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus) hovered high above the meadow, occasionally circling.

The path became more overgrown and the vegetation closed in slightly. This Red-headed Cardinal Beetle (Pyrochroa serraticornis) was the first I had ever seen. It was huge, being about 2cm long.

Also ubiquitously present is the Green Nettle Weevil (Phyllobius viridiaeris) that eats stinging nettles.

Always a pleasant sight in early June are the Small Skipper Butterfly (Thymelicus sylvestris). This must be one of the earlier ones. Last year my first sighting of this species was on the 21st of July.

But how about this! My first photo of the gorgeous Orange Tip Butterfly (Anthocharis cardamines). What a truly wonderful creature!

In a slightly less wonderful but non the less important way is my first sighting of this Hoverfly (Volucella pellucens).

You can follow where I went on this map.

Flutterbies

OK, fair enough, this wasn't at Bradgate Park but its a nice photo I took out in Malaysia.. The tiger is an animal on the brink of extinction. As an animal it requires humans to leave it alone, to leave its food alone, to leave its habitat alone. It is specialised to an environment without humans. This specialism will unfortunately result in its extinction. The only animals that will survive the great human extinction will be those that can take advantage of our pathetic attempts to manage the land. Those creatures that can carry on in spite of our best efforts to kill the world will inherit "our" earth.

We like parks. We preserve parks because they have a use to us. The animals that survive at Bradgate Park will survive our time. Having looked at the mammals, the larger flying species and those species that inhabit the "grasszone" I will turn the attention of this blog to the flutterby population.This is a Small Heath butterfly (Coenonympha pamphilus). Though not particularly rare this has a butterfly conservation priority of high. Yet it has made its home in the short grasses of Bradgate Park. I took this picture whilst trying to find an adder. I suppose though this species is not as iconic, it is rarer.

This is a Speckled Wood butterfly (Pararge aegeria) that I saw at Watermead recently. It was the first time I had knowingly seen one of these, so I was quite happy. It is strange that as soon as you have identified one, you then spot them everywhere.

This cheeky chappy is a Small Skipper (Thymelicus sylvestris) that I also saw down on the meadows of Watermead Country Park. Unlike a lot of butterflies he didn't seem put off by the presence of the camera. Often, butterflies take off when you get too close, but this chap didn't mind one bit.

The final butterfly of the day is this Ringlet butterfly (Aphantopus hyperantus) that I saw down on the Grand Union Canal. I didn't know what it was at first and had to use Wild About Britain to get it identified. Having now seen and identified theses butterflies I now almost see them everywhere.