RSPB Sherwood Forest - Take 2

This post will be my first entry to the (very) newly created Community: Photo-essay. It already looks to fill in a useful niche, for my content at least. I often write about wildlife, and feature lots of pictures, but sometimes its not focused on wildlife in the right way for the Amazing Nature community, and the photo's aren't always of a consistently high enough quality to warrant adding to the Photography Lovers Community

Here in Photo-essay, It is all about using photos with some text to help tell a story... and I've plenty to talk about!

So? Where am I today?

Today, I have returned back to the Nature Reserve at Sherwood Forest. Regular readers may remember I actually visited here earlier this year. I visited with parents back in February, I thoroughly enjoyed it and mentioned in the post that I hoped to return later in the season to see how the wildlife and environment has changed.

Two months have passed, and when I heard parents were returning, I immediately jumped at the chance to join them

The most obvious difference was just how green everything looked. A huge difference to the mostly bare branches from the previous visit. There were plenty of flowers which have started to appear including the White Dead-nettles seen above.

There was also a lot of insect activity:

A type of Hoverfly (or sometimes called Flower Fly - Baccha elongata seen feeding on the nectar of the White Dead-nettle flowers.

A tiny micro moth - Esperia Sulphurella

And then a Beetle, a 10-spot Ladybird

And then I saw a pair of Weevils, and look! The smaller Weevil looks tired so the larger Weevil is giving him a piggy-back... what a lovely gesture!

What do you mean it isn't a piggy back?!

Well, whatever they may be up to, I'm pretty confident they are of a species of Weevil called Nedyus quadrimaculatus

Anyway.

Sherwood Forest is full of trees (obviously), but there is also some different habitats including the heather and heathland seen below.

So here we have Silver Birch Trees on the edge, some Heather in the middle, and then on the right hand side is a patch of yellow which is the flowers from the Gorse bushes

Getting close up to the Gorse flowers, I spotted another Beetle, this was a 7-spot Ladybird

And then I spied a Fly!

I dunno what species this is (maybe a type of Muscid?) but it still worthy of a picture, its just as interesting and important as any other species I will see today.

And then I saw some different Bees. The first was one of the White Tailed Bumblebees:

And then the 2nd is a Common Carder Bumblebee. Both were Queens, and both were feeding on Dandelion flowers, in preparation of building their nest

It was getting quite warm in the sun now as we were walking around the reserve, but there was still plenty to see. Further along the path we found a bird table...

Great Tit on the left, Blue Tit on the right

Coal Tit

Coal Tit, with a Dunnock loitering suspiciously in the background!

One of the biggest differences compare to the visit 2 months ago was the abundance of flowers. Lots of different species, and spread all over the place.

Lots of Cowslips and a couple of Dandelions

Bluebells

And then this one. I think this is might be a group of Ground Ivy? I need to work on my Plant ID. If my partner was here she could have told me!

EDIT - I have now been corrected that these are in fact Red Dead Nettles (closely related to the White Dead Nettles at the beginning of this post)

And then back to birds again. We saw a very friendly Robin, presumably used to being around lots of people as this is a popular and busy Nature Reserve.

Very photogenic, and very professional too! He was so patient and giving, allowing me plenty of time to get the shot I needed... just a class act all round!

The Blue Tit however, was a rank amatuer in comparison. 10 minutes I spent watching him flit back and forth, and this was the only shot I managed that wasn't blurred or out of focus, or missing from the picture all together. He needs to ask that Robin for tips!

And finally, to end this post on a high note, I spotted the one (and only) butterfly today.

It was a female Orange-Tip, and I have to thank my Mum for spotting it as I was distracted trying to take a photo of that pesky Blue Tit

Considering the trip was arranged at the last minute, it turned out to be a great day. It was warm, the sun was shinning. I got a chance to spend time with family and catch-up on recent events, I got to see plenty of wildlife, and wild flowers... and I got some half decent shots as well.

All in all, it was a great day. And who knows, maybe I will be back in another few months time and see what Sherwood Forest looks like in the Summer!

---