A Day for Floating Daisies Down the River

This morning was another bright, sunny day, with a pleasant warm breeze keeping the heat of the full sun at bay. And it was an ideal day for a walk with my daughter around the lake, hoping to see a few late butterflies and Dragon flies (and you never know what else), and for my daughter the ideal day to float Daisies down the river!

As we approach autumn the bird life is not at its greatest, in fact, bar the resident such as Coots, Mallard, Swans and Canada Geese, there was very little else around, the few highlights were a nice Great Spotted Woodpecker who flew over calling, and a couple of very vocal Chiffchaffs, giving their less interesting (and autumnal) “wheet” call, but these were pretty much all the bird life of note.

A Day for Floating Daisies Down the River

Mini Beast wise, well the bugs are out flying in numbers still. There were plenty of different flies; and we saw a good variety of hoverfly species: at least Helophilus Trivittatus and Helophilus Pendulus have been identified, but there were a good number of others.

Butterflies were mainly whites. We saw both Small and Green-veined White (although they refused to let me near with the camera) as well as Small tortoiseshell; Red Admiral; and Speckled Wood. As for the dragonflies there were some about. Mainly common Darter in good numbers at least, but a couple of blue-tailed damselflies and at least one migrant hawker.

Helophilus Trivittatus

Helophilus Pendulus

Unexpected Creatures

We were lucky to bump into a gentle man who was able to point us in the direction of a rather unexpected creature; in the form of a rather large turtle of some kind (this would be one that was released years ago probably when there was a huge craze for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles). I tried to convince Bo to spend some time looking at him, but the turtle was distant and didn’t hold her attention.

But what my daughter really wanted to do was float daisies down the river! Odd? Well, maybe, but it extended our walk. As we followed the ebb and flow of the flower, while it trundled its way along the stream; catching on snags occasionally, or being investigated by small fish. We eventually lost it under a bridge.

Troll Holes

As we returned back along the river, my daughter was keen to point out (and have me photograph) the troll hole she had found. Apparently a rather small troll lives in here. However he does not come out when you call him (or so we found out, and yes she did have me shouting Mr Troll at the top of my voice!). She reliably informed me that he is just there to scare small children, but she is not scared of him, and when she comes past here with her child minder they laugh about him!

All in all a fun walk with interesting sightings and conversations. I will miss her when she is at school full time next month.