Southwater Goodbyes...

Goodbye Southwater!

Last weekend was my last weekend working at Southwater as the Summer Seasonal (which some could argue ended the weekend previous due to the heavy, heavy rain) come to a close.

Above is one of my favourite photos I took while working at Southwater and it’s looking along the length of Lennoxwood Lake. I took lots of photos with the intention of them being used on the blog and this was back when the sun was visible!

Apart from taking blog photos, I have also been trying to get a video of the Kingfisher catching a fish. Unfortunately, the best result I had was when the bird dived 2 seconds too late for the camera to record it but never mind.

Black Arches

The Kingfisher was really the highlight of my last weekend as I saw it many times flying up and down Cripplegate Lake and not much else was around. There was a growing number of Tufted Ducks at the Quarry and the Canada Geese flock that has been hanging around for a while was still there.

One of my other aims was to improve my dire moth ID skills and thanks to the book which Jake, Stuart, Sarah and Ryan (who I happened to work with only on my first and last days!) gave to me as leaving present I believe and hope this is a Black Arches. My favourite moth was the Large Emerald on my first weekend which was on one of the picnic benches outside the cafe and I nearly picked it up with my litter pickers! 

Coots from the Kayak!

I did try to film what was living in the reed bed at Cripplegate Lake which involve taking a kayak out and pushing a post into the soft silt of the lake bed, but without success. On my way back though, I tied the camera to the side of the kayak to get a low view of the lake as I paddled back in the heavy rain.

 If you want to see it please visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWAzKbs5gZw

Butterflies were fairly quiet, mainly due to the weather more than anything else. I was looking in vain for the Brown Hairstreaks although I’m sure there’s a few there somewhere!

Thanks to everyone (Countryside Wardens, the Cafe, Watersports and visitors) for a summer of great and, occasionally, crazily busy weekends!

All the best,

Tom