Millpool Today

I spent a very pleasant couple of quiet hours taking random images both on and around the tranquil Millpond earlier today

A Wrinkly Red-faced Male Muscovy Duck that seems to have become the meeter and greeter to all who visit the Millpool.

Honey Bee collecting Pollen

Goldfinch stripping seeds from Thistle heads

Red admiral warming up on the lane !

Female Emperor ovipositing

Common Darter

Life in the Lilies

A moorhen and her chick are seen here relaxing in the lilies,  The mother is preening as she watches her chick sinking individual lily pads to form a pool to bath in.

With bathing complete the chick uses her well over-sized feet to spread its weigh as it walks around the pads conducting its first foraging exercise.

Rest period over the mother steps in to organise the foraging.

Common Frogs Spawning at Millpool

This is the time of the year when all of the frogs that have not already done so will be very active in all water courses including puddles in muddy lanes,

I found the frogs posted in this portfolio at Millpool and with the abundance of frogs both male and female it looked like it would be an easy shoot but getting close shots at low levels without falling in proved challenging and the frogs seemed to quickly gauge how to stay just out of reach,

Spending some time waiting for the right moment and adding a tickle of flash eventually produced this portfolio and I felt that the last image shown capture the essence of the encounter with a happy pair of frogs mating in the middle of a mass of their own Spawn.

Millpool Life

I spend much of yesterday fishing at the Millpool but the fish were not biting to well so I set up my camera and whiled the time away admiring the flora and fauna.

The Millpool water lily are showing at their best with gorgeous large red and green veined pads,

A fit looking Red admiral was taking advantage sucking in the nectar from the last few Buddilea blooms

I was attracted to this Cross Orb Weaver Spider that was sat in on the back of its large dew covered web with the ends of each of its sensitive legs set to feel the whole of its web area as
'Like me it waited for a bite'.

Aptly named 'Beautiful Demoiselle' this lone metalic green-blue dragonfly was very skitty and only gave me one chance before it was off to find a quieter sun spot

I gave up on my fishing around mid afternoon and ambled along the lane towards home bagging some large juicy blackberries on the way,

As I went along I disturbed a colourful male Southern Hawker Dragonfly  on the brambles which fortunately resettled again close by to provide me with another 'first' for this year

And my last subject was this lovely Painted Lady Butterfly which seemed attracted to some fallen leaves to which it kept returning a little further along alone the lane.

Perhaps not the best of fishing days but I was happy just admiring Millpool life and went home looking forward to making another pot or two of Bramble Jelly !!.

Millpool yesterday

The peace and quite of the Millpool was a real joy yesterday and an excellent back-water away from the traffic and general tourist trails of west Cornwall

I spent my morning catching and releasing several fine Roach and Golden-Rudd a couple of which are posted below and I came close to catching a lovely wild Common Carp that has got my name on it but I won't bore you with the story of the one that got away !!

The above Common carp caught by a visiting angler last year is just one of several that can be seen cruising about at the Millpond and still avoiding my bait but the summer is not over yet so just watch this space !!

During the afternoon I spotted a male Common Hawker Dragonfly for the first time this summer,

It lead me a merry dance chasing it around the pond for well over a hour before it finally landed at a location where I could achieve some close portrait images,

 But you have to count your blessings as with cool air temperatures and no sun shining it was the only Dragonfly that I saw all day and I was pleased with some of the images taken below :

Female Southern Hawker at the Millpool

Although common throughout Europe this female Southern Hawker is the only one that I have seen in West Cornwall so far this summer,

These 110mm long Dragonfly tend to inhabit small ponds such as the Millpool between May to November,

The females like the one shown here are often inconspicuous around green waterside vegetation and in this case hard to spot while laying its eggs in damp green moss covered stones in a shaded area at the waterside,

The eggs hatch the following Spring and the nymphs will feed on aquatic insects , small tadpoles and even ambush small fish for a two to three year period prior the emerging as adults completing their  cycle

Millpool Butterflies

The portfolio of colourful butterflies below have all been taken in the habitat surrounding the Millpool within the last couple of weeks.

THe magnificent Peacock butterfly is just one that is highly attracted to the visual colour and scent of the buddleia trees flowers in the area,

Heat seeking Red admiral are abundant and always on the lookout for good sun spots to bask from while turning their backs to wards the sun.

Painted Lady are also keen to soak up the warmth of the sun and seem to like open stoney ground to bask in

 Perhaps not so common at this location are the smaller but striking colours and wing pattern of the wall brown.

Another portrait image of the Peacock butterfly,  this time sunbathing on stoney ground

The local Buddleia trees are also popular with the Small Tortoiseshell butterfly with their gorgeous  orange,black and yellow wings with mosiac blue effect completing the detail.

The distinctive shape of the Comma's wing shape make it an east one to identify but this was the only one seen at this location