River Darent

This lovely little riverside walk, no more than a quarter of a mile, can be found in Lullingstone country park, you can combine this with the much longer walk around the Lullingstone Loop, all of which makes for a very nice country walk.

I particularly like this little stretch of river, which is very good for Dragonflies, Brown Hawkers patrol up and down the river, Banded Demoiselles can be found on the sunnier stretches of riverside vegetation and Common Blue Damselflies are quite common here

River Darent, Kent

As we approached the River and started walking slowly along the river side path, we disturbed a fairly large Grass Snake, must have been at least thirty inches long, which decided to make a dash across the river, as I watched the huge grass snake swimming across the river I realised that I should be taking some photographs, by the time I had focused it had reached the other bank and slowly disappeared into the reeds.

Grass Snake in River Darent

As we waited for another view of the Snake, a Brown Hawker made its way down the river, a few male Banded Demoiselles flew out from the reeds but quickly disappeared.

And a family group of Grey Wagtails, with at least three juveniles made their way along the edge of the river always staying well in front of us.

female Banded Demoiselle

male Banded Demoiselle

I think these have to be one of my Favourite Damselflies with their green metallic bodies glistening in the sunlight, and the males fluttering display flights.

Common Blue Damselfly

The Common Blue Damselfly always looks stunning when you can take a close look.

Speckled wood

This Speckled wood was the only butterfly seen along the river.

We came across a huge nest of Wasps that had probably been dug out of the ground by a badger, luckily I had a zoom lens with me and managed to get a few shots of the activity within the broken nest before we made a swift exit.

European Wasp Nest

And that's why you should always have a camera with you, you never know what unexpected natural delight awaits you around the next corner, as I have found out through bitter experience.