" Waspies"

A  day out at Rainham RSPB is always a nice change from my local patch, this is a report from my last trip, several days ago.

There had been some interesting sightings at Rainham RSPB of late, plenty of migrant birds passing through the reserve, still plenty of Dragonflies being seen. with some target species in mind, such as the Willow Emerald Damselfly that had just reappeared this year, some interesting Bees had also been recorded lately, the Shrill Carder Bee and the Brown Banded Carder Bee, and I was still yet to see any Wasp Spiders for this year, not to mention a Clouded Yellow butterfly, I was hopeful for an interesting visit. The sun was shining, the traffic through Dartford tunnel was free flowing for a change, the search was on.

Its at this time of the year when the Wasp spider argiope bruennichi or "waspies" as the locals seem to call them are reaching their largest, that is the female of course with its distinctive wasp like abdomen, the male is much smaller, usually seen lurking around the outside of the females orb web waiting for a safe opportunity to mate.
I found at least fifteen females, there was probably a lot more, none being particularly large though.
These Wasp spiders build their Orb web low in long grass, to find them you have to look for the small clearings made by the female in the grass when she then builds her web and waits in the centre  for an unfortunate insect to fall into the web, grasshoppers seem to be a favoured and regular prey.
another indicator of the wasp spiders web is a zigzag structure on the web called a 'stabilimentum' it still seems unclear what the purpose of this actually is.

Wasp Spider showing Stabilimentum 

Female Wasp Spider

Underside of female Wasp Spider

Female Waspie with prey

My search for the Willow Emerald damselfly was unsuccessful after checking around the "troll" bridge where I saw one last year. I did see a few Dragonflies though . Common Darter, Ruddy Darter

Black Tailed Skimmer and a Emperor.

Female Common Darter

Male Ruddy Darter

Black Tail Skimmer

While trying to photograph the skimmers I noticed  a small blue Damselfly resting on the weed around the dragonfly pools boardwalk. which I think is the Small Red-eyed Damselfly, there does appear to be a small black marking ( usually described as a 'x' ) on the segment 10 at the end of the abdomen. 

possible Small Red-eyed Damselfly

Some good butterflies around the reserve although not the hoped for Clouded Yellow.

Tortoiseshell

Common Blue

Red Admiral

Peacock

Large white

Gatekeeper

Holly Blue

Speckled Wood

Once again I was mesmerized by a Grass Snake which swam across the dyke next to the troll bridge before I tried to photograph it, and once again just managing a fleeting glimpse as it disappeared into the reeds, my second sighting this year.

Grass Snake.

Bird of the day for me was this migrant Whinchat seen near Shooting Butts hide.

Whinchat

No luck with the Shrill or brown Banded Carder bees although I did manage to photograph two slightly different looking bees.

Carder Bee ?

My second only view of a Leaf-Cutter Bee although not in the desired leaf cutting position.

Leaf- Cutter Bee

Leaf- Cutter Bee feeding on nectar 

All in all, an interesting visit with some good sightings, even if I did not see some of my target species, good excuse to return soon.