Butterflies, damselflies, birds and flowers

After we had arrived at Huis ter Heide near Tilburg in the Netherlands on 8 July 2016, on 9 July we went to that nature reserve again. First, we saw this map butterfly, on a very young oak tree.

Sounds of a green woodpecker and a chiffchaff.

In a Rauwe Vennen lakelet, a flock of gray lag geese and two grey herons.

We arrive at a bigger lake, the Leikeven. On and around the sandy footpath near this lake, thousands of Crabronidae wasps have their nests.

People can walk across the Leikeven on a boardwalk.

Coots swim. A young black-headed gull.

In the shallow water grow plants; like marsh St John’s-wort.

Also spoonleaf sundew and shoreweed.

Many common blue damselflies. Sometimes sitting on shoreweed, sometimes on other plants, sometimes flying.

White wagtails on the boardwalk.

Not far away, two adult great crested grebes and their four chicks swim.

On the boardwalk, this ‘tandem‘ of mating common blue damselflies.

We see many more common blue damselfly tandems. Though, at first sight, there are more males than (less conspicuous) females. Along a common blue, a smaller, reddish damselfly flies. Maybe a small red damselfly.