{"id":9423,"date":"2026-07-12T12:54:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T12:54:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/?p=9423"},"modified":"2026-07-12T13:11:37","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T13:11:37","slug":"wraysburys-weeds-and-demoiselle-flies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/2026\/07\/12\/wraysburys-weeds-and-demoiselle-flies\/","title":{"rendered":"A Wraysbury Walk"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Wraysbury Lakes is an area of former gravel pits and secondary woodland where the Colne Brook flows across the Thames floodplain. One of the lakes is used for sailing; some are reservoirs. The land has a pleasantly reclaimed and scruffy feeling to it; a patch is a solar farm; another area is used for grazing ponies; and another is delightfully “weedy” with many colourful flowers of waste ground, and their pollinators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Himalayan Balsam grows beside the Colne Brook here and there, but has not become seriously invasive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A Water Shrew, if the silvery hairs along tail and feet are anything to go by. Given its small size this must be a young one. The species is known in the area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This Buddleia near the road bridge over the Colne Brook has attracted both male (blue) and female (green) Banded Demoiselles, an interesting sight having both together. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Out in the sunshine in the wasteland area are many tall flowering forbs, including Teasel …<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Burdock …<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Fleabane …<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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… and Wild Carrot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Beside the paths you can find lawns of Creeping Cinquefoil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wraysbury Lakes is an area of former gravel pits and secondary woodland where the Colne Brook flows across the Thames floodplain. One of the lakes is used for sailing; some are reservoirs. The land has a pleasantly reclaimed and scruffy feeling to it; a patch is a solar farm; another area is used for grazing … Continue reading A Wraysbury Walk<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[89,239,90,1588],"tags":[157,1575,1599,1876,870,1875,631,1877,1790,52],"class_list":["post-9423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","category-love-of-nature","category-natural-history","category-walks","tag-banded-demoiselle","tag-burdock","tag-creeping-cinquefoil","tag-fleabane","tag-himalayan-balsam","tag-solar-farm","tag-teasel","tag-water-shrew","tag-wild-carrot","tag-wraysbury-lakes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9423"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9423\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9447,"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9423\/revisions\/9447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}