Sunday June 8

Warm and sunny. Dave rang to say he would not be joining me, so I had the place to myself. Although today would be dominated by insects, I began and ended with some significant birds.

At the little reedbed I finally managed to get a shot of one of the two singing Reed Warblers.

83. Reed Warbler

Not a great shot by proper photographer standards, but a photo year-tick. Further up the road a juvenile Pied Wagtail was just begging to have his picture taken.

juvenile Pied Wagtail

I then walked through the village and along the bottom of Bannam's Wood recording singing birds before turning to walk down the hedge towards the pool. The hedge produced two nice dragonflies and my first Speckled Wood of the year.

Broad-bodied Chaser

Four-spotted Chaser

Speckled Wood

At least one Little Grebe was still present at the pool, while at the flashes the long grass is now denying me the chance to look at the furthest flash, the near one producing four Grey Herons and a Redshank.

Returning my attention to the insects I saw my first Large Skippers of the year were now on the wing.

Large Skipper

The Large Skipper is actually a very small butterfly, its just bigger then the other Skippers. I also saw a female Common Blue butterfly, and got a chance to photograph an obliging Banded Demoiselle damselfly.

Banded Demoiselle

Approaching the end of my circuit another new dragonfly for the year appeared, a female Black-tailed Skimmer.

female Black-tailed Skimmer

They look quite different from the males, and I hope to see and photograph one of those on a later visit.

Back at the dragonfly pools I was a bit disappointed that there were no Emperor Dragonflies on the wing, and I also saw but failed to photograph any of the handful of Common Blue Damselflies which were mixed in with the Azure Damselflies. I did get a shot of a male Large Red Damselfly though.

Large Red Damselfly

Finally, I mentioned there would be another significant bird. There was indeed. As I was driving away I picked up a Red Kite flying over Bannams Wood. I stopped and tried to record it for posterity, but kept missing it, and it soon got away.

A good end to a mid-summer insect extravaganza.