Sunday June 24

Warm and sunny from the start. Given the time of year this post was never going to be about birds, so I can quickly get them out of the way. There were two Reed Warblers singing, one at the pond and one at the dragonfly pools. Meanwhile at the Flashes the water level is receding fast and the only waders were 20 Lapwings and two Green Sandpipers. We also flushed a Little Owl from the boundary hedge.

Much more interesting were insects, with butterflies taking centre stage when Dave drew my attention to a first for Morton Bagot. He had spotted a tiny butterfly at the top of a young elm in the hedgerow along the footpath west of the flash field. It was a White-letter Hairstreak. I had long hoped that one of these would be found here, but it still came as a pleasant surprise.

White-letter Hairstreak in shadow

White-letter Hairstreak with the sun shining on it

Slightly frustratingly I couldn't get a clear shot of it except when it was in partial silhouette. There may have been at least one more present, but after considerable neck straining we eventually decided to try again another day.

It was actually party time for butterflies until then, with 52 newly emerged Marbled Whites and at least 20 Small Skippers on view for the first time this year. The grassland butterflies were flying in big numbers; 200 Meadow Browns, 180 Ringlets, 40 Large Skippers, five Small Tortoiseshells, eight Large Whites, 20 Small Heaths, and one Small White.

Marbled White

Small Skippers

The small Skippers require careful consideration here because two near identical species, Small and Essex, both occur here. We always see a few we are not sure about.

Probably Small Skipper

Usually Essex Skippers emerge later than Small, but from mid-July you should be seeing both.

Continuing with the debatable insects theme, we saw lots of dragonflies too. I photographed what I thought might be a male White-legged Damselfly. However, on reflection it is probably a mature female Common Blue (I think). In fact it turned out to be a female Azure Damselfly (thanks to Peter Reeves for pointing out that the black lines on the sides of the thorax ruled out Common Blue).

Female Azure Damselfly

We have also been looking at darters and decided they were all Ruddy Darters.

Ruddy Darter

However, one of them was actually a Common Darter.

Common Darter

We finally reached the dragonfly pools where several red-eyed damselflies were too distant for satisfactory shots. But despite the rather early date and level stance, the pattern of blue on the final three segments of the abdomen suggests they were Small Red-eyed Damselflies and not the species we had been hoping for.

Small Red-eyed Damselfly

Small Red-eyed Damselfly

I also noticed an interesting looking bumblebee. It probably just a Common Carder Bee, but its pale haired thorax did make me wonder if it was something rarer.

Carder Bee sp

As for beetles, all I can say is that we saw an impressive one.

Possibly Strawberry Seed Beetle - Harpalus rufipes

I have come up with a tentative identification (see caption) but I'll try submitting it to the irecord website in the hope someone either verifies it or tells me what it actually is.

Sunday June 17

A rather cloudy morning with a moderate south-westerly breeze. Its the time of year when everything is settled and breeding. We saw the first brood of Tufted Ducks on the pond at Clowse Farm and plenty of evidence of recently fledged passerines.

In fact readers of a nervous disposition should be advised that this post contains scenes of a sexual nature which some may find upsetting.

Before we get to that, the emphasis was on trying to find new insects for the year. As far as butterflies are concerned only about six Ringlets were new. The skippers were all Large Skippers (about 20), the browns all Meadow Browns (about 20), Small Heaths (about eight), and one or two Speckled Woods.

Ringlet

As for dragonflies, it was a similar story. The best was a single Brown Hawker which, due to the cool weather and probably it's recent emergence, was very easy to photograph.

Brown Hawker

We also saw about 12 darters (all Ruddy Darters) and numerous damselflies including about 30 Common Emeralds, about 20 Azures, a few Commons, a Beautiful Demoiselle and two Banded Demoiselles.

Now for some very brazen mammals.

Brown Hares

The field behind the pool was full of frisky Brown Hares, and we also disturbed a Roe Deer calf and a Muntjac.

Another feature of the day was hundreds of amphibians, almost all tiny Common Toads, crawling through the grass. There was also at least one Common Frog.

Toadlet

There was at least some evidence of bird migration to keep us birders happy. Two Green Sandpipers at the Flashes were the first  of the "autumn" and a pair of Little Ringed Plovers have reappeared now that the water-level is receding there.

Sunday June 10

Following a hiatus caused by an ongoing family crisis, it was a relief to get down to the patch again. A cloudy morning meant that insects were hard to spot, but once seen, easy to photograph. Later in the morning the sun broke through and the temperature rose.

This is a hopeless time of the year for finding unusual birds, but Dave and I did see a Red Kite and hear a Reed Warbler. A single drake Teal remains on the flash field, and it appears that two Lapwing broods have fledged. Both Canada and Greylag Geese have goslings.

Red Kite

In just two weeks the grass has shot up, and new butterflies are now on the wing.

Large Skipper

Speckled Wood

Meadow Brown

As well as several of all the above, we saw one Common Blue, and about 20 Small Heaths. Since getting myself a garden moth trap I have become interested in the day-flying moths here. I didn't trouble myself with the grass moths but noticed many Timothy Tortrixes (another micro) and several macro moths.

Timothy Tortrix

Blood-vein

Cinnabar

Silver Y

Straw Dot

As for dragonflies, there were several new species on the wing while some of those already seen this year posed nicely. The Darters are in immature colours at this time of year which makes them tricky to identify. The first one shown below has black legs, while the second shows a moustachial droop on either side of the frons. These are features I associate with Ruddy Darter.

Ruddy Darter

Ruddy Darter

Both demoiselle damselflies were on show, and also both Broad-bodied and Four-spotted Chasers.

Beautiful Demoiselle

Banded Demoiselle

Broad-bodied Chaser

Four-spotted Chaser

The last of these was photographed in sunshine at the dragonfly ponds. The warmer late morning meant that none of the four Emperors settled long enough for me to get a decent shot. Instead I had to settle for the ever obliging Emerald Damselflies to round the visit off.

Emerald Damselfly

We also saw a hatch of tiny Toads, one or two young crickets, plenty of biting flies, and an interesting looking insect which I have not seen before and cannot identify.

Some kind of caddisfly perhaps