Sunday July 15

It's still scorchio and our visit to Morton Bagot this morning required extra kit (bottles of water). I was hoping this visit might start to shift the emphasis a notch back towards birds, but in truth it was all about insects again.

There were signs that the local Buzzards have bred, and we also heard juvenile Yellowhammers calling (a call which had us a little baffled at the time). A family of Lesser Whitethroats appeared in the hedgerow by the flash pool, but I only managed a photograph of one of the adults. The nearest flash has had its waterlevel adjusted so that it now looks pretty good again. The only waders we could see were two Green Sandpipers and about 20 Lapwings.

Common Buzzard

Lesser Whitethroat

As for insects, between us we recorded 23 species (including a late solo foray into Bannams Wood). I have since learnt that Mike Inskip was in Bannams Wood during the morning and that he saw some more White-letter Hairstreaks. So this would bump the total for the area up to 24 species. The only butterfly none of saw, but which was probably there somewhere, was Holly Blue.

New for the year at Morton Bagot were about six Brown Argus, and a single Small Copper. This formerly quite common species is now barely annual here.

Brown Argus

Small Copper

Possibly new for the year (I can't remember whether we have recorded them or not) were a Painted Lady and a Red Admiral.

Painted Lady

Dragonflies were also also well represented, 13 species, including a Southern Hawker and at least six Emperors.

After Dave left, I ventured into Bannam's Wood. Here I found at least 15 Silver-washed Fritilleries including a dull female of the Valezina form, something I have not seen before, and another Brown Argus.

Silver-washed Fritillary (form valezina)

Brown Argus

The full butterfly list was: c 30 Small White,  c 20 Large White (half of them in Bannam's), three Green-veined White, five Brimstone (all in Bannam's), sev White-letter Hairstreak (Mike in Bannams), one Purple Hairstreak, one Small Copper, eight Brown Argus, three Common Blue, c50 Small Skipper, one Essex Skipper, two Large Skipper (Bannam's), one Comma, one Red Admiral, one Peacock, one Small Tortoiseshell, one Painted Lady, c15 Silver-washed Fritillary (Bannams), six Marbled White, c50 Meadow Brown, c110 Gatekeeper, five Ringlet, one Small Heath (Dave at Morton Bagot), and three Speckled Wood.

Thank goodness there are still places like this where the excesses of agricultural intensification have been held in check.