Sunday June 12 - Its all about the bugs

 Another morning of sunshine and showers with a moderate westerly breeze. Dave arrived at the patch shortly before I did, and within seconds of me leaving my car his sharp eyes drew a Cuckoo to my attention as it hurried past. My first actual sighting of one this year.

So that got the birding highlight over quickly, and the rest of the day was largely given over to insects. Before I get on to those, I will mention a family party of Ravens which flew over us at Netherstead, and pairs of Little Ringed Plover and Teal at the flash field. The latter probably representing yet another failed breeding attempt by this species.

The pair of Teal

On a more positive note, the Lapwing chick has pretty much fledged, and judging by the anxiety calls of an adult, there may be a brood in the long grass of the HOEF field.

So on to insects. Most of the butterflies we saw were the usual ones, but in slightly higher numbers. Only a single Ringlet was new for the year. Moths also gave us some year-ticks, and also a patch tick in the form of the micro Marbled Orchard Tortrix. New for the year were several Garden Grass-veneers, and a Burnet Companion.

Marbled Orchard Tortrix

Garden Grass-veneer

Burnet Companion

As for dragon/damsels, we saw Banded Demoiselle and White-legged Damselfly, plus Ruddy Darter, two Broad-bodied Chasers, and an Emperor. Annoyingly the cloud cover became almost total as we reached the dragonfly pools.

Banded Demoiselle

White-legged Damselfly - female

As with my last visit, progress was very slow as we were constantly locating insects to take a closer look at. The commonest by far was the Azure Damselfly, and I couldn't resist another photo of them mating.

It's great to see moths out in the field, but I think some more trapping may be due.

And in fact I put the trap out and caught 25 moths of 14 species including three unidentifiable to species (a Cnephasia ag, a Bryotropha ag and a Stigmella ag), and the following which were also new for the year; Crambus pascuella, Light Emerald, Brown House Moth, a very worn Spruce Carpet, Bee Moth, and Eudonia lacustrata. Nothing particularly unusual.