Priors Hall.

Lots of cloud about particularly this morning but I thought that it might still be worthwhile giving Priors a bit of a look. As a responsible person I can neither condone or encourage trespassing but sometimes a little bit of sneaking does no harm whatsoever. This site is one of several given over to new housing developments so it's unlikely that the occasional sneak is likely to cause much damage anyway.

Common Sandpiper.

My first stop was in the old quarry area where the lake continues to attract birds with the Sand Martins still feeding young in the artificial nest site. Rather a lot of geese included young while a pair of Mute Swans joined the Coots and Dabchick. Over the last couple of visits I've felt that this area has clear potential for waders and I found a Common Sandpiper as well as Little Ringed and Ringed Plover.

Little Ringed Plover.

With the overcast conditions dominating proceedings it was no surprise that insects were keeping a low profile but I found enough during my visit to keep me interested. First off was an Oak Eggar moth which was my first and it joined the various Meadow Browns and Gatekeepers that were the commonest butterflies. Both species of darter dragonflies were also seen while Common Blue damsels lived up to their name.

Oak Eggar.

Access to some of the ponds here can be difficult but is certainly worth persisting with and I was able to start building up a decent dragonfly list. Four-spotted Chasers while not common were seen on several ponds and ovipositing noted. On other ponds Black-tailed Skimmers were commoner, this is a fairly aggressive species and will even try to drive Emperors away. On that subject I saw at least two Emps and this included an egg laying female. A Brown Hawker was also noted over one of the ponds while Blue-tailed Damsels were quite common. Perhaps my favourite species though was the Emerald Damsel, two were found during the day. What was a nice surprise was a site first White-legged Damsel which was perhaps a wandering immature from a more established spot.

White-legged Damsel making it's way on to another site list.

Ruddy Darter.

Butterflies made up in quality what they lacked in quantity, rather a lot of species but only present in small numbers apart from the two browns referred to earlier and Ringlet. A site first Marbled White was expected given how widespread that they're becoming but it's always nice to get that first one. Painted Ladies are slowly beginning to show more regularly but one today was still appreciated and joined singles of Comma, Peacock and Red Admiral as well as a brace of Small Torties. New brood Common Blues are becoming a little more frequent, three were seen today and a new brood Brown Argus was also noted. All three of the commoner whites were recorded and Large Skippers too while a Speckled Wood was welcome as they have been a little scarce of late.

Another picture of an Emperor ovipositing.

Six-spotted Burnet moths are now on the wing and seem drawn to thistle flowers in particular, about half a dozen were seen. Back at the lake a small collection of Lesser Black-backed Gulls were joined by two paler mantled birds, probably Yellow-leggeds but I've sent the pictures to a local gull guru who can hopefully enlighten me.

Speckled Wood, quite scarce of late.

 

Yellow-legged Gulls?