Summertime Blues

Today I gambled on the weather improving by booking off a half day's holiday only to find that my decision backfired somewhat as the cloud persisted. Confirmation that I had backed the wrong pony came when it started to rain, oh well you can't win them all.

A Holly Blue.

An e-mail came in today to confirm that my gulls from Sunday were indeed Yellow-legs, the Gull Guv'nor  got over to Priors Hall himself yesterday and found a staggering total of CA100. That really makes my two seem rather feeble but in my defence I did visit a couple of hours earlier in the day than he did. Traditionally this site does attract good numbers of passage Lesser Blacks and I've seen double figure counts of Yellow-legs accompanying them in previous years.

The altogether jazzier underside of a Common Blue.

Back to today's fun and a Holly Blue next to the steelworks was an early highlight, the new brood is only just beginning to appear. At Weldon Industrial Estate a few Common Blues were flushed from the grass, it was nice to be able to contrast the colourful underwing of this species with the rather plainer one of the Holly. Not surprisingly few other butterflies were about with just the three common browns and a pair of Green-veined Whites to look at.

Say aahhh, a Tufted duckling.

At the A43 pond the Mute Swan remains with a sizeable entourage of yucky eclipse Mallards around it. Most of the Tufted Ducks look as if they have moved on but a duck remains with at least four ducklings. Tufty ducklings are quite independent little beggars so it's not always easy to count them as they can feed some distance from their mother.

Banded Demoiselle.

I didn't really expect to see much in the way of dragons or damsels at the other pond but there was a little bit of activity. Banded Demoiselles were the most obvious species with a double figure count being made. A male Emperor was hunting despite the overcast conditions while a few Common Darters made their first flights. One at least did not make it as I saw a Moorhen swim past with one in its beak, I'm guessing that it took it from a reed rather than plucking it from the air as I seriously doubt their fly catching abilities. At least half a dozen Small Red-eyeds were sitting on moulted Mallard primary feathers while a single Red-eyed clung to a stick. A few Blue-tailed Damselflies rounded off the list of confirmed species though a large teneral damsel sitting on a Mallard secondary feather had me scratching my head, I've asked for some help to identify it and am waiting for the results.

Common Darter

By this stage the rain was steady if light and having logged a couple of last year's Grey Herons and a Kingfisher I decided to give up and go home.

?????? Mystery damsel.