Black Sabbath?

A misty start to the day but a promise of some sun a little later in the proceedings was enough to convince me to head over to Priors Hall. Normally I walk  there but this morning I opted for the lazier option (blame it on a few beers last night if you must) and took the bus. A Jay in the village was nice but not too surprising as there are a lot around at the moment and it would seem that our Grey Wagtails are back.

Speckled Bush Cricket, probably common but my first.

Still a bit on the grey side at Priors so I concentrated on the birds though in truth there was not much to report from the quarry lake where a pair of Mute Swans were the highlight. Quite a lot of Meadow Pipits passing through and a few Swallows too but the highlight was an Oystercatcher flying through. Always a scarce species in the Corby area this is the first Autumn record that I've had. A Grey Wagtail, a site rarity, was probably a migrant too.

Face to face with a Speckled Wood.

By ten a few sunny spells began to develop and a few insects began to stir. A single Emerald damsel was found at one of the ponds while a Speckled Bush Cricket was found on the herpguard fence. This plastic shield is also popular with darters, I can only imagine that it retains heat for some time. A barking Muntjac made me jump a bit while I had a similar effect on a Brown Hare which raced away through the thistles. While looking for more dragonflies a Kingfisher zipped through, it's surprising how many I see nowadays.

Common Darters.

An ovipositing pair of Common Darters.

Around about midday the sunshine became more sustained and the number of darters, mainly Common though with a few Ruddies began to increase. Lots of mating activity noted and for the first time I managed to get some photographs. Migrant Hawkers began to appear in small numbers and these included an ovipositing female. One Southern hawker was also noted around the first pond.

Migrant Hawker.

With the the sun now beaming down I returned to the quarry where I checked the shallow puddles and pools for any signs of Red-veined Darters. No luck at all with this optimistic pursuit but I did get a picture of something which might be an old female Black Darter, I've put a picture on the Northants Facebook group's page and am keeping my fingers crossed!

Black Darter?.... I hope so!

A bit of spare time before my bus allowed me to head along to the Woodland Park but a cycling event prevented me from walking around the pond. I was able to walk along the stream though and found about half a dozen Banded Demoiselles which appeared to include a couple of newly emerged individuals amongst their number.

Banded Demoiselles, the red eyes suggest that the male at least is newly emerged.

A lot of Small Whites about today and Priors Hall had a few Speckled Woods and Small Heaths but otherwise butterfly numbers were low.

Another shot of coupled Common Darters.