Mammals Take Centre Stage

The promise of some decent weather this afternoon made me think that a half day holiday might be in order and so it was that I found myself at Gretton weir looking for White-legged Damsels. Sadly damsel and dragon numbers seemed rather low today and they did not include any of my target species amongst their number.

Large Red Damsel and Brown Argus.

One species that was present in good numbers was Large Red Damsel, many were present around the Welland and their numbers were almost matched by those of Banded Demoiselles. Dragons were in short supply though a male and female Hairy Dragonfly were my first for this site. The only other dragon that I caught up with was a single Four-spotted Chaser. Butterflies provided one of the day's highlight with a Brown Argus being my first of the year. Other species included Orange-tips and a shabby looking Small Tortoiseshell. On the bird side of things a pair of Lapwings were nice and there were many kites about.

One of several Silver-Y moths and female Orange-tip.

Leaving the weir I made my way along the road towards Rockingham before taking a public footpath up towards Brookfield Plantation. A growing selection of butterflies included a Red Admiral, this and five Silver-Y moths makes me think that some immigration is underway. Two Green-veined Whites made me stop and watch as they fought continuously for at least five minutes. So intent were they on their spat that they would fall to the ground and still continue the fight. In the end they disappeared over a crop of wheat still fighting, I've never seen such determination before in butterflies.

Fleeing Fallow Deer and adult Peregrine.

Once I'd made my weary way up to the top of the ridge (there's no east way to walk out of the Welland Valley) I began to stroll towards Brookfield Plantation. Two buck Fallow Deer totally failed to see me at first and I got some good snaps before the penny finally dropped and they sped off. Any thoughts that these may be top mammal of the day were soon to be dispelled. I reached the large sheep field that sits between the road and the plantation and gave it my usual sweep with the bins. To my surprise I saw the unlikely shape of a Badger seemingly feeding close to the woods at the strange time of quarter to four in the afternoon! Having taken a distant record shot I decided to press my luck and get as close as I could before it legged it. Gradually I edged my way towards this unlikely diurnal Badger until I got to within about fifty feet of it and it still fed seemingly unconcerned. I'm not sure what prompted this strange behaviour but the animal looked healthy enough and I left it feeding after about half an hour.

Diurnal Badger stealing the show.

Brookfield should have been pure anti-climax after this but it wasn't totally rubbish as I managed to find a few butterflies with two each of Grizzled and Dingy Skippers, a tired looking Peacock and a female Common Blue. This latter species posed long enough for me to get my first pictures of 2018 though I managed to grab a few more a little later into the walk. Indeed Willowbrook Industrial Estate had about ten male Common Blues which had three Small Heaths and another Dingy Skipper for company.

Male Common Blue and Small Heath.

So a very decent day when all is considered and a sighting of a Peregrine during  my walk ensured that birds were not forgotten on this most interesting of wanders.

Another Grizzled Skipper but I like the photo.