A Grand Day Out

I managed to scrounge a lift over to Gretton weir this morning where I hoped to find some White-legged Damsels. Given that it was fairly windy and rather cloudy things did not look too promising but thankfully the damsels did not let me down.

River Welland and White-legged Damsels.

In all a total of around seventy or so White-legs were seen, mainly males but with a couple of females too. Many were sitting lower down in the grass as they sought to avoid the wind but still showed well. They were if anything outnumbered by the many Banded Demoiselles but apart from these two species very few others were seen, a couple of Blue-tailed and a single Common Blue. Few butterflies either with just a few Meadow Browns on view. The only other wildlife of note was a Sedge Warbler singing near the road.

Painted Lady and Red Admiral.

Walking back along the road I was struck by how little insect life was around, presumably the fields are sprayed with pesticides or something similar. A phone call from a friend telling me that the local Marbled Whites were out was good news, I had hoped to catch up with them today. As I walked up from the road and out of the valley near to Brookfield Plantation I began to see a little a little more life with more Meadow Browns and a few Small Heaths appearing. A first for the year Essex Skipper was a nice surprise and quite early too, it was followed by a Painted Lady and then a Red Admiral.

Essex Skipper and a nicely marked Speckled Wood.

The large field near Brookfield was free of Badgers today but there were a couple of Fallow Deer grazing. The plantation itself looks to have seen rather a lot of forestry work which is not altogether welcome during the breeding season but may improve the site for butterflies. Not much variety today with lots of Speckled Woods and yet more Meadow Browns but nothing else.

Ringlet and Marbled White.

Willowbrook Industrial Estate delivered a double whammy of year firsts with three of the hoped for Marbled Whites and a brace of Ringlets. About eight or nine Common Blues were found though they're beginning to look a little frayed now as the first brood's flight season nears its end. A bit of a surprise on the dragonfly front with the sighting of a male and female Black-tailed Skimmer being my first at this site. All things considered it was a good morning with four new species for my Northants butterfly list being seen.

Black-tailed Skimmer.