Gloucester New Spot

The lure of Large Blues at Daneway Banks nature reserve was enough to have a car load of folks heading southwest down to Gloucestershire. As I had not managed to make it down before to see any of their introduced populations it gave me a chance to catch up with yet another new species.

Large Blue.

We arrived in a period of hot and sunny weather which made our prospects seem good. My first highlight was an immaculate Dark Green Fritillary which was a first for the year. Marbled Whites and Meadow Browns were flitting over the flower filled grassland and the first blues, Commons sadly, were soon found. I did catch a quick view of a Large Blue but it didn't hang around.  At another spot on a steeper part of the reserve we found some more Large Blues and this time a few hung around for some record shots. Other species were added to the list with several Small Heaths, a Ringlet or two and a few Large Skippers being found.

Dark Green Frit and tatty Common Blue.

Having had to park the car in a nearby pub car park it seemed only fair to pop in and enjoy a couple of pints and we enjoyed a very enjoyable hour or so in the beer garden. With another stop planned we had to leave the pleasant surroundings and hit the road heading for the reserve at Woorgreens Lake.

Small Heath and Azure Damsel enjoying a meal.

The clouds had rolled in by this stage and the likelihood of finding any interesting dragons was reduced. A few species were observed with Common Blue Damsels being the commonest, other damsels found were Large Red, Azure and a single Emerald found by one of our group. While there were not many dragons around we were still able to find an Emperor, a few Four-spots, some Black-tailed Skimmers and a couple of newly emerged Common Darters. Unusually by recent standards a few interesting birds were noted with a singing Tree Pipit a nice reminder of our lost local ones and also a small flock of Crossbills and a few Siskins.

Common Darter.

As time was ticking on and with the not so small matter of a certain football match to be considered we made our way home more than content with the day's doings.