Staying Close to Home.

This morning I had a quick look at Willowbrook Industrial Estate to see whether any Marbled Whites had appeared, they hadn't but it was still a decent enough walk. Two species of orchids, Pyramidal and Bee were found, it's always nice to find any orchids and I found a few more Bees a little later around Weldon.

Pyramidal and Bee Orchids.

Small Heaths were the commonest butterflies with fifty plus being seen. Their numbers were almost matched by Common Blues while Meadow Brown numbers continue to increase. One species on the way out is Dingy Skipper and just the two rather tired looking individuals were seen.  A similar number of Large Skippers were noted though I would expect to see many more of these over the next few weeks. No further species were noted though there were plenty of Common Blue Damselflies and a couple of Blue-tailed. Only one bird of note and that was a singing Meadow Pipit.

Tired looking Dingy Skipper and Small Heath

While passing through the Old Village on my way to the bus stop I found a Banded Demoiselle by the stream. Plenty of these at Weldon too where they were one of the commoner species. Not much along the stream here where the nettles have grown high though they did shelter Azure and Blue-tailed Damsels. Other damsels seen around the pond were Large Red, Red-eyed and Common Blue. I managed to catch up with Black-tailed Skimmers here, other observers had already reported them and also saw a couple of Emperors and a few Four-spotted Chasers.

Large Skipper, Rabbit and Roach?

Not much else to report though the pair of Coots and their chicks were kept busy by several pooches taking a dip, mind you it was hot enough today that I was almost tempted to have a bit of a paddle myself.

Black-tailed Skimmer and Red-eyed Damselfly.