The Heat Wave Continues

I really didn't expect to get out today but my wife and I got back from St Helens rather earlier than anticipated and I used the bonus time by trekking off to Priors Hall. Temperatures continue to soar but with copious amounts of water and a visit to the George I managed to cope with the distinctly un British temperatures!

Ruddy Darter and Large Skipper.

First thing of interest was the number of Marbled Whites flitting around, I only saw my first ones here last year but there must have been over thirty here today. Browns in general dominated the butterfly list with over fifty Ringlets and about forty Meadow Browns joining six Small Heaths and a couple of  Speckled Woods. Whites as I stated in a previous post also tend to get commoner at this time of the year and over ten Small Whites were noted with some mud puddling. At least one Green-veined joined them in this activity and there were also several Large Whites noted. Two new brood Small Tortoiseshells were seen feeding on bramble blossoms while the three orange skippers were observed with Large being the commonest. Of the smaller species most were unidentified but examples of both Small and Essex were confirmed.

Two recent colonist doing well, Marbled White and Small Red-eyed Damselfly.

Good numbers of Six-spotted Burnet were see today, they really do seem to have a preference for purple coloured flowers. At first I struggled to get a picture as they buzzed hither and thither but I finally found some feeding on a vetch of some sort and managed to get a couple of shots.

Small Tortoiseshell and Essex Skipper.

Numbers of dragonflies seemed a little lower than of late but it is a transitional time between Spring and Summer species. Ruddy Darters are beginning to appear and I found several which included some nice red examples. Four-spotted Chasers are beginning to decline but there were still rather a lot around the ponds. Other dragons on view included Emperor, Black-tailed Skimmer and a Southern Hawker. Damsels really were in short supply though numbers of Common Blues remain high. A few Blue-tailed and Red-eyes were found but I struggled to see much else.

Small Whites and Black-tailed Skimmers.

For the first time in yonks I visited the lake at the quarry and was rewarded with a couple of summer plumaged Dunlins, they are a very scarce species in the Corby area. The Little Ringed Plovers remain but apart from a couple of Tufted Ducks I couldn't find any other birds of note. Second only to the Dunlins was the discovery of some Small Red-eyed Damsels, they follow on from the record of a single here last year. Given the presence of them at both Deene and Weldon this was far from being a surprise but at least it provides a link in the chain between the two sites.

Terrible record shot of Dunlins, Small Skipper and Six-spotted Burnet.