Dipping at Stanwick

A sighting, confirmed by photos, of a Lesser Emperor at Stanwick Lakes yesterday was enough to have a group of people out this morning hoping to catch a sighting of this rare visitor. Unhappily for our intrepid band the target managed to evade everybody, is the collective name for a group of dippers a despondency?

Stanwick Lakes and Emperor, shame it wasn't a Lesser!

Despite my second dragonfly dip of the week it was not a total loss as I finally caught up my county first for the year Migrant Hawkers as quite a lot were zipping about. Other dragons included the two darters as well as Emperor and Brown Hawkers. Not much variety in the way of damselflies either but plenty of Banded Demoiselles and at least one Red-eyed were seen. Only a few butterflies were seen but they included Small Tortoiseshell and Brimstone.

Small Tortoiseshell and Brimstone.

Having returned to Corby and been dropped off at Weldon by a couple of friends I wandered over to Priors Hall. The heat was building by now and it was something of an effort to walk around. Despite this I did find a few things of interest mainly dragonflies though not exclusively so. An ovipositing Emperor looked very brown and seemed to have something of a blue saddle which made me think that I'd found a Lesser but examinations of the pictures showed that this was not the case. Several Brown Hawkers were seen ovipositing too while I also saw a fine male Southern Hawker and more Migrants. A large number of Bandeds, by Priors standards at least, were present though I couldn't find any Emeralds on their usual ponds.

Ruddy Darters and Brown Hawker.

Pick of the butterflies was a female Silver-washed Fritillary feeding on water mint, it's getting towards the end of their season so you have to appreciate every view. Still many Common Blues and also rather a lot of Brown Argus while numbers of Small Heaths are starting to build.

Another Emperor and Silver-washed Fritillary.

For the second trip in a row a decent bird made the list when an immature Marsh Harrier, only my second here, was seen drifting eastwards. Finally a Brown Hare was seen all too briefly as it shot off over the quarry and out of sight.

Priors rarity, a Banded Demoiselle.