Dragons

A beautiful Indian summer day saw me take an after work stroll down to Weldon where I hoped that the glorious weather might bring some dragonflies out. My continuing search for Willow Emeralds and the outside chance of seeing a late Banded Demoiselle were another factor in prompting my choice of site.

Common Darter coming in to land.

Sadly no lingering dem's and no em's either but there was quite a lot of dragonfly activity with four species flitting about. Following the normal pattern for this time of the year Common Darters and Migrant Hawkers made up most of the numbers and I had double figure counts of both species. As the afternoon wore on the Migrant Hawkers began to perch up and were perhaps beginning to roost. A male Southern Hawker showed reasonably well but did not hang around for pictures but a late female Brown Hawker did. I believe that she constitutes the latest sighting that I've had of this species.

Migrant Hawker.

Only one confirmed butterfly today though it was in fairness a bit of a good 'un. While I was stalking Ms Hawker a Clouded Yellow flew by and although I couldn't nab a photo it was still nice to see. There has been a lot of Clouded activity including breeding in the county this year but I've managed to avoid them - well until now that is.

Brown Hawker.

Few birds of note though several Siskins were heard, it could be a good winter for them.

Another Common Darter.