Afternoon at Weldon.

My continuing quest to find Large Red Damselflies for the first time this Spring took me down to Weldon for an after work look around. Not for the first time the sun retreated behind some clouds but while the damsels did not show I was lucky enough to see some butterflies.

Holly Blue and Small White.

My first butterfly of the day was a male Orange-tip near the Old Village but he did not hang around, this is fairly normal for these active little butterflies when they first emerge. One next to the steelworks did settle briefly but sadly not quite long enough for me to get a picture. As well as this and a third Orange-tip the steelworks also provided a sighting of two male Brimstones and a Speckled Wood. One of the Brimstones was noticeably smaller than the other, barely Small White sized and may have been the result of accelerated development during the drought conditions of last Summer.

Peacock and Comma  + friend.

Close to the A43 pond I found my first Holly Blue of the year, a male that allowed me to take a record shot. This area turned out to be fairly productive and further sightings of Orange-tip (2) and Brimstone were joined by Peacock (3), Comma (1), another Speckled Wood in addition to my first county Small White of the year. On my walk between here and the other pond I found a Small Tortoiseshell basking in the last of the rays before the sun's disappearance. Eight species in one day counts as my best result of the year so far and hopefully is a taste of things to come.

Brimstone and Small Tortoiseshell.

While, as I've already mentioned, there were no damsels around the other pond I did see a few other butterflies notably another Comma, two or three Peacocks and yet another Orange-tip so my time was far from wasted. Not too many birds to report today, several Tufted Ducks continue to linger on the A43 pond and there was a vocal and obliging Willow Warbler around the other pond.

Two views of Willow Warbler.