Damsels

The rubbish weather of the last week has finally given way to something more in keeping with the season which made the prospect of finding a few interesting insects a little more likely. With that goal in mind I headed out over to Weldon and Priors Hall where I hoped to catch up with some decent wildlife.

Blue-tailed Damsel and Brown Argus.

Beginning at Weldon I took a walk along the stream where I struck lucky by finding a first Blue-tailed Damsel of the year. A bit further on I added a fresh looking Brown Argus followed by a brace of Azure Damsels. A couple of Large Red Damselflies were also added to the insect list while bird interest was mainly provided by a singing Lesser Whitethroat.

Azure Damselfly and Large Red.

Arriving at Priors Hall I could hear a distant Cuckoo calling, always a treat as this species has become rather rare locally of late. A short way in from the entrance I encountered my first Dingy Skipper and this was soon followed by rather a few more. In the end I saw something in the region of sixty or so and while many where whizzing around a few did pose for pics. As well as the dingies I also found a couple of Grizzled Skippers and two Green Hairstreaks. Other butterflies seen during my visit were two or three Orange-tips, two female Brimstones, several Speckled Woods and also a couple of first for the year Small Heaths.

Green Hairstreak and Dingy Skipper.

Around the first pond there were rather a lot of Large Reds, in fact the whole site had a good number of them with perhaps as many as a hundred seen. More Azures and Blue-tailed were also seen, it looked as if both species had emerged in good numbers. At a couple of the ponds I found a few Red-eyed Damselflies* too and these took my year list up to the heady heights of six. No dragons were seen today though I suspect it will not be too long before they appear.

*Having checked the photos again I now think that I probably did not see any Red-eyeds, a triumph of optimism over fact - oops! (14/5/19).

Azure Damsel and Grizzled Skipper.

Aside from that Cuckoo other birds of interest included Little Ringed Plover in the quarry where there were also plenty of Sand Martins. On the other ponds there were singing Reed Warblers and also a pair of Gadwalls.

Banded Demoiselle.

As I had a bit of time to kill before my bus I returned to the stream in Weldon where I added a newly emerged male Banded Demoiselle to the days total and also saw a Holly Blue.