A Change of Scenery

I ventured a little further afield today and had a look at a few sites in the Gretton area taking in Spanhoe Quarry and Harringworth Lodge Lake. Not for the first time recently the weather was glorious and I enjoyed a very decent day's nature watching.

Blackcap and Yellowhammer.

Plenty of Dingy Skipper were at Spanhoe with at least thirty flitting around. At the moment I don't know if this is a known colony but I will send the record in anyway. A single Small Heath was my first of the year which raised my year list to seventeen species. Walking around the several ponds in the area I disturbed rather a lot of teneral damselflies many of which flew off before I could ID them. Those few that did hang around turned out to be Azures. Several Large Red Damselflies were also noted and I had a brief view of a chaser before it disappeared. Another chaser flew into a nearby hawthorn and on closer inspection revealed itself to be a Broad-bodied Chaser which was my first for the year. Best bird in the area was a Raven while other wildlife was represented by a Brown Hare.

Small Heath and Broad-bodied Chaser.

A shortish stroll took me along to Harringworth Lodge Lake where a selection of common waterfowl were present. Although the lake itself was quiet the nearby woods had not one but two calling male Cuckoos, can't remember the last time that I heard that in Northants. Long grass near the lake held a large number of teneral damselflies, each step that I took seemed to flush several up. Most of them turned out to be Common Blues which were my first of the year, I think there were at least fifty seen. Another year first was Red-eyed Damselfly, there were not as many as there were Common Blues but I estimated that at least ten were involved as well as a couple more Azures.

Common Blue and Red-eyed Damselflies.

The pond in Gretton Pocket Park held several more Large Red Damselflies taking my total number of sites to nine for this species in 2020 and there were more Swifts screeching above the village.

Azure Damselfly.