New Life

Back to the county today where my travels took me over to Barnwell CP. Once the early morning cloud had moved on we were left with a very warm sunny day and I enjoyed an excellent morning's wildlife watching.

Common darter and Brown Hawker.

Plenty of dragonflies seemed to have emerged today with good numbers of Common Darters taking their first flights from Mill Lake. This first for the year was soon joined by a second as one of several hawkers ended its first flight in a spot where I could see that it was a Brown Hawker. A very fresh looking Emperor also proved to be very obliging, it's not often that I get a photograph of one that isn't ovipositing. North Lake held very good numbers of Scarce Chasers and I saw at least two mating pairs. Four-spotted Chasers were also present in good numbers and I saw one of the praenubila form. Other dragons seen were Hairy and Black-tailed Skimmer making a total of seven species.

Emperor and Hairy Dragonfly.

Banded Demoiselles and Common Blues were the commonest damsels by quite a considerable margin with many of the former looking very fresh indeed. Decent enough numbers of Blue-tailed and Red-eyed were noted though Azure Damselflies appear to be getting scarcer. It shouldn't be too long before the first Small Red-eyed Damselflies appear.

Praenubila form of Four-spotted and Scarce Chasers.

Plenty of butterflies on offer today with many Meadow Browns and a good tally of Small Tortoiseshells too. Several new brood Commas were joined by a couple of Red Admirals and the other species noted today were Green-veined White, Large Skipper and Speckled Wood.

Banded Demoiselle and Red-eyed Damselfly.

Not too many interesting birds today with just Cetti's Warbler and a male Cuckoo to report, I don't imagine that the Cuckoos are going to be around for too much longer.

Comma, Red Amiral, bee mimic hoverfly and Red Kite.