Still Windy

Today was another gusty one and that coupled with the predominantly grey skies meant that it took a lot of motivation to drag myself out. I did eventually summon enough enthusiasm and energy to make my way over to Barnwell where I had a couple of hours strolling around and generally wishing that the sun might appear.

Blue-tailed selection, I couldn't get a good pic of the rufescens form.

Despite the total cloud cover whilst I was there I managed to find a few damselflies to look at of which Banded Demoiselles were the commonest. Plenty of Blue-tailed were mostly hiding in the vegetation and I saw all of the colour variations that this attractive little species is known for. Other species seen were Common Blue, Azure and Red-eyed Damselflies. One of the latter appeared to be enduring a particularly bad run of luck having flown into a spider's web while also suffering from the worst mite infestation that I've seen. I wondered if perhaps the poor thing had flown into the net deliberately to end its own suffering! When I posted a picture of it on Facebook I had my I.D upgraded to Small Red-eyed, given that this was by a bloke that wrote one of the field guides that I constantly refer to I'm in no position to argue. Only a few dragonflies were noted and they were immature Common Darters, presumably they were too young to know any better.

Suffering Small Red-eyed and Common Blue Damselfly.

Few butterflies were found and most of those were flushed from cover by my clumsy feet. Ringlets and Meadow Browns were the commonest while the only other species seen were Red Admiral and Small Skipper. Not much else in the way of interesting wildlife though I heard a Kingfisher several times and a few Mandarin Ducks were seen including several young.

NOTE. Turns out that the mite infested spider food was in fact a Red-eyed Damselfly.

Pristine Ringlet and duck Mandarin.