The Grass Is Greener.

While the recent spell of weather has been pretty nasty it has had least had a positive affect on the vegetation with the yellowing grass turning back into a much healthier looking shade of green. Hopefully this will guarantee a healthy food supply to the various caterpillars munching their way through the countryside.

Yellowhammer and Small Tortoiseshell.

Having booked the day off work I decided to take a walk out to Deene Lake via Deenethorpe before finishing my day at Priors Hall. Lots of new brood Small Tortoiseshells were feeding on bramble flowers along Bears Lane where the day's first Meadow Browns were noted. Interesting birds here included a male Cuckoo calling from Harry's Park Wood and two Yellow Wagtails on the airstrip. My stroll across the public footpaths taking me towards the A427 produced a Red Admiral but not much else.

Red Admiral and Meadow Brown.

Deenethorpe Airfield held high numbers of both Meadow Browns and Small Heaths as well as a few Large Skippers. A male Banded Demoiselle was my first damsel of the day while the best bird here was another Yellow Wagtail. The stream in Deenethorpe village had at least five White-legged Damselflies which included a mating pair, another two were seen at nearby Deene Lake inflow. A Little Egret was the only bird of note though the main lake held a brood of Gadwall ducklings. Other damsels found in the area included Large Red, Blue-tailed, Red-eyed and Common Blue.

Large Skipper and White-legged Damselflies.

Kirby Lane added a Brown Hare to the day list, another was seen at Priors Hall. Although cloud cover was increasing by the time that I reached Priors Hall I still managed to find a few dragonflies. Highlight was my first Ruddy Darter of the year, a second darter was noted briefly but I couldn't identify it. A mature male Scarce Chaser was a nice find though I still can't work out what they're doing here. This one showed signs of having mated but whether it was at Priors or not is open to question. Other species seen here were Emperor, Hairy Dragonfly, Black-tailed Skimmer and Four-spotted Chaser.

Scarce Chaser and Ruddy Darter.

Not much else to report apart from the large number of toadlets hopping around, at one point it was hard to put my feet down without squishing any!

Four-spotted Chaser and toadlet.