Walk Around Priors

A mainly sunny if rather breezy day and after yesterday's twitchy pleasures I settled for a more sedate sort of affair at Priors Hall. No surprises today with the usual sort of suspects on show including the near resident Mr Alan Shorrock.

Emperor and Brown Hawker.

At the large and reed fringed pond a Kingfisher was a welcome sight as they're a fairly scarce visitor here. Dragons and damsels were a little hard to find today which was no doubt due to the wind though Emperors appeared to take it in their stride as quite a few were seen. Commonest species were Common and Ruddy Darters with the former now present in growing numbers. A few Four-spotted and Black-tailed Skimmers were noted while two ovipositing Brown Hawkers were also observed. Best odes were a couple of Willow Emeralds one of which posed nicely in typical Willow fashion. One male Small Red-eyed Damselfly was a site year tick while an immature male Azure Damselfly was a little unexpected as it's quite late in their season.

Common and Ruddy Darters

Best butterflies were a couple of Brown Argus and a growing number of new brood Common Blues. At the other end of their flight season were various browns and Large Skippers, Ringlets should be disappearing soon. Few other species were recorded with just a few whites and a few Peacocks on the wing. Amongst the Six-spotted Burnets noted  was one that looked like a Five-spot though I'm more than likely to be wrong!

Willow Emerald, Small Red-eyed and Azure Damselflies

Three Mandarins were flushed up from one of the ponds and there were five Yellow-legged Gulls in the quarry, Priors is a traditional spot in late summer for these gulls.  Not much in the way of other wildlife apart from a Brown Hare.

Rubbishy record shot of Y-L Gull and a Brown Argus.