Purple Reign

 Spanish birders know the Purple Heron as the Imperial Heron and the one that has taken up residence at Summer Leys certainly appears to be drawing in a fair band of would be subjects. Sadly for some it's royal audiences were granted very infrequently as it spent much of the time concealed in the reedbed next to Pioneer Hide.

Duff pics but good bird, Purple Heron.

Alan Shorrock and I were both rather keen to catch up with this county rarity and so popped over to pay our respects. Wishing to avoid the crowds gathered at Pioneer Hide we headed around to Paul Britten instead where if potential sightings were always likely to be more distant then we could at least enjoy the benefits of some social distancing! Settling down for what potentially could have been a long vigil we took to scanning the reedbeds hoping to catch a glimpse. After about half an hour the star of the show obliged us by emerging from the reeds and walking out into the open. Sadly the bird did not linger for too long and flew into a further patch of reedy cover and was lost to view. Distance meant that record shots were of the distinctly duff variety but they do at least record my first ever Northants and only my third British example of this attractive heron. Not many other birds to report though I saw a Hobby and both of us heard a Cuckoo.

Common Blue and Red-eyed damselflies.

With the weather being untypically warm we had a wander around looking foe odes and our efforts met with some success. There appeared to have been a very good emergence of Common Blue damselflies and I think that we saw over fifty of them. Red-eyed Damselflies were also emerging in numbers and we had a double figure count of them. Other damsels seen included Large Red, Azure, Blue-tailed and Banded Demoiselle. Just the one dragon was noted and that was a Hairy Dragonfly patrolling the edges of one of the ponds. Best butterfly today was a Red Admiral though a couple of Holly Blues were appreciated in what has been a poor year for them.

Better view of a Grey Heron and Small Tortoiseshell

A visit to the River Welland near Gretton was not very productive and we struggled to see much of interest. Just a few Banded Demoiselles and Large Reds were noted while the only butterflies were a couple of tatty looking Small Tortoiseshells.

Convincing bumble bee mimic hoverfly.