Winning 'streak

 Another after work sortie in the company of my brother taking advantage of the continuing hot spell. We went over to Glapthorn Cow Pasture to look for the reserve's Black Hairstreak which have begun to emerge this week. We found about ten in all but they seemed supercharged by the sun and spent most of their time corkscrewing around the tops of the Blackthorn bushes. A few settled briefly but they were often obscured or in shade and I only managed one half decent pic. Other species noted included my first Meadow Browns of the year and also singles of Red Admiral and Comma. Satisfied with what we had seen we left the butterflies and their growing collection of admirers to it and went off to our next stop.

Black Hairstreak and Meadow Brown

A look for Ospreys at their nest site produced no sightings and I'm not sure if the platform is being used this year. We saw a single Hobby by way of compensation and nearby insects included a Broad-bodied Chaser and a Common Blue butterfly. After another drive we called in at the weir near Gretton where despite a large number of swimmers, divers and boaters we found a few odes to look at. Commonest were the glittering hordes of Banded Demoiselles, mainly males were on view but there were a few females too. Also present in good numbers were White-legged Damselflies with over forty being noted, I suspect there may be many more but it was quite late when we arrived and many may have gone to roost. Other damsels showing today were Red-eyed, Large Red and Blue-tailed while an Emperor was the only dragon. Only one butterfly was seen and that was a very fresh looking Small Tortoiseshell.

Red Admiral and Broad-bodied Chaser.

Our final port of call was at the Peregrine site where one bird was in situ, I'm not sure of the resident pair are breeding or not but I suspect they're not - happy as ever to be proved wrong though!

White-legged damselflies and Peregrine.