Marbled Whites On The Up

 I'm on late shifts this week which gave me enough time yesterday (the 20th) to take a stroll near the Eurohub before experiencing the joys of doing the weekly shop at the town's Tesco. The area is sandwiched between the store and the warehouses and includes a pond as well as grassland. While it can't lay claim to being one of the county's premier nature spots it does attract a reasonable selection of species. Today's weather was a mixture of sun and clouds with a fairly strong breeze but it did at least stay dry.

Azure and Red-eyed Damselflies

Only some of the pondside is accessible, there is some thick vegetation blocking off much of the shore. Several Four-spotted Chasers and a male Emperor had taken up territories though none posed for pictures. A total of four damselfly species were noted with Azure being the commonest, the others were Common Blue, Red-eyed and Blue-tailed. Commonest butterflies were Marbled Whites and it's good to see this attractive species seemingly doing well. I saw more a little later on as I made my way to work as several were seen next to Cockerell Road on the Willowbrook Industrial Estate. Back to the Eurohub and it was the browns that continued to dominate proceedings with Meadow Brown, Ringlet, Speckled Wood and Small Heath all being noted. Several Small Tortoiseshells were found and there were two Painted Ladies showing as well. While many of the browns are at the beginning of their season the Common Blues are reaching the end of theirs with only two tatty looking specimens still lingering.

Marbled White, Speckled Wood and Painted Lady

Not a huge amount of other wildlife to report with a Fallow Deer fawn being scared up from a patch of thistles being the only mammal of note. Few birds showed though Willow Warblers were in fine voice and were one of the commonest species today.

Small Tortoiseshell, Small Heath and Common Blue