Busy Day

 With Corby's Highland Gathering to visit and a certain football match to watch this evening I had to squeeze my walk into this morning, happily for me the weather was pretty decent. I chose to take a walk around Harry's Park Wood where I hoped to see a good selection of butterflies. Although I didn't see any Purple Emperors I did see a decent variety of other species.

Silver-washed Fritillary and Small Tortoiseshell

Bears Lane yielded Gatekeeper, Ringlet and Comma and several singing Yellowhammers as well as a few Azure Damselflies. In Harry's Park I saw my first Silver-washed Fritillaries of the year and also got further views but no pics of both White Admiral and Purple Hairstreak. Plenty of browns and whites were flitting along the rides while numbers of both Commas and Large Skippers were fairly high. My first new brood Small Tortoiseshell was a welcome find and I also enjoyed looking at several Red Admirals. Three or four Emperor dragonflies were hawking the wood with at least one Southern Hawker sharing their airspace. Other odes noted included Ruddy Darter as well as several other darters not identified down to species. Best birds today were Marsh Tit and a Tawny Owl which was hooting close to the Bears Lane entrance. With some bagpipes to hear and a bus to catch I started my walk back into Weldon around noon. 

Large White and Speckled Wood