Scorchio!

 I had quite a packed itinerary today but managed to squeeze a couple of hours in at Priors Hall before the building heat forced me to seek some shade. After a fairly cloudy start the sun broke through and remained an issue for most of the afternoon, even a stiff breeze couldn't lower the temperature to a more comfortable level. Whether the results were worth the effort is very much open for debate but on the plus side it's always nice to get out.

Black-tailed Skimmer

A lot of the butterflies seemed to shun the direct sunlight and it was at times a bit of a struggle to find many. The highlight was a first Essex Skipper of the year, a brief look through my bins confirmed the I.D though it was away and gone before I could grab a pic. Browns as they always do at this time of the year featured strongly with Meadow Browns being the commonest species. Running them close in the numbers game were Ringlets and then Marbled Whites, honourable mentions went out to Speckled Woods and a single Small Heath. Large Skippers appeared to be fairly common while Large White and Comma made up the rest of my list.

Tufted Ducks

Odes were also avoiding direct sunlight in many cases, plenty of Common Blue Damsels didn't seem to mind the heat too much but the only other damsel on view were several Blue-taileds. Dragons fared quite badly too, the commonest species being Four-spotted Chasers and Black-tailed Skimmers with Emperors also doing fairly well. A Broad-bodied Chaser completed my list and it was awelcome addition, I haven't seen many this year. Interesting birds were in very short supply with the only sighting of note being a Tufted Duck with five young. I baled out after a couple of hours, a couple of pints of Aspall's in the George revived me enough to catch my bus home