Dragonfly (and Butterfly) Walk at Paxton

August's official Butterfly and Dragonfly Survey has been moved to Tuesday when it looks warmer and sunnier but five of us did the walk as planned yesterday and saw a large number of  white butterflies (mainly Small White we thought) and occasional Meadow Browns and one Small Copper but nothing settled for long. The Dragonflies were more obliging with several Brown Hawkers in the air and several Migrant Hawkers both flying and perched in the hedges. (Flight shot taken in afternoon from hide). All the darters we looked at turned out to be Common Darters. Otherwise a good variety of impressive flies and Grass-mimicing Bugs and Moths. ID sheet at end.

Paxton September Butterfly and Dragonfly Transect

For the first time this year, we had warm sunny weather (in the morning anyway) for our monthly Butterfly and Dragonfly Transcept. The counts were dominated by Common Darters and Willow Emerald Damselflies with Small Copper, Small White, Commas and Speckled Wood Butterflies the most frequent butterflies. We also had quite a few Migrant Hawkers and one Southern (on Blackberry).

Sharpenhoe Butterflies

 Despite the strong winds, most of the RPS Nature Group on an outing to Sharpenhoe yesterday managed to photograph two of the target species - the Chalkhill Blues (all males so probably early in the season) and Dark Green Fritillaries (getting a bit worn and mainly females so late in their season). However, the favourite was a Brimstone male emerging from its cocoon. Also shown Large Skipper, Red Admiral, Small White and Holly Blue.