Arne RSPB Reserve

Arne reserve was very quiet with few birds or insects to occupy us but there was a mass emergence of Silver-studded Blues in one area of heather with lots of mating pairs. I tried various approaches to retain habitat detail or to isolate the butterflies on diffuse backgrounds. The old trees there were a topic on their own and my favourite subjects were the Wasps on the sand bank (Odynerus spinipes, Spiny Mason wasp I think)

Marbled Whites and Southern Hawker Emergence Date

We recorded our first southern Hawker emergence from our pond and the first Marbled White in the wood meadow. This date 29th June is very close to the last two years - around 27th June; image taken with my phone so not great but a beautiful fresh male with creamy white and very dark brown markings. The garden has abundant Bombus hortorum at the moment

 

Beaulieu Heath and Ipley Cross

We spent a day exploring the heathland around Beaulieu for its plants and insects. Great to see Sundew with quite a few insect captures, lots of Marsh and Heath orchids, Yellow Asphodel and Meadow Thistle. Lots of newly emerged Silver-studded Blues - mainly males. Not many dragonflies - Keeled Skimmers, Broad-bodied Chasers and Emperor Dragonflies. 

Southbourne Beach

We have moved from Petersfield in Hampshire to Christchurch in Dorset for our last 4 days. This was a visit to Southbourne beach yesterday by Sue and I at the time the supermoon would rise but unfortunately there was a large bank of cloud in the way. 

Hinton Ampner National Trust Garden

On Thursday, we moved our location from Petersfield to Christchurch to explore the New Forest. En route we called at Hinton Ampner a National Trust property with very fine grounds. Here a selection of find from Shield bugs, Large Skipper, Hoverflies, Plant bugs and Sawflies to Spotted flycatcher (a rare bird in Cambridgeshire these days) and young Blackbird

Dawn in the Meadow and Alice Holt Forest

Further images from Wednesday starting with a prebreakfast wander round the meadows at Petersfield. After the visit to Frensham Pond, we moved to Alice Holt forest for a short walk in the conifers. As everywhere else on this trip, butterflies were in very short supply - just a Speckled Wood and Red Admiral.