Paxton Pits Damselflies and Dragonflies

There were still plenty of Damselflies (Variable, Common Blue, Azure and Red-Eyed Damselflies), Banded Demoiselles and quite a few Dragonflies (Scarce Chaser, Common Darter, Four-spotted Chaser, Brown Hawker and Black-tailed Skimmer) at Paxton Pits this morning. We didn't see any Norfolk Hawkers during our visit.

Fen Drayton Pits

There were lots of Damselflies hanging around on an early morning trip to Fen Drayton Pits yesterday - mostly Common Blues and Blue-tailed plus the Green Drake Mayfly. Several Scorpion flies emerged from the deeper vegetation. 

RPS NG Trip to Snettisham

A group of 9 photographers visited Snettisham RSPB reserve yesterday and enjoyed good views of Linnets, young Dunnock, Oystercatchers, Avocets, Gulls, Common Terns etc. The High tide was a fairly low one so the majority of the birds remained out on the mud of the Washes.

Last Day in New Forest

I spent my last day in the New Forest walking around the Burley Heath area. Here is a selection of birds I encountered on a drizzly gloomy day - Egret, young Chiffchaff and parent, lots of Stonechats, Hobby and Swallow. Final photographs before very heavy rain stopped operations were mating Ichneumons.

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