Emerald Damselfly, jewel in the invert crown

I make no apologies for the lack of birding content in the blog, now or over the coming weeks. My interest in the summer season deepens year on year into the world of inverts. Of course I still bird, but there is nothing really I can or want to blog about bird wise during the breeding season at present. Inverts present a challenge to ID sometimes, but I'm just enjoying what I see, I have the cold dark winter nights to nail all the names where they escape me ! In the end, it will all be submitted to WBRC ( Worcestershire Biological Records centre )
Last Saturday I started my day at Grimley. Here I encountered my first Meadow Browns of the year, c12.

My first Meadow Brown of the year

In fact it was to be a day of firsts. There were plenty of Azure and Blue-tailed Damselflies, but it took me a while to nail down my first White Legged Damselfly of the year, an immature ♀ , in the lactea ( milky- milky ) phase.

White -legged Damselfly  (immature ♀ ,f.lactea phase)

Shortly afterwards, the first Black Tailed Skimmer of the year broke cover. I had 2 on the site in total, well down on numbers, and hankering down the grass

Black-tailed Skimmer

There were two other nice sightings before moving on. A single Silver Y moth,

Silver Y

and a bit of orthoptera,

I then popped to Monkwood village. The Burnet situation is poor at present, just one flyby. The only invert of any real interest I saw was this Yellow Shell Moth. However I did find what looks like a Common Spotted Orchid, I'm currently in the process of checking the ID, along with the Orthoptera.



Yellow Shell

 It was then onto Monkwood. I had no huge expectations to be honest, but it was warm and pleasant and  as I headed to the pools, I came across my first Large Skippers of the year.

There was plenty of  Diptera buzzing about, I'm glad I deeted up, much as I love inverts, you can be eaten alive at this place if you are not careful !
Anyway, within a few seconds of arriving at the pool, I had Emerald Damselfly in front of me. This was a bit of a surprise, I honestly didn't think they would be around yet, given the lag this year, so it tuned out to be a first record for VC37 so far, which was nice.

Emerald damselfly, so nice to see

And the day didn't end there. Not Only did I watch a fairly teneral Emperor Dragonfly( a year first too) munching a Large Red Damselfly, I also was lucky enough to see a colony of Brown China Mark Moths and some more Orthoptera in the shape of Dark Bush Crickets
What a corking day !

Dark Bush Cricket

Brown China-mark moth

More images on my flickr

Scarce Chaser returns

Last Monday was the final day of my short break, and I was keen to get a final nature fix before returning to 9-5 grind. Problem was the weather was not very conducive to what I was interested in seeing so I delayed my outing and  caught up on a few chores.
Just after lunch, I decided to pop out to a local site just down the road, with no expectations, but nothing ventured !....
The site last year had produced a population of Scarce Chasers for the first time, so obviously it was of interest to see if this feat was to be repeated.Interestingly the larvae usually  have a 2 year life cycle.
As  I walked up the site the wind dropped and there was even a hint of warmth with a small break in the clouds...
A preliminary mooch around revealed only a  few of these Azure Damselflies

♂Azure Damselfly

 and a Common Carpet Moth.

As I walked back along the path however something caught my eye, quite literally, as it was perched at eye level...A Teneral Scarce Chaser !

Teneral Scarce Chaser

After watching it for a few minutes it moved further down the path and up into the higher vegetation. Following the path I saw possibly another ( it could have been the same one ) rise from a few yards away and head also for the trees. Nevertheless I was really pleased to connect with this species again and it is encouraging that there is a slight possibility they may become a fixture for a little longer.

Mothing Update..fruits of the garden

I have made a concerted effort this year to run the moth trap on a regular basis. Last years wet and horrible weather made it a poor  both for moths, and the running of a trap.  My enthusiasm waned as the summer rained on, resulting in a total of 33 pecies recorded. A baseline to work from at least.
This year I resolved to invest more effort in the trap when the weather would allow. I am also motivated by collecting data for the Garden Moth Scheme and partaking in a bit of friendly competion with Garden Moth Challenge  ( although I can only aspire to avoid the wooden spoon )

Whilst general moth numbers remain low, at least I have encountered some new and interesting species so far, and already surpassed last years total, having now managed to record 37 species to date for the year.
Of note in the last week or so have been 3 real corkers, Pale Tussock, Swallow Prominent, and a monster Polar Hawkmoth."Sexy" moths like these really make the 5am job of picking through the trap worthwhile and help counter the frustrations of trying to ID Pugs and "little brown jobs". Photo's of other species recorded can be seen via my Flickr link.

Pale Tussock

Swallow Prominent

Poplar Hawk Moth

Another recent garden venture was the construction and placing of a bee hotel in the to try and encourage solitary Bee's etc to utilise it. After work the other day, inspection revealed a visitor ! here's hoping for a few more and some over winter utilization.

Checking into bee Hotel

Wood White's and the Butterfly Bonanza

On Friday I ventured into a new part of the Wyre for me, hoping to connect with a species of butterfly that is fairly rare and localised, the Wood White.
It was a warm and sunny morning and as I walked towards the forest, I strayed onto a bit of  common land to see what was about. Almost straight away a Small Heath Butterfly settled on the path near me. I didn't even see this species last year , so it was most welcome sight.

Small Heath

As I dropped down into the area I was aiming for, there were good numbers of Speckled Yellow Moth and the occasional Fritillary. I was hoping to see some Small Peal Bordered Fritillaries but at this point couldn't get a clear ID on any.

Once I was in the area I thought I should be in, I picked up increasing numbers of Fritillaries and started glimpsing White Butterflies that seemed to fit the jizz of Wood White. However they were very lively in the bright hot sun by now.
A few Brimstones of both sexes were also on the wing.

Brimstone

Walking a bit further on the density of the Whites increased and I was finally happy I had found Wood White.

Wood White

 Here too were good numbers of Dingy Skipper . Finding a pair copulating was as good as finding the Wood Whites, and I managed this bit of video.

Over the next 90 minutes I enjoyed Wood White, Dingy Skipper and Small Pearl Bordered Fritillary and a few Pearl Bordered Fritillary, most of  which were a bit worn by now ..a very pleasant session.

Small Pearl Bordered Fritillary

The walk back to the car was hot and I was parched, so a quick Shandy at the pub where I had parked was most welcome before heading home, it's thirsty work this butterfly hunting !

Pearl Bordered Fritillary

Badger Cull

Club tailed Dragonfly ..and more !

A session combing the banks of the River Severn on Saturday eventually paid dividends when I located a Common Club-tail Dragonfly. It was fairly newly emerged and doing it's best to lay low in the long grass while it got itself together. Not many county sightings at this point, didn't expect my first Dragonfly of the year to be this one to be honest.

Club tailed Dragonfly

There was a complete lack of other Odonata, which ironically had been my banker..I was expecting to see a few damselflies, and just hoping I would get lucky with a Club tail. Also of interest was a couple of caterpillars, the larvae of Drinker Moth and Scarlet Tiger moth.

Scarlet Tiger Moth Larvae

Drinker Moth Larvae

There were also reasonable numbers of the diminutive Lesser Yellow Underwing moth.

Lesser yellow Underwing

From here I moved onto The Wyre and in search of a speciality that has been slow (like most things ) to show in any numbers this spring.Along the way there good numbers of Speckled Yellow Moth ( far to lively ) and Brimstones After a bit of walking I found a good spot and was lucky enough to observe a pair of copulating Pearl Bordered Fritillaries, showing nice and close.

Pearl Bordered Fritillaries
 

One the way home I swung by my patch, and  I was  clearly on a roll ! I was delighted to spot a moth that has eluded me til now, Mother Shipton.

Mother Shipton

What a fine day !...Click my Flickr link for more images

Duke of Burgundy crowns the day

It was off to the glorious Cotswolds and a site near Stroud that has the potential to yield the rare Duke of Burgundy butterfly. I had studied the weather and there was a chance of a little sun, but the unreliability of spring made this a bit of a risky venture, and even if it was kind, there was no gaurentee I would see the critter.
There were dozens of Early Purple Orchids on site.

Early Purple Orchid

And luck was on my side, after an hour or so, with nothing but a fleeting glimpse of a Lattice Heath Moth I chanced upon an area that held held around 10 Duke of Burgundy's ! They all appeared to be be pretty fresh too. In the same area were a number of very flighty Dingy Skippers, and a couple of Green Hairstreaks. The patchy sun meant the butterflies were lying low for periods of time, but over a couple of hours I enjoyed some right royal company!

The Duke !

Dingy Skipper

Green Hairstreak