If the bird news was not so good 2014 proved to be an excellent year for butterflies and dragonflies on my local patch.
For butterflies I recorded 15 species in 2014 as opposed to 9 in the previous year. The Clouded Yellow in the garden briefly on 22nd June was probably the highlight, but I got most pleasure from the sighting of Large Skipper down by the Tarn. The number of species reflects the good summer overall that was recorded for butterflies in the UK. The addition of a number of previously unrecorded species brought the site list to 17 species, so to record 15 in one single year was very good.
Large Skipper
Speckled Wood
Gatekeeper
Comma
For Dragonflies 9 species were recorded in 2014 compared to 5 in the previous year. The site total is now 10 species and the one that was not seen in 2014 was from a single record of Southern Hawker. It remains to be seen if the water quality issues will affect the survival of the larvae over this winter and the effects this may have on adult emergence next summer.
Large Red Damselfly
Azure damselfly
Common Blue Damselfly
Common Darter
An excellent year!
Large White (Pieris brassicae)
Small White (Artogeia rapae)
Green-veined White [sp] (Artogeia napi)
Orange Tip (Anthocharis cardamines)
Clouded Yellow (Colias crocea)
Brimstone (Gonepteryx rhamni)
Holly Blue (Celastrina argiolus)
Peacock Butterfly (Inachis io)
Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta)
Small Tortoiseshell [sp] (Aglais urticae)
Comma Butterfly (Polygonia c-album)
Meadow Brown (Maniola jurtina)
Gatekeeper (Pyronia tithonus)
Speckled Wood [sp] (Pararge aegeria)
Large Skipper [sp] (Ochlodes venatus)
Banded Demoiselle (Calopteryx splendens)
Blue-tailed Damselfly (Ischnura elegans)
Common Blue Damselfly (Enallagma cyathigerum)
Azure Damselfly (Coenagrion puella)
Large Red Damselfly (Pyrrhosoma nymphula)
Migrant Hawker (Aeshna mixta)
Emperor Dragonfly (Anax imperator)
Broad-bodied Chaser (Libellula depressa)
Common Darter (Sympetrum striolatum)
