The weekly butterfly and dragonfly survey on my local patch. The weather is not ideal as there is a good breeze blowing but the weather forecast doesn’t look much better tomorrow.
On the walk down to the small pond there is not much activity but there are a few Large Red Damselflies on the pond and the vegetation surrounding it.
A pair of Blackbirds are gathering nesting material from the edge of the pond.
Whilst photographing Large Red’s a blue butterfly briefly alights on the bush and its brown underwing identifies it as my year’s first Common Blue butterfly for the site.
A female Brimstone passes by as I approach the lake. Contrary to what I wrote last week, a pair of Canada Geese have bred although it is surprising to see that they only have one gosling.
Our mixed Canada/Greylag pair have also bred (4th year) and have a small family.
The main Greylag nursery still numbers 8 and they are beginning to look like much more like their parents.
Butterfly-wise it is pretty quiet. I locate another Common Blue and 2 Speckled Woods
But there is quiet a lot of Bee activity and Red-tailed and White-tailed workers are busily collect nectar.
Returning to the small pond, I am photographing Large Red’s again when a blue damselfly puts in a brief appearance before disappearing round a bush. Location and date suggest Azure Damselfly but I cant rule out Common Blue Damselfly (ironically not the commonest blue damselfly on the site). I spent some time trying to re-locate it but without success. Hopefully this is the first of many and they will be more evident next week.
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