Tuesday 8 July 2014

The Last Few Days

I had a change of scenery and went for a couple of walks in the Clowes Wood complex, nothing to see very special except the white admiral butterflies. My first was at the winding pond along with large red and common blue damselflies plus the odd emperor. Plenty of goldfish in the old large pond and a couple of chiffs and chaffinches in the area. On another day, Thornden wood proved much the same with a few more white admirals close to the road plus a few insect shots for the camera.


 Unfortunately, a tatty specimen!
Long-horned Beetle - Strangalia maculata
 Large Red Damselflies

Azure Damselfly

Today, (the 8th) I made a visit to Seasalter having a walk around the plots and along the nearby beach. The beach only revealing 1 turnstone, the tide was just beginning to leave the beach. The 'island' is not so much of an island now, it will be interesting to see how this effects the roosting birds. More shingle build up from the tidal drift in the years to come may develop into something quite attractive to birds but also to humans!

The 'island' that once was and still is at high tides, just about! Photo taken with phone.

The walk around the plots was quiet but 3 whitethroats, 2 reed warblers, 3 linnets, 1 marsh harrier, 1 pr of swans with six full size cygnets, two other adults plus blackbirds and starlings etc.. Lots of Essex skippers and meadow browns plus 4 peacocks. Odonata was thin on the ground with only one blue-tailed damsel, 1-2 emperors, 2 black-tailed skimmers, and a couple of c. darters, very poor.

Essex Skipper- I think

 Common Darter

Blue-tailed Damselfly - rufescens . Only one shot before it flew

2 comments:

Warren Baker said...

Enough interest there Mike to keep you going until the Autumn birds arrive :-)

Marc Heath said...

A nice set Mike, I need to do a bit of 'butterflying' I think soon.