Whilst birds were few & far between decided to spend half hour on invertebrates around the small pond on Higher Meadows off Georges Lane.
A bramble patch held good numbers of Comma Butterfly along with 2 Red Admiral & a Speckled Brown all feasting on the ripe blackberries whilst in some nearby grass were 2 Small Copper butterflies.
A Southern Hawker dragonfly patrolled the perimeter of the pond where a female Black Darter had attached itself to the tail of a Male Black Darter.
In the pine trees at the end of Georges lane I found what I think was a Common Puffball fungus.
-- Edited by Lez Fairclough on Wednesday 14th of September 2022 12:13:20 AM
A single Nicrophorus Investigator beetle was at the north western end of Burnt Edge. Not normally a beetle fanatic but this was fairly impressive. Sadly not the best image.
-- Edited by Craig Higson on Thursday 17th of August 2017 09:19:33 PM
Few butterflies were about as it was breezy and quite cool most of the time, however the following were seen.
Burnt Edge : 1 Red Admiral. 3 Gatekeepers, which here seem to be attracted to the heather flowers rather than brambles.
Walker Fold : 2 Green Veined White. Also 5 Red Admirals were seen together on Angelica flowers.
In the bushy areas and along the woodland edges there were lots of large black flies, similar to St Marks Flies, which I thought only appeared in spring?.
The Willow Warblers were seen catching and relishing a few of these insects.
A couple of large hawker dragonflies with blue bodies were seen, but they were too quick to be identified.
Gatekeeper butterflies abundant throughout, several Meadow Browns seen, mainly along the path at Walker Fold or on Burnt Edge.
1 Speckled Wood butterfly in Wilderswood.
1 male hawker dragonfly patrolling the footpath near Holdens Farm. I'm pretty sure it was a Migrant Hawker, but he did'nt settle, hence I can't be 100% sure of ID.
There were numerous Gatekeeper butterflies on a clump of heather nearby, and he flew within inches of them but left them alone.
He just kept patrolling the same area where the path crosses the stream from Holdens Plantation.
If you are interested, Alan, you can add your Painted Lady sighting to this years survey data. It is done by Butterfly Conservation every year and this year there has been a massive influx of this species, with females ovipositing across the UK. The link to the recording form is at:
The small pools around Holdens Farm & Plantation appear to hold masses of frogspawn. The only frog I found though was an half eaten dead one on Burnt Edge.
Stumbled across the same dead/half eaten frog this morning. The red admiral butterfly nearby was more of an attraction
The small pools around Holdens Farm & Plantation appear to hold masses of frogspawn. The only frog I found though was an half eaten dead one on Burnt Edge.
Red Admiral 5 including one which flew up into the clouds south clearly migrating Small Copper 1 Comma 1 Tortoiseshell 4 Speckeld Wood 3 seen on way up Walker Fold and on the way back too. Probably a great amny
Sounds like a Small Heath butterfly. They're emerging over the past couple of weeks, and the habitat sounds right. I've seen a dozen or so along Brushes Valley today.
Lots of Common Heath moths in the heather off mast road. Also what I'm guessing was a moth, but could easily have been a butterfly. Looked orangey in flight but when I saw one land it sat in the 'wings up' position so couldn't see it's upper wing. Underwing did have orangey cast towards the upper/outer edge with a small 'eye' but that's all I could get on it. Any ideas?
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No one on their death bed ever said they wished they'd spent more time at work. http://bitsnbirds.blogspot.co.uk