BRENEY COMMON & BISSOE VALLEY.

WE HAVE BEEN OUT A COUPLE OF TIMES OVER 

THE WEEKEND, MOSTLY TO BISSOE VALLEY BUT 

ALSO TO BRENEY COMMON FOR BLACK DARTER.

THIS USE TO BE THE MOST RELIABLE SPOT FOR 

THEM BUT THEY ARE NOW FEW AND FAR BETWEEN 

SINCE ALL THE WORK THAT HAS BEEN DONE THERE. 

WE ONLY FOUND 1 AFTER SEVERAL HOURS 

OF SEARCHING, SUCH A SHAME.

BLACK DARTER

BLACK DARTER

COMMON DARTER

COMMON DARTER

COMMON DARTER

COMMON DARTER

COMMON HAWKER

COMMON HAWKER

GOLDEN-RINGED

GOLDEN-RINGED

KEELED SKIMMER

MIGRANT HAWKER

MIGRANT HAWKER

MIGRANT HAWKER

SOUTHERN HAWKER

SOUTHERN HAWKER

 

BRENEY COMMON AND CROFT PASCOE

WE FINALLY GOT BLACK DARTER AT BRENEY COMMON, 

IT TOOK THREE VISITS BUT WAS WELL WORTH IT.

MOST OF THE REST WERE TAKEN AT CROFT PASCOE 

PLANTATION WHICH IS USUALLY BRILLIANT FOR HAWKERS

BUT HAD A VERY POOR SHOWING WHEN WE WERE THERE.

BLACK DARTER

BLACK DARTER

BLACK DARTER

COMMON DARTER

COMMON DARTER

ELEPHANT HAWK-MOTH CATERPILLAR

EMERALD DAMSELFLY

EMPEROR eating a Moth

EMPEROR

GRAYLING

GRAYLING

LIZARD sp.

SPOTTED FLYCATCHER

I CAN'T MAKE UP MY MIND ABOUT THE NEXT TWO.

ARE THEY COMMON OR MIGRANT?

THE COSTA APPEARS YELLOW, AS IN 

COMMON HAWKER BUT THE ABDOMEN DIPS 

AT THE END SO MAY BE MIGRANT HAWKER.

  

A MIXED BAG.

This post is a bit of a mixed bag. Some shots taken a while ago

 but not making the blog and others taken during the week.

DEW DROPS



DEW DROPS




POPLAR HAWK-MOTH CATERPILLAR



POPLAR HAWK-MOTH CATERPILLAR



BLACK TERN



BLACK TERN



KESTREL



BLACK-HEADED GULL



BLACK-HEADED GULL



COMMON DARTER

COMMON DARTER, fem.



COMMON HAWKER



SOUTHERN HAWKER, fem.



SOUTHERN HAWKER, male.

GOLDEN-RINGED DRAGONFLY

Most of the Dragonflies were taken by Sue.

Croft Pascoe and Windmill Farm.

SOUTHERN HAWKER

CLOUDED YELLOW

CLOUDED YELLOW

GRAYLING

GRAYLING

WALL BROWN

BLACK-TAILED SKIMMER

COMMON DARTER



COMMON HAWKER, EATING PREY.

We went to Croft Pascoe plantation at the week-end and found several of the big Hawkers. They kept landing on our backs which made Sue very nervous even though she loves Dragonflies.

We also saw our first Graylings of the year, one of which had a lot of white in it.

Afterwards we went on to Windmill Farm and saw 3 or 4 Clouded Yellow Butterflies,

again our first for the year.