SS15 wildlife watching: Visit to St. Nicholas Church and surrounding areas

Date: 29th June 2024

Time: from 8 a.m.

Weather: dry, sunny, light wind, 14°C to 17°C

Following my last visit to the site on 23rd June 2024, the continuing warm and sunny weather is still providing opportunities to record and photograph butterflies, dragonflies and damselflies.

I had a very successful visit with a further 4 new records for the site for 2024: Ruddy Darter, Black-tailed Skimmer, Common Blue Damselfly, Green-veined White

This morning, I only visited the northern section of the site including the grassland and pond and recorded the following:

Dragonflies and damselflies: Emperor Dragonfly (1), Black-tailed Skimmer (1), Ruddy Darter (3), Azure Damselfly (at least 10), Common Blue Damselfly (at least 2), Emerald Damselfly (4)

Butterflies: Marbled White (1), Small Heath (1), Large Skipper (5), Holly Blue (1), Comma (1), Green-veined White (1), Small White (3), Meadow Brown (at least 30)

In addition, I saw a single Speckled Wood along the access track from Larkins Tyres.

Having seen and heard a singing male Common Whitethroat on my last 3 visits, I failed to record this bird during this morning’s visit.

Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps are still very evident across the site and I heard at least 3 singing males of the former and saw 1 singing male and heard 2 other singing males of the latter.

I also heard a calling Great Spotted Woodpecker in the northern section of the site.

Finally, I saw 2 Grey Squirrels, the first in the trees adjacent to the access track from Larkins Tyres and the second in the wooded area at the end of the track.

Species recorded during this visit were as follows (heard only records in italics):

Chiffchaff

Blackcap

Blue Tit

Great Tit

Long-tailed Tit

Robin

Dunnock

Wren

Blackbird

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Magpie