Date: 25th July 2025
Time: from 9 a.m.
Weather: dry, sunny, light
wind, 20°C to 22°C
Again prompted by the
success of recent visits and the very warm early morning weather, I had
another visit to the site with butterflies and dragonflies
and damselflies in the grassland area and the pond in the northern
section of the site being my main targets.
On entering the northern
section of the site, it immediately became evident that the whole grassland
area had been cut back including the wild flowers that were providing a food
source for butterflies. However, it also quickly became apparent that,
either by design or laziness, the field edges had not been cut and that abundant
Knapweed (in particular) was still fortunately attracting large numbers of feeding butterflies.
It proved to be another
very successful visit and I recorded 2 new species for the
site for 2025:
– Migrant
Hawker (at least 2)
– Common
Darter (1 male)
On my last visit on 9th July 2025, I was able to at last positively identify and record Ruddy
Darter and this morning I was able to do the same for Common Darter
with a male seen hawking and perched up at the pond.
On my last visit on 9th July 2025, I was also able to record my first sighting of Southern Migrant Hawker for 2025 and
this morning I was able to do the same for Migrant Hawker with 2 seen
perched in the hedges between the oak tree and the pond. I also saw several
other hawkers in flight and these may have been either Migrant Hawker or
Southern Migrant Hawker or both.
My sightings of Migrant Hawker and Common Darter took
my number of dragonfly and damselfly species recorded in
2025 to 11 species, exactly the same as that in 2024.
During my visit, I recorded 8 butterfly species. The number
of butterfly species that I have recorded in 2025 (21) is
already well in excess of that recorded in 2024 (17).
Sightings of birds were
generally few, as expected during the summer months, but I did see Common
Buzzard for the second successive visit with 2 soaring birds watched for
several minutes on 2 separate occasions.
The other highlights
during my visit were as follows:
Common Whitethroat: 1 heard alarm calling
in bushes surrounding the pond
Chiffchaff: 1 briefly singing
male plus 3 calling birds in the northern section of the site
Blackcap: male seen in the
scrub adjacent to the access track from Larkins Tyres and another heard singing
briefly in the northern section of the site
Stock Dove: 1 heard calling in
the northern section of the site
Green Woodpecker: 1 heard calling from the
access track from Larkins Tyres and another heard calling in the northern
section of the site
Great Spotted
Woodpecker:
1 seen flying over the access track from Larkins Tyres and 1 heard calling in
the northern section of the site
Butterflies:
– Common
Blue (7 males)
– Small Heath (1)
– Essex
Skipper (1)
– Gatekeeper (at
least 100)
– Meadow
Brown (at least 20)
– Speckled
Wood (2)
– Large
White (at least 30)
– Small
White (at least 1)
Dragonflies and
damselflies (in
addition to Migrant Hawker and Common Darter):
– Emperor
Dragonfly (1)
– Azure
Damselfly (at least 1)
– Unidentified
“hawker” species (c.5)
– Unidentified
“blue” species (c.5)
Species recorded during
this visit were as follows (heard only records in italics):
Common Whitethroat
Blackcap
Chiffchaff
Robin
Wren
Goldfinch
Green Woodpecker
Great Spotted Woodpecker
Jay
Magpie
Stock Dove
Woodpigeon
Herring Gull
Common Blue
Small Heath
Essex Skipper
Speckled Wood
Large White
Small White
Gatekeeper
Meadow Brown
Migrant Hawker
Common Darter
Emperor Dragonfly
Azure Damselfly
Unidentified darter species
Unidentified hawker species
Here are some photos
from my visit:
Photo: male Common Darter
Photo: male Common Darter
Photo: Migrant Hawker
Photo: Migrant Hawker
Photo: male Common Blue
Photo: male Common Blue
Photo: male Common Blue
Photo: male Common Blue
Photo: male Common Blue
Photo: male Common Blue
Photo: Small Heath
Photo: Small Skipper
Photo: Gatekeeper
Photo: Gatekeeper
Photo: Large White
Photo: Large White
Photo: Large White
Photo: Large White
Photo: Large White
Photo: Large White
Photo: Large White
Photo: Common Buzzard
Photo: Common Buzzard
Photo: Common Buzzard
Photo: Common Buzzard
Site totals for 2025 to
date (2024 totals in brackets):
Birds = 43 (49)
Mammals = 4 (3)
Butterflies = 21 (17)
Dragonflies and
damselflies = 11 (11)
Reptiles = 0 (0)
Amphibians = 0 (0)
Total species list for
the site
Birds = 69
Mammals = 8
Butterflies = 25
Dragonflies and
damselflies = 14
Reptiles = 1
Amphibians = 0
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Restore and rewild our natural world
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