Date: 9th July 2025
Time: from 9 a.m.
Weather: dry, sunny, light
wind, 19°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.
It proved to be another
very successful visit and I recorded 2 new species for the site for 2025:
– Southern Migrant Hawker (1)
– Ruddy Darter (2)
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).
During my previous 2
visits, I saw a female darter species (either Common
Darter or Ruddy Darter) but was unable to successfully
record an identification. This visit enabled a positive identification of Ruddy
Darter and this, together with Southern Migrant Hawker, took my number of dragonfly and damselfly species recorded
in 2025 to 9 species (11 species in 2024).
Bird records were generally few, as expected during the summer months, but I did have my first Common Buzzard sighting since 23rd February 2025, a single bird heard calling on several occasions before seen flying out of the tall trees at the edge of the site and soaring overhead for several minutes
The other highlights
during my visit were as follows:
Chiffchaff: 2 unseen singing
males plus a presumed juvenile
Blackcap: 2 unseen singing
males
Green Woodpecker: continuously calling
birds (possibly juveniles begging for food from an adult) with a single bird
eventually seen
Butterflies:
– Marbled
White (at least 15)
– Common Blue (6)
– Small
Skipper (at least 3)
– Essex
Skipper (at least 2)
– Unidentified
“golden skipper” species (at least 50)
– Gatekeeper (at least 50)
– Meadow
Brown (at least 20)
– Speckled
Wood (2)
– Large
White (at least 3)
– Unidentified
“white” species (at least 50)
Dragonflies and
damselflies (in
addition to Ruddy Darter):
– Emperor Dragonfly (1)
– Azure Damselfly (c.10)
– Unidentified
female darter species (1)
Species recorded during
this visit were as follows (heard only records in italics):
Blackcap
Chiffchaff
Blue Tit
Great Tit
Long-tailed Tit
Robin
Wren
Dunnock
Song Thrush
Green Woodpecker
Jay
Magpie
Woodpigeon
Herring Gull
Marbled White
Common Blue
Small Skipper
Essex Skipper
Speckled Wood
Large White
Gatekeeper
Meadow Brown
Southern Migrant Hawker
Ruddy Darter
Azure Damselfly
Unidentified darter
species
Here are some photos
from my visit:
Photo: female Ruddy Darter
Photo: Southern Migrant Hawker
Photo: Azure Damselfly
Photo: Common Blue
Photo: Common Blue
Photo: Common Blue
Photo: Common Blue
Photo: Marbled White
Photo: Marbled White
Photo: Marbled White
Photo: Marbled White
Photo: Marbled White
Photo: Marbled White
Photo: Marbled White
Photo: Marbled White
Photo: Marbled White
Photo: Marbled White
Photo: Small Skipper
Photo: Small Skipper
Photo: Small Skipper
Photo: Essex Skipper
Photo: Essex Skipper
Photo: Large White
Photo: Large White
Photo: Large White
Photo: Large White
Photo: Large White
Photo: Gatekeeper
Photo: Gatekeeper
Photo: Gatekeeper
Photo: Meadow Brown
Photo: Meadow Brown
Photo: Six-spot Burnet
Photo: Common Buzzard
Site totals for 2025 to
date (2024 totals in brackets):
Birds = 43 (49)
Mammals = 3 (3)
Butterflies = 21 (17)
Dragonflies and
damselflies = 9 (11)
Reptiles = 0 (0)
Amphibians = 0 (0)
Total species list for
the site
Birds = 69
Mammals = 7
Butterflies = 25
Dragonflies and
damselflies = 14
Reptiles = 1
Amphibians = 0
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