Date: 22nd July 2026
Time: from 9 a.m.
Weather: dry, sunny, light wind, 17°C to 19°C
This morning I visited only the northern section of the site with butterflies being my main focus. It proved to be very successful with 3 further additions to my 2026 site list: Small Copper (1), Brown Argus (1) and Gatekeeper (at least 150!)
My year-to-date site list for butterflies has now increased to 22 species, just a single species short of the highest year total of 23 species in 2023 and 2025.
In addition to the butterfly species mentioned above, I also recorded the following: Painted Lady (7), Small Heath (2), Common Blue (7), Holly Blue (2), Meadow Brown (at least 20)
The remarkable profusion of Knapweed, plus to a lesser extent Ragwort, proved to be particularly attractive to many of the butterflies but autumn is coming with the first blackberries and sloes evident.
I also saw 2 day-flying moth species: Silver-Y (2) and Cinnabar (1 caterpillar)
Dragonflies and damselflies continue to be scarce this year both in terms of the number of species and abundance and I recorded just one male Ruddy Darter.
With regard to mammals, I recorded Red Fox (1 along the access track from Larkins Tyres), Reeves’ Muntjac (very brief views of 2 in the northern section of the site) and Grey Squirrel (1 along the access track from Larkins Tyres)
It was remarkably quiet for birds with only 7 species heard and/or seen, the notable records being:
Blackcap: 3 birds heard alarm calling at various locations in the northern section of the site but none seen
Green Woodpecker: 1 heard calling in the northern section of the site but not seen
Great Spotted Woodpecker: 1 heard calling in the northern section of the site but not seen
Species recorded during this visit were as follows (heard only records in italics):
Here are some photos from my visit ….
Photo: Common Blue
Photo: Holly Blue
Photo: Gatekeeper
Photo: Gatekeeper
Site totals for 2026 to date (2025 and 2024 totals in brackets):
Love nature .... act now
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