Linacre Butterflies - 18 species!!!

The weather forecast for this morning was dry and sunny (!!!), so I spent 5 hours (8.30am - 1.30pm) on site to see what I could see. As the title of today's blog shows, it was a very well spent few hours. The total of 18 species must be my best ever, and included four brilliant species: White-letter Hairstreak, Purple Hairstreak, Silver-washed Fritillary and Dark Green Fritillary. In addition, I recorded 2 new species for the site, an Emperor dragonfly and a Hummingbird Hawkmoth!

White-letter Hairstreak

Purple Hairstreak

Silver-washed Fritillary (female)

Silver-washed Fritillary (male)

The list of species seen is: Peacock (2), Red Admiral (7), Meadow Brown (c.20), Gatekeeper (7), Ringlet (1 very tatty individual), Small Copper (1 on the dam wall of the top reservoir), Small Tortoiseshell (3), Large White (5), Green-veined White (2), Speckled Wood (1), Comma (6), Holly Blue (1), Common Blue (1 in the ringing site), White-letter Hairstreak (1, by the bridge on the top reservoir, at 10.30am), Purple Hairstreak (1, in oaks by the bottom reservoir, at 12.45pm), Silver-washed Fritillary (3; 1 male and 2 females), Dark Green Fritillary (1 in the ringing site) and Small Skipper (c.5, in the field beyond the top reservoir).

 3 species of day-flying moth were also seen: Shaded Broad Bar (2), 6-spot Burnet Moth (1) and Hummingbird Hawkmoth (1 in the ringing site - a site first). 

4 species of Dragon/Damselfly were present: Brown Hawker (1, including 1 ovipositing in the bottom reservoir), Emperor Dragonfly ( 1 on the middle reservoir, a first site record for me), Common Blue and Blue-tailed Damselflies.

Brown Hawker (female)

Hoverflies seen were: Marmalade, Volucella pellucens , Myathropa florae and Eristalis sp.

Two species of ladybird were seen: 7-spot and Harlequin.

I think there might have been some birds around too (!), but I didn't do a full count. Instead here are a few of the "best": Swallow (6), House Martin (2), Canada Goose (2 on the top reservoir), Buzzard (2 adults), Stock Dove (1 by the muck heap by the main entrance), Lesser Black-backed Gull (1 adult), Willow Warbler (1 very yellow juvenile bird by the top reservoir) and Chiffchaff (1 singing and lots of "wheeting").