RSPB Frampton Marsh - 22nd August 2025

 Every year, at about this time, Jayne and I drive over to RSPB Frampton Marsh to catch up with a few passage waders, that can be seen, at this time of the year. It also gives us a chance to catch up with a damselfly that I haven't yet manged to find in Derbyshire.

This year has been very dry all across the UK, so most of the usual pools at Frampton were dried out. This meant that the birds that were there, were concentrated onto the few, remaining wet areas. We visited one, by the side of the reedbed, where we spotted a very obliging Wood Sandpiper (193) and 2 less obliging Green Sandpiper (194), that flew straight off!! 

Wood Sandpiper

After lunch, we went across to the Reedbed Hide were we spotted c.100 Greylag Geese,  Black-tailed Godwits (c.30), Lapwing, 3 juvenile Shelduck, Ruff (6), Avocet (1), juvenile Little Ringed Plovers and 4 Little Stint (195).

Little Stint

Our final stop was the dragonfly/dipping pool, where we spotted a couple of mating Migrant Hawkers and a pair of Willow Emerald Damselflies (in tandem). Common and Ruddy Darters were also seen, as was a pair of Common Blue Butterflies and a single Small Copper.

Migrant Hawkers

Willow Emerald Damselflies

Linacre Butterflies - 14th September 2024

 At this time of the year, whenever the sun comes out, I like to get down to Linacre to see if there are any insects about, just in case it's the last sightings I get this year! Yesterday was such a time, with lots of sun and temperatures of 20 degrees. I wasn't disappointed, with 8 species of butterfly seen, along with two dragonflies, a few bees, craneflies, hoverflies and a wasps' nest!

The butterfly species were: Red Admiral (5), Comma (2), Peacock (2), Speckled Wood (7), Large White (2), Green-veined White (3, including a pair attempting to mate) and, best of all, a Small Copper (my first record of the year!).

Small Copper

Small Copper (and friend)

Other species seen were: Migrant Hawker (2), Brown Hawker (1), Red-tailed and Common Carder Bumblebees, Eristalis hoverflies and 1 Marmalade Hoverfly. 

Whilst walking along the bank below the top reservoir, I came across a hole, approximately 1/2m deep, with several hundred wasps flying around it! I peeped in, very carefully (!) and could see the remains of a wasps' nest. I couldn't get a great photo, so I'm not sure if they were Common or German Wasps, but, whatever species, it was great to see. Presumably, the nest had been discovered and dug out by a Badger, or a Honey Buzzard (only joking!!).

Wasps' nest

Linacre - 31st August 2024

 Based on the year so far, this afternoon's walk around Linacre, was by far the best one for insects this summer. In total, I saw 7 different species of butterfly, along with 3 dragonfly species, 4 hoverfly species and a few other insects. In addition, I go my first Linacre Hobby since 2013!!

The butterflies seen were: Peacock (9), Red Admiral (5), Speckled Wood (5), Large White (1), Small White (4), Comma (2) and Meadow Brown (2).

The dragonfly species were: Migrant Hawker (2), Brown Hawker (2) and Common Darter (1).

Migrant Hawker

 

The hoverfly species were: Eristalis sp, Helophilus pendulus (1), Volucella pellucens a.k.a Great Pied Hoverfly and (1)Volucella inanis (1). Other insects seen included a Scorpion Fly, a 7-spot Ladybird and a Large Yellow Underwing. 

Volucella inanis

Birdwise, it was quite quiet, but the obvious highlight was a Hobby that was chasing a couple of Swallows! My last Linacre record of this species was way back in September 2013!! Other birds seen were: Canada Goose (20 on the top reservoir), Great-crested Grebe (4; 2 adults and 2 juveniles), Little Grebe (1), Swallow ( 4 in total), wheeting Chiffchaffs, Grey Heron (1), Tufted Duck,  Mallard and Mandarin Duck.

Year List Update/RSPB Frampton Marsh

After a trip to RSPB Frampton Marsh yesterday, I realised that it was time to update the blog with my new Year List total. Since my last post, I've added 8 new species, taking this year's British total (so far) to 185 species.

The first three new additions were: Tree Pipit (178) and Nightjar (179), both seen back in June, on uplands near Chesterfield, and Black Tern (180), with one seen at Ogston Reservoir on 14th June.

Yesterday's new additions, at Frampton, were: Greenshank (181), Temminck's Stint (182), Green Sandpiper (183), Spotted Redshank (184) and Curlew Sandpiper (185).

Temminck's Stint

Other birds seen included: Ringed and Little Ringed Plover, Redshank, Ruff, Black-tailed Godwit (including 2 colour-ringed birds), Dunlin, Snipe, Common Sandpiper (1), Little Grebe, Mallard, Gadwall, Tufted Duck, Pochard, Teal, Wigeon, Greylag and Canada Goose, Mute and Whooper Swan (1), Swallow, Sand Martin, Spoonbill (26!), a possible/probable Merlin, Kestrel, Peregrine Falcon, Marsh Harrier, Goldfinch, Linnet, Pied and Yellow Wagtail, Meadow Pipit, Reed and Sedge Warbler.

There were very few insects about, but 2 Painted Ladies were seen, along with Migrant Hawkers, male Ruddy Darters, and, best of all, a single Eyed Hawkmoth caterpillar, and 3 Willow Emerald Damselflies.

Eyed Hawkmoth

Willow Emerald Damselfly

Lesser Yellowlegs!!!!

 This weekend, Jayne and I went across to RSPB Frampton Marsh to try and see a couple of North American waders, that have been present for a couple of weeks. We dipped one (Semipalmated Sandpiper), but we did manage to get fantastic views of the other species, Lesser Yellowlegs (189 and lifer number 4 of the year) as it fed about 10m away, in front of East Hide. What a fantastic bird to catch up with!

Lesser Yellowlegs

Other birds seen were: Little Stint (190th bird of the year), Curlew Sandpiper, Whooper Swan (1), Peregrine Falcon, Kestrel, Marsh Harrier, Teal, Wigeon, Mallard, Pintail (1fm), Lapwing, Dunlin, Canada, Dark-bellied Brent and Greylag Goose, Mute Swan, Goldfinch and Greenfinch.

There were a few insects flying about, including 1 Red Admiral, 2 Migrant Hawkers, 3 Common Darters, and a very small damselfly, most likely a Willow Emerald Damselfly. 

Holt Country Park - 30th July 2023

 Today, Jayne and I started the day at Holt Country Park, We were there to see the Silver-washed Fritillaries, but whilst there, we also had  several other species, including two "lifers".

We started the day in the car park (!), where the buddleia bushes were absolutely alive with butterflies (helped by the warm sunshine, and 20 degree heat). Species seen were: Silver-washed Fritillary (20+, including 2 "valezina" females), Comma (c.15), Peacock (c.20), Gatekeeper (c.10), Brimstone (1m and 1fm), Ringlet (1), Holly Blue (1), Large White, Green-veined White, Speckled Wood (5), Meadow Brown and White Admiral (1). We also saw several dragonfly species: Common Darter, Ruddy Darter , Large Red Damselfly, Common Blue Damselfly and Migrant Hawker.

Silver-washed Fritillary (female valezina)

White Admiral

We carried on around the site and walked down to a Norfolk Wildlife Trust reserve called Holt Lowes. Here we bumped into a local, who explained about the resident Keeled Skimmer dragonflies. We had a look around and spotted 3 males and a pair "in tandem". Although, not quite a lifer, as I'd seen them in Majorca, it was a very good British tick.

Keeled Skimmer

Whilst searching for the Skimmer, I spotted a Bush-cricket, that, after a bit of an internet search, was identified as a Roesel's Bush-cricket - a lifer!! 

Roesel's Bush-cricket

Clumber Mute Swans - 16th October 2022

Jayne and I had a lovely walk around the main lake at Clumber Park this afternoon. Gull numbers were beginning to build up (200+ Black-headed Gulls were seen, but, unfortunately, no rings as the gulls stayed in the water) and we also saw 100+ Mute Swans, including 9 cygnets.

The majority of the swans also stayed in the water, but we did spot two darvic-ringed birds, Y204 (a 3-year-old bird with metal ring W48404) and Y677 (a 2-year-old bird with metal ring W51077). Both birds had been seen by us there before (click on the labels to see their life histories). The best sighting of the day (or rather hearing??) was two Cetti's Warblers that we had, our first record for this site. Two Little Egrets were also seen.

Y204

Y677

It was sunny and quite warm today, around 13 degrees, so there were plenty of Common Darters flying about (10+), including several pairs egg-laying. a couple of Migrant Hawkers were also seen, as were three Hornets.

Linacre Butterflies and Dragonflies - 5th September 2021

 After a very cloudy, overcast August, with very few periods of sunshine, and lower than average temperatures, it was lovely to be down at Linacre this afternoon enjoying some bright sunshine and 23 degrees of heat!!

As always, the sun brought out the butterflies and I managed to record 2 Red Admirals, 1 Small Tortoiseshell, 1 Peacock, 6 Speckled Woods, 1 Meadow Brown, 1 Wall Brown (male), 1 Comma, 1 Purple Hairstreak and a very tatty looking Common Blue Butterfly.

As well as the butterflies, I also managed to find 1 Common Darter, 1 Migrant Hawker and 4 Brown Hawkers, including a very obliging individual.

Brown Hawker

Birdwise, it was quite quiet, but I did record 13 Lesser Black-backed Gulls (12 adults and 1 juvenile), 1 Kestrel, 1 Sparrowhawk, 4 House Martins, Swallows (heard, but not seen) and 1 singing Chiffchaff.

Cornwall Dragonflies and Butterflies

Whilst in Cornwall this summer I managed to see a few species of dragon and damselfly: Migrant and Southern Hawker and Beautiful Demoiselle.

The Southern Hawker was seen at several sites, including The Lost Gardens of Heligan, whilst the Migrant Hawker was seen in the grounds of our holiday let.

The Beautiful Demoiselle was seen at the National Trust's Cotehele. 

Beautiful Demoiselle

Whilst at Cotehele we also managed to see a good range of butterflies: Red Admiral, Small Tortoiseshell, Brimstone, Speckled Wood, Large White, Green-veined White, Peacock, Silver-washed Fritillary, Comma and Painted Lady.

Painted Lady

Small Red-eyed Damselfly

 I spent a couple of hours at Pleasley Pit Nature Reserve yesterday afternoon, after seeing reports on social media, of both Small Red-eyed Damselfly and Brown Hairstreak (butterfly) there.

When I arrived I went straight to the "dragonfly ponds", where I met (by accident) the person who had posted details of both species the day before. He gave me directions of where to find the damselfly, and I managed to get excellent views (about 2m away) of at least 4 males. This is only my fourth siting of this species (see here), and my first in Derbyshire. I managed to get lots of photos, but this one is my favourite as it shows the diagnostic features, separating it from the much commoner Red-eyed Damselfly.

Small Red-eyed Damselfly

The key identification features include a smaller size, the blue sections on top of segments nine and ten (last two segments at the end), and on the sides of segments eight (third from the end), one and two, of the abdomen, paler red eyes and a black "X"-shaped marking on the top of segment ten. One other feature, shown nicely in this photo, is the way the abdomen is held slightly up turned (Red-eyed Damselflies hold it straight when at rest).

Whilst on site, I also managed to spot several other species, including Emperor (female ovipositing), Migrant and Southern Hawker, Emerald Damselfly, Common and Ruddy Dater.

Ruddy Darter (obelisquing to keep cool)

The other reason for my visit was to hopefully see Brown Hairstreak butterflies. Despite a couple of "possibles" I didn't confirm a siting (this time!) as the rain started. I did, however, see 3 Small Tortoiseshell, 1 Brimstone and 1 Meadow Brown.

RSPB Old Moor - 22nd August 2018

Luke and I spent yesterday morning at RSPB Old Moor. We had a few waders, including 1 "year tick" for me, and some very nice insects.

When we arrived we walked around the dragonfly pools where we soon spotted a couple of male Migrant Hawkers, including one that posed nicely for a photograph.

Migrant Hawker (male)

Later in the day we also had Common Blue Damselfly, Common Darter and a couple of male Ruddy Darters, along with Common Blue Butterfly and Speckled Wood.

Ruddy Darter

As well as the insects we also saw Green Sandpiper (year tick), Greenshank, Common Sandpiper, Lapwing, Snipe and Black-tailed Godwit, along with the usual waterbirds and Little Egret.

Green Sandpiper

Greenshank

Year List update:
187 - Green Sandpiper

Ringing and Walking

Today's title refers to the two things I have been doing today. The day started with my first ringing session since August with 3 other members of Sorby Breck Ringing Group, and continued with a lovely walk around Yorkshire Sculpture Park with Jayne.

The ringing session took place at the private site in Wingerworth. The temperature when we arrived at 6.30am was just 6 degrees, and it took a while for the birds to wake up, but, by 10am, when we packed up, we'd caught 54 birds of 11 species. Numbers were as follows (new/retrap): Dunnock 3/0, Robin 6/0, Goldcrest 4/0, Coal Tit 3/2, Blue Tit 14/1, Great Tit 9/0, Nuthatch 2/1, Chaffinch 6/0, Greenfinch 1/0, Goldfinch 1/0 and Bullfinch 1/0.

The sun had come out by the end of the session, and rose to a very nice 21 degrees by the afternoon. Jayne and I decided to drive up to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park to pick up a picture and to have a walk around the lake. Birdwise, it was quite quiet, with just  the usual Jackdaws, Mallards, Coots, Moorhens, Mute Swans,Canada and Greylag Geese seen around the water. We also heard a Kingfisher, and spotted a couple of Grey Wagtails flying around by the overflow from the bottom lake. Given the warm, sunny weather, we expected to see a few butterflies, and we were in luck with 1 Comma, 1 Large White, 1 male Brimstone and about 10 Speckled Woods seen. We also managed to see three species of dragonfly; 1 Common Darter, 2 Migrant Hawkers and a female Southern Hawker, that was ovipositing into  a piece of wood in the round pond by the centre.

Southern Hawker

Frampton Marsh RSPB

Yesterday I spent 5 hours at RSPB Frampton Marsh with my nephew, Luke. Luke saw 5 new species of birds, and I managed to get 8 new "year ticks".

The first new bird for me was Little Stint. We saw at least 4 different birds, but there have been up to 40 birds present recently. 1 bird in particular came feeding very close in to the 360 hide, and we managed to get some nice photos.

Little Stint (juvenile)

The second bird that I really wanted to see was Curlew Sandpiper. Last week there were over 200 present, but this week the numbers had dropped off, and we managed to see about 6. They were quite distant, but 1 came in close to 360 hide along with a Little Stint.

Curlew Sandpiper and Little Stint

Other "year ticks" were: Green Sandpiper (1 seen), Ruff ( a minimum of 6 seen), Yellow Wagtail (1 flew over), Marsh Harrier (3 seen), Little Ringed Plover (1 seen) and Spoonbill (4 birds).

Spoonbills (1 adult and 3 juveniles?)

Spoonbills and Black-tailed Godwit

As well as these birds we also saw: Avocet, Sparrowhawk, Kestrel, Snipe, Greenshank, Common Sandpiper, Cormorant, Wheatear (1 juvenile), Teal, Little Egret (10+), and Ringed Plover (1 juvenile).

Ringed Plover (juvenile)

It was quite sunny, so we also managed to see a few insects; Common Darter, Migrant Hawker and Common Blue Butterfly.

Common Blue Butterfly

Year List update:

167 – Green Sandpiper
168 – Little Stint
169 – Curlew Sandpiper
170 – Ruff
171 – Spoonbill
172 – Yellow Wagtail
173 – Marsh Harrier
174 - Little Ringed Plover

Sunny Linacre

The weather this week has been super, with lots of sun and temperatures in the low 20s, so I thought it would be a good idea to have a few hours down at Linacre to see which insects were about. I've been down twice this week, and have managed to see 9 species of butterfly, 3 species of dragonfly, 2 species of damselfly, 4 species of bee and at least 9 species of hoverfly.

The butterflies seen were: Peacock (5; 3 on buddleia by the middle reservoir and 2 on buddleia in the ringing site), Red Admiral (2 on buddleia in the ringing site), Small Copper (2 battling males on Ragwort on the wall of the middle reservoir), Meadow Brown (5 all around the site), Gatekeeper (2 at the bottom of the top reservoir),  Comma (1), Large White (10 all around the site), Green-veined White (1 male) and Speckled Wood (7 around the site).

Red Admiral

Speckled Wood (underwing)

The 3 dragonfly species seen were Brown Hawker (at least 5 flying around the site, mainly on the top reservoir), Migrant Hawker (2, flying around the bottom of top reservoir dam wall) and Common Dater (1 male basking on the boardwalk by the top reservoir on the 18th- the first record of 2016).

Common Darter

The two damselfly species seen were Blue-tailed and Common Blue Damselfly.

Blue-tailed Damselfly

Common Blue Damselfly

The bees seen were: Tree, White-tailed, Red-tailed and Carder Bee (Common, I think).

Tree Bumblebee

Common Carder Bee

At the start of the post I mentioned I'd seen at least 9 species of hoverfly. I say at least, because I'm sure there were more there that I couldn't identify! Anyway, I'm going to write another post about hoverflies, so here's a picture of one of my favourite species, Volucella inanis to be going on with.

Volucella inanis

As well as the insects, I also saw the immature Shag again (now into it's 9th month!!), 1 juvenile Cormorant, 14 Mandarin Ducks, 43 Mallards, 7 Great Crested Grebes ( 3 adults and 4 juveniles), 1 Grey Heron, 4 Grey Wagtails, 18 Tufted Ducks, 5 Coots ( 3adults and 2 juveniles), 5 Moorhens ( 3 adults and 2 juveniles), 12 Swallows, a group of c.50 House Martins and a young Common Toad, my first adult toad at Linacre.

Common Toad

Tennyson Down and The Needles

On Wednesday, Jayne and I spent a good few hours walking around Tennyson Down and The Needles, on the far west of the Island. The weather was kind, and we enjoyed some great views, along with some new insects, flowers and a "year tick"; a Dartford Warbler.

We started our walk in the High Down Chalk Pit car park, an old quarry. There were plenty of buddleia bushes here, so we had a quick scan, picking up a number of butterflies; 2 Dark Green Fritillaries, 2 Red Admirals, 1 very tatty Ringlet and  3 Painted Ladies (our first of the year). We also had a male Migrant Hawker, and 2 Peregrine Falcons (1 adult and a juvenile bird).

Painted Lady

We walked up from the car park ( a very steep walk!!), to the monument on the top of Tennyson Down, and walked the 2 miles to The Needles. Along the way we spotted dozens of Gatekeepers, Meadow Browns  and Chalkhill Blues, along with another Red Admiral and another Painted Lady. Bird wise we saw a male Stonechat, with at least 3 juveniles, 3 migrating Wheatear, a hunting Kestrel,  Herring and Great Black-backed Gull, and, best of all, a Dartford Warbler.

When we arrived at The Needles, we spent some time looking around the Old and New Battery, and also enjoyed watching a pair of Ravens flying around, and then sat on the floor, and perched on a telephone mast!

The Needles

Raven

The last thing I wanted to mention was a type of flower called Yellow Wort. This is a chalk loving species, and was quite  common all along the chalky downs. It's a new plant for me, and I like the way the leaves wrap around the stalk. Unfortunately, the petals close up unless there's full sun, so my photo isn't great, but it was nice to see, nonetheless.

Yellow Wort

Year List update:

165 - Dartford Warbler