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.

Linacre Insects

I spent a few hours at Linacre over the last few days and recorded the following insects: Southern Hawker (1), Brown Hawker (3, including 1 ovipositing female), Common Blue Damselfly (2 males) and Common Darter (2 tenerals on 30th - my first 2019 record).

Brown Hawker (female)

Common Darter

Butterflies seen were: Red Admiral (3), Painted Lady (1), Large White (1), Green-veined White (1), Common Blue Butterfly (2 males and 1 female), Wall Brown (1), Small Tortoiseshell (1), Peacock (2), Speckled Wood and Small Copper (3).

Small Copper

Herring Gull EPM

Jayne and I were in Llandudno over the weekend. Whilst there we spotted a Herring Gull with a colour ring, EPM. I recognised it straight away as a bird I'd seen there before, in December 2016 (see here for details and ringing and subsequent re sightings).

EPM

I sent the record off, and saw that it had now been reported on the sea front at Llandudno another 6 times since my sighting. All sightings range from September to April, with mine being the earliest "winter" record, so we still don't know if it breeds elsewhere, and winters in Llandudno. It is now  9 years and 255 days since it was ringed.

Whilst in North Wales, we visited the National Trust's Bodnant Gardens again, and saw Azure and Blue-tailed Damselflies, Common Darter (mating pairs) and several Southern Hawkers. Butterflies seen were: Painted Lady (10), Red Admiral, Peacock, Speckled Wood, Small Tortoiseshell and Common Blue.

Common Darter

Azure Damselflies

Linacre Insects - 6th August 2019

Yesterday morning I went down to Linacre to do the final check of the nestboxes (more of that in another post), and afterwards spent another 3 hours walking around the site recording the insects (and a few birds!).

It was pretty sunny all the time I was there (up to 22 degrees by the time I left), and there were a good number of insects to see. First up the dragonflies and damselflies. The most numerous species, as always, was Common Blue Damselfly, with 20+ seen, including 2 mating pairs. Two male Blue-tailed Damselflies were also seen, along with 3 Southern Hawkers and 5 Brown Hawkers. 

Southern Hawker (immature male?)

Brown Hawker

Butterflies were also present in good numbers, including a new species for me at Linacre: Peacock 20, Ringlet 2, Large White 1, Small White 1, Green-veined White 4, Gatekeeper 6, Meadow Brown 7, Small Copper 1, Red Admiral 2, Comma 1, Painted Lady 5, Speckled Wood 1, Small Skipper 1, Narrow-bordered 5 spot Burnet moth (1 mating pair), Cinnabar Moth caterpillars, Shaded Broad Bar (1) and Wall Brown 1 female in the ringing site- my first record for Linacre!

Wall Brown

Hoverflies seen were: Volucella inanis (4), Volucella pellucens (2), Eristalis sp and Myathropa florea (1). Other insects were: Black and Yellow Longhorn Beetle (1), 6-spotted Ladybird (1), Tachinid flies,  Common Carder, White-tailed and Red-tailed Bumblebees, 

Linacre- 1st September 2017

The sun was out this morning, so I decided to have a few hours down at Linacre. There were 6 species of butterfly on the wing, 3 dragonflies and 1 damselfly species.

The butterflies seen were: Speckled Wood (5), Peacock (5), Red Admiral (2), Large White (1), Comma (1) and Small Copper (3, my first record of 2017).

Small Copper

Dragonflies and damselflies seen were: Common Dater (1, the first Linacre record of 2017), Brown Hawker (3), Southern Hawker (1) and Common Blue Damselfly. 2 species of hoverfly were also seen: Volucella pellucens (Great Pied Hoverfly) and Sericomyia silentis (only my second Linacre record, after 1 on 18th August 2016).

Sericomyia silentis

Birds seen around the site today were: Mallard (37), Tufted Duck 19; 18 adults and 1 duckling), Mandarin Duck (25), Great-crested Grebe (2 adults and 1 juvenile), Grey Heron (2), Grey Wagtail (1), Coot (3 adults), Moorhen (12; 6 adults and 6 juveniles), Cormorant (1), Common Buzzard (1), Swallow (c. 15) and Chiffchaff (3, including 1 singing).

RSPB Marazion Marsh

Jayne and I spent a couple of hours at Marazion Beach and RSPB Marazion Marsh near Penzance on Sunday morning.

We started off by walking along the beach, where we spotted 5 Ringed Plover and a group of approximately 40 Sanderling. The Sanderling, all of which were still in remnants of breeding plumage, were feeding furiously along the tide line. A solitary breeding plumaged Dunlin was also in amongst them.

Sanderling

Also along the strand line was a dead Harbour Porpoise.

Afterwards we headed across the road to the RSPB Marazion Marsh reserve where we found a female Mallard with 3 ducklings, a single Grey Heron and got brief views of Reed Warbler and Whitethroat. We also saw a stunning male Beautiful Demoiselle, several Gatekeeper, 1 Red Admiral and a Southern Hawker that caught and ate a Speckled Wood butterfly.

Beautiful Demoiselle

Southern Hawker with Speckled Wood meal

RSPB Minsmere - A Final Visit

Today was our last day in Suffolk, so we had a final visit to RSPB Minsmere (thanks Jayne). It was 21 degrees, and the sun was shining when we arrived, and we went straight down to the pond by the Reception to check on the dragonflies. The most numerous by far was Four-spotted Chaser, with at least a dozen flying around and perching on the reeds.

Four-spotted Chaser

A male Broad-bodied Chaser was also present on the pond, along with one Southern Hawker, Large Red, Common Blue and Azure Damselflies.

Broad-bodied Chaser

Away from this pond, we also managed to spot another four species of odanata; namely Red-veined Darter, Variable Damselfly, Norfolk Hawker (my first record at this site) and Black-tailed Skimmer. 

The Red-veined Darter, a male, was my first ever confirmed record. Unfortunately, it was a brief view, and it flew away before I could get a photo. Here's a link for more information about this species. The Variable Damselfly, a female, and , again a "lifer", was seen by South Hide, and I managed to get this photo. Again, details about this species can be found here.

Variable Damselfly

The Norfolk Hawker, and the Black-tailed Skimmer, were also seen on the path by South Hide. 

As well as the dragon/damselflies, we also added 3 new species to the ornithological "year list". The first new species was Sandwich Tern, with several breeding pairs seen. Next up were two gull species; Caspian and Yellow-legged.

Caspian Gull

Yellow-legged Gull

Year List update:

167 - Sandwich Tern

168 - Yellow-legged Gull

169 - Caspian Gull

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

Linacre Insects

Every summer I spend some time looking at the insect life at Linacre. Today I spent  three hours walking around the bottom and middle reservoirs and recorded some lovely things. Here are some photos:

White-tailed Bumblebee

Black and Yellow Longhorn Beetle

Common Carder Bee

Great Pied Hoverfly

Green-veined White

Small Copper



Other species seen, but not photographed were: Small White, Large White, Peacock and a Southern Hawker dragonfly that chased, caught and ate a Speckled Wood butterfly.