Painted Ladies

I have been hanging on to this blog with the intention of adding a Clouded Yellow, as a way to finish off the butterflies for the year. Sadly they don't seem to be arriving in the usual numbers. I have only seen one and that was on turbo power disappearing into the distance.

The pictures are now starting to look a little dated with most of the insects coming to the end of their flight periods. So published now with, hopefully, a Clouded Yellow still to come.

Painted Lady

Painted Lady

Common Blue

Common Blue

Small Copper

Keeled Skimmer

Migrant Hawker

Broad-bodied Chaser

Black Darter

There are still a few Butterflies and Dragonflies around but this is really the end of another season. Time seems to go by ever more quickly.

Thursley Dragons

Tuesday was a trip out to Thursley Common to top up the Dragonfly list for the year. It was hot and sunny as we left the south coast but by the time we got to Thursley it had clouded over and there was a cool breeze getting up.

We did make a quick stop over on the way to try and get Dave a Sussex Common Clubtail but we could not find any. Having first seen them just two weeks ago this suggests that the mating period when they are to be found by the river is only a couple of weeks long.

Thursley may have been cooler than we had expected but there were still a lot of Dragons and Damsels to be seen. In particular the wooden boardwalk had warmed up early and a lot of the Dragonflies were using it as a place to  bask and absorb the heat.

The pond was a bit of a disappointment though, with nothing flying around the edges. So no sign of the Downy and Brilliant Emeralds that we had been hoping to see.

First target was the Black Darter. There were a lot of newly emerged specimens to be found in the grass and reeds and a few more mature examples out on the board walk.

Black Darter - freshly emerged male

Black Darter

Black Darter

Black-tailed Skimmer

Black-tailed Skimmer

Common Blue Damselfly

Emerald Damselfly

Emerald Damselfly

Probably an immature Emerald Damselfly

Rather tatty Emperor

Female Emperor oviposting

Keeled Skimmer

Keeled Skimmer

Small Red Damselfly

And a couple of Butterflies. Nice to find a Painted Lady in good condition.

Painted Lady

Painted Lady

Small Tortoiseshell 

Black Darter

On the way back from Holyhead we stopped off at Whixall Moss. I had never been there before and the possibility of a White-faced Darter or Spotty Davus, the welsh form of the Large Heath, made it well worth a visit. Sadly I found neither, perhaps I was just too close to the end of their flight seasons.

The closest I got to a White-faced Darter

The Moss surprised me. I have been on some of the northern sites, Meathop Moss and others. This one seemed to have more standing water but also a lot more in the way of trees and scrub. It looked as though it would be massively overgrown in a couple of years and needed some serious grazing. It would be interesting to see the management plan for maintaining the site.

One real bonus of the site was that there were no dog walkers. Possibly too remote but more likely as a result of a large number of flying insects of the biting type. In fact we only saw one other person in the three or four hours that we spent there.

No White-faced Darters but we did find plenty of other Odonata. Black Darters and Four-spotted were the most common but there were also Emperors, Hawkers, Common and Ruddy Darters, a Golden Ring, and various Blue and Emerald Damselflies.

Male Black Darter

Male Black Darter

Male Black Darter

Immature Male Black Darter

Female Black Darter

Black Darters  - The next generation on its way

It is not the easiest of places to take photographs. Invariably the spot you need to stand for the best shot is a bottomless patch of black water or a layer of very unstable sphagnum type moss. I found that I could not get close enough to use the macro lens and all these pictures were taken on the 300mm and then cropped.

A lot of the time was spent recording distant Dragonfly in the hope that when I put them on the screen at home I would find a white frons.

The only good candidate that I found kept its back to me and my distant shot was out of focus. It looked all black but Photoshop says that it has red patches. Interesting but I think I need a better sighting for a life tick.

Emperor Dragonfly

Four-spotted Chaser

Emerald Damselfly

Emerald Damselfly

 

The mosses appear to be a great area and I only scratched the surface in the few hours that I was there. I can't see the wife wanting to return but I will be going back and this time I will be taking the jungle strength insect repellent.