A sunny walk

A sunny walk - Blue Tailed Damselfly — A sunny walk – Blue Tailed Damselfly

I have finally been out for a walk round the patch today (it really has been a while) and it was wonderful, in many ways (but a tad painful in others!). Glad to be out on a sunny day though.

I was on the lookout for Odonata and butterflies and I was pleased to get good numbers of both (as well as some moths). Starting with the usual, Common Blue Damsel fly and Blue tailed Damsel fly (pic in a bit) I was pleased to also find large numbers of Brown Hawker (alas none settled for a photo) and the odd Migrant Hawker filling the air above the lakes, I was even more pleased to find a female Broad-bodied chaser at the end of my walk as this is a first for me on the water.

But it was the butterflies that had me rapt, there were so many ringlets about it was amazing, just wish they had been more photographer friendly. Species in total were: Ringlet, Large Skipper, Small Skipper, Meadow Brown, Peacock, Comma, Small tortoiseshell, Large White, Small White, Marbled White and Brimstone. The fact I have Marbled White on my patch made my day if I am honest.

Large Skipper

Small Tortoiseshell

And finally I ran in to a good number of day flying moths, most notably Six-Spot Burnet and (I am pretty sure these are correct) Narrow-bordered Five-Spot Burnet (a new one for me).

Six-spot Burnet

Narrow-bordered Five-spot Burnet

I hope you enjoy the photos, I enjoyed taking them.

The only two issues with the walk was in order to photograph the large skipper (above) I got quite stung on my legs by stinging nettles, and as it was so sunny I got a bit burnt on my head (must wear a hat when it is sunny, I have far to little hair to risk it in future).

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