2nd July Wanderings

Finishing my night shifts I cycled home in glorious sunshine. Even at 07:00 it was warm and I knew that meant I had to go out and spend a few hours wandering the patch. I had heard that the Mute Swans had managed to raise 5 cygnets so I was hoping to see and photograph those. However luck was not with me there today. When I did locate them they were deep in cover in the reeds.

I noted early on that butterflies seemed to be out in force today. Plenty of Ringlets (as always at the moment); as well as good numbers of Meadow Brown; Large White; Small Tortoiseshell; Small Skipper; the odd Large Skipper; Red Admiral; Peacock; and Comma; as we as a lone Common Blue. My list on my 2nd July Wanderings. But it was the Small Skipper who posed the best today.

Large Skipper – Loughton Valley Park, Milton Keynes

Small Skipper – Loughton Valley Park, Milton Keynes

shot two of the Small Skipper – Loughton Valley Park, Milton Keynes

Another Small Skipper – Loughton Valley Park, Milton Keynes

My top shot of Small Skipper – Loughton Valley Park, Milton Keynes

Odonata Numbers

Ode numbers were also up today there were plenty of the usual Blue-tailed, Common Blue and Azure Damselfly about but also good numbers of Banded Demoiselle, and Emperor Dragonfly but I also spotted (although no photos) Brown Hawker and my first Common Darter of the year.

Other Flying Beasts

There were plenty of other flying insects around, un-countable numbers of diptera of ll manner of species and lots of different hoverflies (see below) but it was two much larger creatures, one I have no clue some kind of hornet maybe, a little distant to photograph but it was huge and the second a Figwort Sawfly (looks like a large wasp!) which was really good looking.

Syrphus Ribesii – Lougton Valley Park, Milton Keynes

Marmalade Fly (Episyrphus Balteatus) – Lougton Valley Park, Milton Keynes

Figwort Sawfly – Loughton Valley Park, Milton Keynes

Other Wildlife

Bird wise the patch is kind of dead at this time of year, nothing new is passing through, and summering birds are busy feeding young so are not as easy to watch and often don’t sing much. But there is other wildlife, I spotted the below Common Frog creeping through the grass near Bradwell Abbey, which was a pleasant surprise.